It’s almost a consensus now that the favorites for this year’s Ballon d’Or award are Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Jnr. Both players have been in excellent form this season contributing immensely to Los Blancos’s historic La Liga triumph and Champions League campaign. The question now is; based on their performance so far this season, who should be the front-runner for the prestigious award?
Jude Bellingham completed his transfer to Real Madrid last summer in a deal reportedly worth over £100m; a hefty price tag for a 20-year-old. He has so far proven to be worth every penny, justifying his price tag as he immediately hit the ground running for Real Madrid. He scored on his debut for Real Madrid in a 2-0 La Liga win away at Athletic Bilbao and since then Jude has just kept on racking up goals and assists even while playing as a midfielder. He was scoring so much, that he had everyone doing his iconic arms-wide celebration every week. His celebration went viral multiple times earlier in the season. Every week there’s a new image of Jude doing his celebration after scoring. Even though he suffered an injury that caused him to miss a couple of games, his output is still phenomenal considering his age and the fact that this is his first season in a new league, playing a new style of football, under a different manager. He currently has 19 goals and six assists to his credit in La Liga and is only two goals behind Arthur Dovbyk in the La Liga Golden Boot race. It’s a phenomenal stat as a midfielder.
His performance is not limited to the league alone. Even in the Champions League Jude was decisive for Real Madrid. He has four goals and four assists to his credit in their Champions League campaign so far including that spectacular solo goal against Napoli in the earlier stages of the competition. Real Madrid is now set to play the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund and Bellingham has played no small part in that. Currently, he is tied with Vinicius Jnr as the club’s highest goal scorer this season with 23 goals which says a lot about his output.
Another aspect of Bellingham’s game that usually goes unnoticed is his defensive ability. Bellingham puts in an excellent defensive shift when the team needs it. He is chasing down balls, recovering balls, and tracking back to defend but this usually goes under the radar. It’s unfortunately not considered in the same pedigree and assigned similar importance for a player to be able to defend as it is for a player to be able to score goals which explains why some people accuse Bellingham of ghosting when he doesn’t get on the scoresheet. It also explains why it is relatively more difficult and less common for a defender to win the Ballon d’Or than an attacker. The prospects of winning the coveted award decrease with how far down the pitch a player plays. The last defender to win the award was Fabio Cannavaro in 2002. Everyone that has won it since then has either been a forward or a midfielder. Forwards have won it disproportionately more times in the past 20 years. The only time a midfielder won it in that time was Luka Modric in 2018.
Vinicius Jnr is also having an excellent season for Real Madrid with him hitting form more recently in the latter part of the season than Jude Bellingham. His performances in the Champions League have been particularly outstanding. The match against Bayern across both legs was probably where Vinicius convinced the fans that he was deserving of the Ballon d’Or. His performance in the second leg was phenomenal; he was cutting through the Bayern defence like a knife through butter, making a mockery of the defenders in an effort to find the equalizer for Real Madrid.
Vini’s performance in the earlier part of the season was excellent as well before he got injured and since coming back from injury, he has been scintillating. He has his numbers up and is now tied with Bellingham for most goals for the club (23).
The caveat is this though; Vinicius is a forward and his output is measured in terms of the number of goals and assists. Goals and assists sway emotions and are undeniably a more significant consideration than the number of quality passes or defensive capabilities of a midfielder. He is thus more favored to be considered a better player as he has the opportunity to score more goals. So even though he and Bellingham have similar numbers, Bellingham’s numbers should count more because it is significantly more difficult to get those number of goals and assists as a midfielder than as a forward.
Vinicius’s skills are aesthetic and more pleasing to the eye than what Bellingham brings to the table. Doing the dirty work of tackling, winning balls, and connecting the defence to the attack usually goes unnoticed and taken for granted and that is what Bellingham brings to the team in addition to his output in the final third. He is also not lacking in skill and technicality as well. While he admittedly may not be as skillful as Vini with the ball at his feet, Bellingham is right up there with the best in terms of skill and is probably only second to Vinicius on the Real Madrid team in that department. He has shown he is more than just a goal-scoring midfielder all season. Bellingham is a player who can do it all. He reminds you of Galactico Zidane whose number he coincidentally wears.
VERDICT
So far, Jude Bellingham is having a better season than Vini Jnr and should win the Ballon d’Or ahead of him. He is just an all-around more complete player with more to his game. Vinicius has also had an excellent season but has only peaked in the latter parts. He has had serious contributions in important matches but considering the entire season as a whole and putting into account when Vini was injured, Bellingham has had significantly more impact and more consistency. His performance in the El Classico stands out as he helped Madrid do a double over Barcelona beating them both home and away. Even Carlin Ancelotti said it was a watershed moment that essentially confirmed that they were the better team and would win the league this season and it was Bellingham who made the difference.
Vinicius is more likely to win the award, though, because of his position in the final third and the importance of the matches in which he has turned up. Regardless, the year is far from over and their performances in International Competitions will be factored in as well so there’s still much to be played for and anything can still happen.
What do you think is more deserving of the Ballon d’Or?