A defender is not going to win the Ballon d'Or this time. Broadly speaking, that is probably the right thing. There is nothing more valuable and challenging in the sport than putting the ball in the net on a consistent basis. So long as Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane continue to do that, they will be the frontrunners for a 2025-26 season that has an awful lot of football left to play.

It is no reflection on our modern footballing culture, the brain melt of the Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo era, that defenders aren't winning the biggest prizes in football. That has always been true. There were a smattering of names in contention in the years immediately after France Football first awarded the prize in 1956: the English center backs Billy Wright and Duncan Edwards the f

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