🏆 Ballon d'OneFootball: And in 22nd 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 …

22nd: Achraf Hakimi, PSG and Morocco

(New entry)

The evolution of the full-back has been one of the game’s more radical developments over the past decade.

And perhaps no one in the modern game epitomises that more than Achraf Hakimi.

Hakimi has, amongst the likes of Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, become Paris Saint-Germain’s undroppable star with the team’s gameplan built around the Moroccan.

His marauding runs down the right-hand side have become a feature of this PSG side and were integral to Inter’s Serie A triumph last season.

Hakimi played 2,668 minutes for Antonio Conte’s men as they ended Juventus’s domination of the Italian top-flight in 2020/21, a number bettered only by Romelu Lukaku.

With PSG in the market for a new right-back last summer, there was never any doubt as to who they wanted.

“Achraf is a young player [I have] been following since [I was] at Tottenham,” coach Mauricio Pochettino told Uefa back in November.

“We were on the edge of signing him for Tottenham, but then he went to play for Dortmund.

“He has a great capacity to run, his physical potential is huge. He is young and still maturing at the defensive level, but he makes so many contributions in attack.”

There were plenty of reasons why PSG decided he was worth €65m and right now he’s looking to be worth every single penny.

Click right here to see the full list so far.