WILL PEDRI EVER WIN THE BALLON D’OR?

Is Barcelona’s Pedri destined for the Ballon D’or? I don’t think so. With Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe breaking records and making headlines, Pedri’s success for the Ballon D’or is close to impossible. He arguably is one of the best young players in the world as is destined to improve exponentially given the fact that e plays for visibly one of the best clubs in the world.

There are some significant factors in Pedri’s favor. The key points in Ballon D’or eligibility are winning major competitions at club and international level. As a Barcelona and Spanish international player, he stands a chance of winning trophies despite their recent poor performance in the UEFA champions league this year. A hopeful amazing performance with the Spanish national team in the coming world cup, a win in the Spanish league and other domestic cups might just give him a boost for the Ballon D’or.

According to a 2014 ESPN article written by Michael Cox “attackers are the players wo literally make the difference, providing the most decisive moments and the most eye-catching pieces of invention, trickery and skill.” Meaning attackers are most likely to win the Ballon D’or be it a center-forward, a volume goal scorer or like Zinadin Zidane who took up a more offensive role in thee 1998 world cup. Zidane, a transcendent player associated with a specific triumph scoring twice in the world cup final that year against Ronaldo Nazarios Brazil, a scudetto and a champions league runners up medal. There have only been four players far from attackers who have actually won the Ballon D’or, Luka Modric in 2018, Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 who also won the world cup with Italy that year based on defensive solidity, Nedved in 2003 and Matheus Sommer in 1996.

Clearly Pedri will have difficulties with invention, trickery and skill to rely on towards winning the Ballon D’or. Similar to what eluded Iniesta and his now manager Xavi, Pedri has proven to possess a similar ability to being an architect of decisive moments rather than deliverer of them. The latter is where Haaland and Mbappe are most likely to out shine him for the Ballon D’or. As they play an attacking role, score more goals and break records more often than he does.

Despite him winning the golden ball, that might be just how close he gets to the Ballon D’or success. Its very unfortunate that he might be remembered for his skill and craft with subtle quality in the modern game similar to Mesut Ozil and Andres Iniesta.