Ballon d'Or Countdown: Key Players and Controversies
Forty-one days to go and the Ballon d'Or circus is already in full swing.
The countdown has barely slipped under a month and a half, yet the front pages have chosen their battleground. The trophy is still under lock and key, but the debate is out in the streets.
Ballon d'Or battle lines
AS and L'Équipe don’t tiptoe around it. They go straight for names, faces, and favourites. Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé are pushed to the front of the queue, the poster boys of a new-versus-now narrative. Behind them, Harry Kane, Rodri, Fabián Ruiz and even Lionel Messi flesh out a shortlist that looks more like a clash of eras than a simple vote.
The message is clear: this isn’t a year for a quiet consensus.
In Barcelona, the tone shifts from analysis to advocacy. Mundo Deportivo and Sport both lean into the local angle. Their pages are built around interviews with Rodri and Gabriel Jesus, but when the Ballon d'Or comes up, the Catalan press closes ranks. Lamine Yamal says he deserves it. Gabriel Jesus, fresh in the door, nods along and backs the claim.
The campaign has started, and it has a clear epicentre.
Mourinho, penalties and the BMV
Down in Elche, José Mourinho does what José Mourinho does. He arrives with his attacking trident – the so-called BMV – firing, and his sarcasm sharpened.
“No questions about the penalties? Strange, isn’t it?”
Marca picks up the line and runs with it. Classic Mou. The performance on the pitch is only half the show; the rest plays out in the press room, where he still controls the tempo as well as any midfielder he ever coached.
Unbeaten giants and a storm in England
Across the border, L'Équipe is already part of the Ballon d'Or noise, but the international pages widen the frame.
In Italy, the spotlight falls on Inter and Roma. Both head into a huge Saturday clash unbeaten, a meeting that feels like an early stress test for their ambitions. It’s not a title decider, not yet, but it has the weight of one.
In England, the conversation is very different. VAR and Howard Webb sit at the eye of the storm, the latest refereeing controversies refusing to die down. The fallout from the Manchester derby lingers, and will do so for days. Maybe weeks. Every decision is slowed down, replayed, argued over. The match is over; the debate is not.
A shock move in Valencia
Then comes a twist from Spain that turns heads for different reasons.
Superdeporte highlights a move that few saw coming: Braulio Vázquez leaving Osasuna to take charge of Valencia’s sporting operations. It’s a change that feels bigger than a simple front-office reshuffle at Mestalla. It hints at a reset, or at least an attempt at one.
The question hangs over the city: can Braulio pull off the signings that drag Valencia out of their current mess? Could he even land someone like Valverde and jolt this abysmal version of the club back to life?
If he does, the talk in Valencia won’t be about statues for legends of the past.
It might be about building one for the man who rebuilt the future.
