Declan Rice: Arsenal's Premier League Champion and Ballon d'Or Hopeful

Declan Rice has just powered Arsenal to a first Premier League title in 22 years, dragged their midfield into a new era and walked through his debut season at Emirates Stadium as if he’d always belonged there. Talk of the Ballon d’Or was inevitable. So was the backlash.

The £105 million signing from West Ham has become the heartbeat of Mikel Arteta’s side, a constant presence in an engine room that finally looks built to last. Arsenal’s long, anxious wait for the title ended with Rice at the centre of it all – breaking up play, driving forward, setting the tempo. He has looked like the missing piece in a puzzle the club have been trying to solve since the Invincibles.

With that kind of impact, it’s no surprise some are pushing his case for Golden Ball recognition in 2026. A dominant league campaign, a starring role in a resurgent Arsenal, and now the prospect of carrying England into a defining summer on North American soil. The narrative almost writes itself.

But not everyone is ready to crown him.

Robbie Fowler, a man who shared dressing rooms and England camps with Steven Gerrard, knows exactly what a Ballon d’Or-level midfielder looks like. Asked whether Rice can become a regular in that conversation, Fowler didn’t dodge the comparison everyone makes.

“I like Declan Rice,” he said, before going straight to the point. When you talk about elite English midfielders, you end up talking about Gerrard. And in Fowler’s eyes, Rice isn’t there. Not yet.

He acknowledged how much the Arsenal No.41 has grown since leaving West Ham, calling him a more complete player now, one whose game has clearly gone up a notch in north London. The performances, the influence, the maturity – they’re all there. But the threshold Gerrard set was brutal. Even at his peak, the former Liverpool captain never got his hands on the Ballon d’Or, despite finishing third in 2005.

That’s the standard Rice is being measured against.

Fowler’s verdict was blunt but not dismissive. He described Rice as “a fantastic player” and praised what he has done for Arsenal, yet stopped short of placing him among the game’s absolute elite. To his mind, Rice still has another level to find before his name sits comfortably on any serious Ballon d’Or shortlist.

The numbers back up the sense that this is a journey still in motion. In the 2025 Ballon d’Or vote, Rice came in 27th. Respectable, but distant. He had not yet lifted major silverware with Arsenal when that ballot went in, and the club’s Champions League heartbreak did little to shift the global perception of his season.

That part has changed. He now has a Premier League winner’s medal, a title that broke a 22-year drought and stamped his authority on the division. He came agonisingly close to adding another major trophy to it, pushing Arsenal towards a historic double. Those fine margins at club level are exactly what shape Ballon d’Or campaigns.

Now the stage changes. The shirt turns white, the pressure somehow grows, and England’s 60-year wait for a major trophy hangs over everything. If Rice can do for the Three Lions what he has done for Arsenal – anchor the side, lead without the armband, dominate the biggest games – his candidacy for global recognition will accelerate fast.

He knows, better than anyone, that he is not yet in Gerrard’s bracket. The Kingston upon Thames midfielder has never pretended otherwise. But he has also never been one to shrink from a challenge. The path in front of him is clear: keep driving Arsenal forward, turn domestic dominance into European success, and become the cornerstone of an England team that finally delivers.

If he manages all that, the question will not be whether Declan Rice belongs in the Ballon d’Or conversation.

It will be how high up the list his name should sit.