Hailed as the hottest young player in Europe already, Real Madrid sensation Jude Bellingham now looks likely to win the Ballon d'Or award before Kylian Mbappe!
The prestigious individual football prize is expected to take a new dimension in the coming years as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi's unprecedented era of dominance evidently draws to an end.
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Messi, though, seems to have one final chance to claim the accolade for a record-extending eighth time as he is considered one of the firm favourites to win the 2023 edition following his inspired 2022 FIFA World Cup triumph with Argentine.
Nevertheless, there have already been many rambling debates over who in the current or next generation will establish a monopoly over the Golden Ball as the aforementioned duo have done since 2009. Several potential successors have been mooted, including Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain's Mbappe, while some have even raised Vinicius Junior as a potential winner in the seasons to come.
However, Bellingham has now entered the subject amid his breakout campaign as a bona fide superstar. The 20-year-old has already achieved several big feats since arriving at the Santiago Bernabeu, including Ronaldo's record of scoring 10 goals in his first 10 games for the Spanish giants – a feat the Portuguese superstar reached within months of his arrival in Madrid back in 2009.
Already touted as the signing of the season so far, Bellingham netted his third goal for Real in the UEFA Champions League when his side claimed a 2-1 win over Portugal outfit SC Braga on Tuesday night. He has thus now equalled a 26-year-old Los Blancos record for scoring in each of his first three European games for the club, a milestone that had only been managed by Christian Karembeu in 1998. The Englishman is the team's current top scorer in all competitions with 11 goals in 12 matches so far, and if his rich vein of form continues, he will be well within reach of 30-plus goal contributions at the end of the season.
With there already being shouts he could be the next Ballon d'Or winner in 2024, there is a compelling argument that he might do so before Mbappe. In 2017, the French superstar became the youngest player ever to be nominated for the award at the age of 18. However, six years later, he is still yet to win it despite being shortlisted every season since.
Some argue that had Mbappe joined Real sooner in his career, he would have arguably won at least one Golden Ball by now, and that his stay at PSG has delayed his trajectory to the very top. It is Bellingham, though, who is now the leading figure in Madrid and history points to the Spanish capital being the best place to win the Ballon d'Or over the past two decades. Since 2006, Los Merengues have had seven different players win the prize – the most by any team during that period – including Fabio Cannavaro, Kaka, Ronaldo, Luka Modric, and Karim Benzema.
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It is apparent that winning trophies and being outstanding individually at Real places a footballer in a strong position to win the Ballon d'Or, in contrast to doing so while on the books of PSG. If Mbappe continues to prolong his widely expected move to LALIGA, there is reasonable evidence to suggest that a top-performing Bellingham in Spain stands a far better chance of winning the award and becoming the youngest Ballon d'Or winner since 1997 winner Ronaldo Nazario, who won he was 21 years and 92 days old, per Mundo Deportivo.You must be SIGNED IN to read and post comments.
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