Dominating a whole third of the shortlist, PSG players rewrite history as Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia lead a star-studded pack of Parisian contenders.
Last year, PSG forward Ousmane Dembele was awarded the Ballon D’or in Paris after a season in which he scored 33 goals, provided 13 assists and won the club’s first ever treble. Historical in every sense of the word.
Well, next month, around five weeks later than it was last year, the new Ballon D’or winner will be announced in London, the capital of England. There will be a number of PSG players hoping to win the award this time round.
Indeed so, as according to English journalist Ben Jacobs, as many as 10 PSG players have been nominated for the Ballon D’or, a record amount for any one team. That would be exactly one third of the entire shortlist, which is pretty incredible to think about.
So, who would those 10 players be? Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Desire Doue, Joao Neves, Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz, Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Willian Pacho and Nuno Mendes? Essentially the whole starting XI bar Matvey Safonov.
Although he would count as a Liverpool nominee now, should Bradley Barcola be on the shortlist, it would have been for his body of work in a PSG shirt. Likewise for Kang-in Lee, though that would feel less likely in general.
If Warren Zaire-Emery is excluded, it would feel a tad harsh. He had a very underrated Ligue 1 season, filling in for players who were injured without ever complaining, as well as doing a job in the Champions League semi finals against Bayern. Feels like he goes under the radar, however, and it’s clear European performance gets noted and rated more.
Genuinely difficult to argue against any of thosen that were picked, considering the team once again won the UEFA Champions League. Ruiz missed a lot of the season, but did win the World Cup. Marquinhos maybe a tad fortunate, considering he missed a lot of games and had a middling World Cup.
That said, behaviour is listed as one of the metrics in the Ballon D’or, and just the other week we saw the PSG skipper handed the UEFA fair play award for his sportsmanship in consoling Gabriel after the Champions League final.
So we will see. As it stands, Kvaratskhelia is the shortest odds of any PSG player, currently the fifth favourite at 7/1, behind Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal, Rodri and former Parisian Kylian Mbappe. Ousmane Dembele and Fabian Ruiz are both priced up at around 22/1.
