🏆 Ballon d'OneFootball: And in 16th place is ... | OneFootball

Welcome to the third annual edition of the Ballon d’OneFootball as we continue our countdown of the top 25 players in the world.

Click right here to see the full list so far.

And today we have …

16th: Harry Kane, Tottenham Hotspur and England

(Last year: 11th)

Football can be a ruthless business. One day you’re top of the world, next day you’re on the scrapheap.

He’s nowhere near the scrapheap yet, but it feels like Harry Kane has been a victim of that ruthlessness and declined in the estimations of many over the last 12 months.

The England captain wasn’t at his best at last summer’s European Championship and what followed was a protracted transfer saga in which he tried and failed to engineer a move to Manchester City before he was ultimately forced to swallow his pride and stay at Spurs.

That summer of uncertainty bled into the start of the season for Kane who, notoriously a slow starter, still had only four Premier League goals to his name at the turn of the year as Tottenham struggled for form.

The 28-year-old has enjoyed better times in front of goal in 2022. At the time of writing he has 11 Premier League goals under his belt this season and 21 in all competitions. That’s much more like it.

Not only that, but he has also evolved as a player over the last couple of years. Watch Kane now and you’ll often see him dropping deep into pockets of space before turning and threading incredible passes through for team-mates to run onto.

Kane was on fire when Spurs won away at Manchester City in February with a display full of sublime playmaking and clinical finishing which will be remembered as one of the Premier League’s great individual performances.

The fact it came against the club he almost joined last summer made it all the more interesting.

His link-up with Heung-min Son officially became the Premier League’s greatest ever partnership earlier this year.

And having now surpassed Thierry Henry on the all-time Premier League goalscoring chart, he now needs just 84 more goals to catch up with Alan Shearer at the top of the table.

It’s a big ask but if you thought Kane’s best days were behind him, you might be forced to eat those words in the coming years.

Click right here to see the full list so far.