This is why Manchester City’s Rodri deserves to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or award | OneFootball

Towards the end of the year, France Football will award their prestigious Ballon d’Or to the male footballer believed to have been the best footballer in the world across the most recent season. And this year, there is a Manchester City player perhaps more deserving of the award than anybody else.

Lionel Messi, now of MLS side Inter Miami, is the current holder of the award having led Argentina to World Cup glory in 2022. However, with the legendary Argentine assumedly out of the running this year, the field is open for a different player to etch their name into the history books, and on October 28th, the next Ballon d’Or winner will be crowned.

According to the bookmakers’ latest odds, three players are in serious contention; Real Madrid’s dynamic winger Vinicius Jr (13/8) – who helped secure his side’s 15th European Cup, Jude Bellingham (8/1) – who played a pivotal role in Los Blancos achieving both domestic and European glory, and Manchester City and Spain’s Rodri (15/8) – whose immense contributions were crucial in both his club and country enjoying tremendous success.

With Real Madrid having won La Liga and the Champions League last term, a compelling argument can certainly be made for either of their two most influential attacking players to receive the Ballon d’Or. However, considering that both Erling Haaland and Rodri were overlooked last year despite pivotal roles in City achieving a historic treble, it is conceivable that winning the Champions League is not an essential factor when determining the winner of that year’s Ballon d’Or. Therefore it is certainly plausible that Rodri should be well in the picture, despite not having won Europe’s most illustrious club competition last term.

Another aspect that could go against Rodri being named as the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner is that historically, there has been an evident bias towards attacking players receiving the award, with the last defensive-minded player to win the award being Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, whilst the most recent defensive midfielder to win the award was Matthias Sammer in 1996 after (coincidentally) playing a vital role in driving Germany to victory at Euro 96.

However, given that Sammer bested the likes of Ronaldo Nazario and Alan Shearer to the award that year – both of whom enjoyed far more prolific showings than Vinicius Jr. and Jude Bellingham have experienced this year, there is certainly a precedent for the most outstanding holding midfielder in Europe to be selected ahead of more attack-minded players.

Owing to this, it is plausible that Rodri could become the first primarily defensive player to be awarded the Ballon d’Or in almost 20 years, and here’s why!

For several seasons, Rodri has been regarded by the majority of Manchester City fans, along with many neutral onlookers, as the most vital component in Pep Guardiola’s relentless title-winning machine, and his consistently immense performances throughout the 2022/23 campaign were crucial in winning the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League, along with Spain emerging victorious in the Nations League.

Owing to Rodri’s brilliance, the Spaniard received a slew of individual honours including Champions League Player of the Season and the UEFA Nations League Finals Player of the Tournament. Frankly, it was truly baffling that there were few calls for Rodri to be in consideration to be next recipient of football’s most prestigious individual award – a situation that is likely owing to the Spaniard’s lack of widespread recognition, or “PR” as is often noted across social media, unlike certain other players.

Despite the astonishing dearth of acknowledgement, Rodri had a very strong argument to be named as that year’s Ballon d’Or recipient, and accordingly, I wrote a rather well- received article arguing for this. However, the honour was eventually awarded to Lionel Messi – somewhat controversially – ahead of both Rodri and fellow treble-winner Erling Haaland. However, with Messi seemingly not in contention this year, the path for Rodri to finally claim the coveted honour appears far clearer than in 2023.

The vigorous heartbeat of both Manchester City and Spain, Rodri’s indomitable influence in recent years is further apparent by the astounding fact that since the start of 2023, Rodri has won twice as many trophies (8) as he has lost matches (4).

It is also important to highlight the eye-opening statistics regarding City’s win rate with Rodri in the side in comparison to when he is absent. For instance, across the 2023/24 Premier League campaign, Rodri featured in (and started) 34 of 38 matches, of which City won 27 and drew 7 – losing 0. In contrast, of the 4 matches that Rodri did not feature in throughout their victorious campaign, Pep Guardiola’s side were defeated on 3 occasions and their only win without Rodri’s involvement occurred when the champions bested relegation-bound Luton Town at home. Statistically, City didn’t lose a single Premier League all season with Rodri present, yet lost 3 of the 4 games that he missed.

A defensive midfielder by trade, Rodri’s profound positional sense, alertness to potential danger and timing in conjunction with his tackling ability, imposing height and strength habitually allow him to snuff out opposition attacks often before City’s backline are under serious threat, this unique skill set allows the Sky Blues the security to implement their high-line, possession-based football that has been integral to their recent success. Whilst obvious to the eye, the stats also support the notion of Rodri’s defensive excellence as he recovered possession a staggering 235 times last season, a stat bettered in the Premier League by only Bruno Guimaraes (237) – who played 331 more minutes than Spaniard.

Whilst the Spanish international’s defensive prowess is borderline unquestionable, it is Rodri’s immense passing ability and innate ability to read the state of the game that has garnered the 28-year-old widespread adulation in recent months, particularly his adeptness at accurately playing the ball across both short and long distance when helping his side to either mount attacks or simply dictate the pace of the match.

Once again, whilst this is evident to regular onlookers, the eye-opening stats also evidence the unrivalled and decisive influence that Rodri has on his side’s performances. For example, last season recorded 3,633 accurate passes – the highest in the Premier League, 388 more than next-best Lewis Dunk (2971), Rodri also achieved

This staggering feat came with an impressive 92% passing accuracy – a statistic amongst Premier League midfielders bettered only by Mateo Kovacic (94%), who produced over 2000 fewer accurate passes (1433).

Furthermore, Rodri also recorded the most successful passes in the final third amongst Premier League players (1164), over 300 more than next-best Martin Odegaard (811), whilst the Spaniard also registered the highest amount of successful passes in the opposing half (2122), far ahead of next-best Pascal Gross (1424). This is therefore a further indication that despite his recognised role as a holding midfielder, the world-class Rodri is far more than that, and is in fact the lynchpin and thumping pulse of his club side.

Along with Rodri’s renowned defensive and ball-playing qualities, the towering midfielder has also displayed an uncanny penchant for both creating and scoring goals, as is evident by the 9 goals and 14 assists recorded by the Spaniard for Pep Guardiola’s side across all competitions throughout the 23/24 campaign.

The most notable of Rodri’s 23(!) goal contributions include his dramatic late winner against Sheffield United early in the campaign, a late equaliser to secure a draw against Chelsea in February, and the final goal of Manchester City’s campaign – a thunderous driven effort to take a 3-1 lead on the final day of the season against West Ham, confirming champion status.

Affectionally referred to as ‘Godri’ by some Manchester City fans owing to his sheer unworldly ability to steer his side to victory, Rodri is the complete player, the paragon of the world’s midfielders, a colossus, and the best defensive midfielder, if not the finest overall midfielder in the world.

Along with his exceptional season at club level in which he powered Manchester City to the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and a history-making fourth-successive Premier League title, the unconquerable Rodri was notably the pivotal performer throughout Spain’s successful EURO 2024 campaign. La Roja bested Germany, then France, and finally England on the way to reclaiming their European crown after 12 years, and following the final, Rodri was also deservedly named the player of the tournament.

A Spanish God and a behemoth of a holding midfielder, it is the view of this writer (and assumedly many others) that Rodri not only deserves and should receive the 2024 Ballon d’Or, but that it would be a laughable and disgraceful scenario if anybody other than Rodri was to receive the prestigious award later this year.

For the lack of a more appropriate term, Rodri is simply the best footballer in the world and deserves to be named the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner.