🏆 Ballon d'OneFootball: Starboy in 12th ... | OneFootball

Welcome to the fourth annual edition of the Ballon d’OneFootball as we continue our countdown of the top 25 players in the world right now. Here’s an explainer how we decided on a top 25.

Here’s the list so far.

And today we have …

12th: Bukayo Saka, Arsenal and England

(New entry)

Across Europe’s top five leagues, only eight players hit double figures for both goals and assists in 2022/23. Bukayo Saka was one of them and only one — Jamal Musiala — was younger.

Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah, widely considered two of the best players on the planet for years now, were the only others to manage it in the Premier League.

And only four players outscored Saka at the 2022 World Cup, with each of them making it all the way to the final.

So where do you even start with the Arsenal winger, how good he has become and the year he has had?

In terms of physicality, there are wingers who look quicker and wingers who look stronger. There are some with a bigger goal threat and some who create a little more consistently. But there is probably no player in world football right now who can put all of those things together to the level Saka can.

And above all else, he never seems to make the wrong choice. When there’s an opening to go it alone, he opts for it and has the talent to deliver. When there’s a better pass on, he picks the pass. And, never impatient to make something happen, when it’s time to just go back and retain possession he does that too.

The Arsenal winger’s ability to glide with the ball makes him a nightmare to defend and sees him draw plenty of contact but Arsenal have worked on reducing that with a now near-trademark pass inside the winger that sees him receive possession already on the move and turning, rather than with his back to goal.

Saka can cut inside on his left foot, just ask Manchester United, or go outside and fire home on his right, as he did in games against Leeds and Everton.

And as if three World Cup goals and a superb performance in England’s quarter-final exit against France wasn’t enough, Saka turned up for England duty this month and netted the first hat-trick of his professional career.

A star for club and country and he’s only going to get better.

Click here for every player named so far and their profiles.