The era of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is officially over. Following Messi's farewell to Inter Miami in the summer and Cristiano's earth-shattering transfer to Al-Nassr, we can fully forge ahead into uncharted territory for the footballing world.
Ronaldo and Messi traded Ballons d'Or (it is "Balls of Gold" and not "Ball of Golds", let's get our French correct here) for so long that they made greatness routine, to the point where we have become so spoiled any slight sign of a slump signals screeches of "FINISHED" on Football Twitter.
But as we are witnessing to start the 2023/24 season, it is far from easy to be a machine every single week. People referred to Erling Haaland as a machine after his record-breaking first season in the Premier League, and whlie he has scored eight goals this season, he hasn't exactly been a consistent threat for Manchester City. The two other young attacking superstars seen as his equals, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior, haven't been as dominant either, but they, particularly Vini, can point to injuries as a reason for that.
If you were worried about football lacking star power, though, Jude Bellingham is here to tell you that there is nothing to worry about. The new sensation may be a midfielder, but he has been the one to fill the goal-scoring boots of a certain Karim Benzema. It is Bellingham, not Robert Lewandowski, who leads the Pichichi race with eight goals.
Since Bellingham has been a top-class player for at least a year now, maybe Stuttgart's Serhou Guirassy is the real breakout gem in world football right now. But before we get to him, let's start with some established world-class talents whose greatness may be taken for granted.
10. Bayern Munich RW Leroy Sané
Listening to the way people talk about Leroy Sané is downright frustrating. You'd think the guy was an unmitigated flop with the way some Bayern fans were talking about him last season. And if your fanbase isn't appreciating you, then you had better believe the wide world of football is overlooking you, especially if you don't have the benefit of that Premier League coverage.
A bit of a playmaker, a bit of an inverted winger, and a whole lot of a hard worker, Sané is completing more than five dribbles per game for Die Roten. If that holds up, it would set a new career-high for the 27-year-old.
9. Arsenal RW Bukayo Saka
If there were any risk of Bukayo Saka being taken for granted, that was probably put to rest in light of his recent injury. Few wingers can score goals, create chances, and hold width for a team's tactical balance better than Saka can. At such a young age, he has shown a willingness to take on the responsibility for Arsenal while showing tactical awareness of when to come inside to shoot, when to wait for the overlapping fullback, and when to simply wait and recycle to widen the playing field.
Saka has four goals and two assists in just seven Premier League matches, creating nearly three chances per game for the Gunners. It's hard to believe he is just 22 years of age when you watch how mature and well-rounded he is.
The right wing may be a talent-scarce position in relative terms, so Saka's overall value in world football is that much higher for being an extraordinary talent in this role. Saka's improvements have been gradual but palpable, and he could easily shoot up this list.
8. Liverpool RW Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah's name has come up more frequently in recent days, but, unfortunately, the celebration for Salah has mostly been about tearing down the legacy of Eden Hazard. How is it that it takes disparaging another great player in order for one great to get his due? Such is the toxic nature of our footballing discourse, yeah?
Let's stick to Salah, though, because it's quite remarkable that people even dare utter negative words about a man who has been the Premier League's best player for several years. Salah gets put into a box as only being a goal-scorer when he has four league seasons with double-digit assists. Given he has four assists in eight matches already, Salah is easily on his way to a fifth season with 10 goals created.
Liverpool have been in difficult periods before, but they always bounce back. And every time, you can count on Salah being one of the bright spots pulling the team through the dark times whlie being just as brilliant in pulling them back up to the summit afterward.
Salah has been nothing short of sensational to start the 2023/24 season, but sensational in a more consistent manner than the blistering 32 goals he scored back in 2017/18. A different player with age, you can argue that, in some ways, Salah is a better one because of his ability to link up with the other forwards. Let's see if the likes of Luis Díaz can hold their own end of the bargain.
7. Bayer Leverkusen ST Victor Boniface
For a player of Salah's quality to "only" rank eighth in a Ballon d'Or ranking, you need to have seven players ahead of him who are having special seasons. Victor Boniface was an intriguing striker for Union St. Gilloise last season, shining in the Europa League, but nobody could have seen him being this devastating in the Bundesliga.
While all eyes were, rightfully, on young attacking midfield sensation Florian Wirtz coming into the 2023/24 season, the newcomer Boniface has been the real standout of a Bayer Leverkusen side that looks capable of pushing Bayern Munich to their limit in the Bundesliga title race.
Boniface is too hot to handle. We haven't seen a player with his skill set in the Bundesliga. Not even Erling Haaland was this ruthless and relentless in the penalty box, bullying defenders and creating chance after chance from less than nothing. Boniface has seven goals and two assists in seven matches, averaging an outrageous 3.4 dribbles completed per game. You can scarcely find another striker on this planet capable of completing the number of take-ons Boniface does.
6. Bayern Munich ST Harry Kane
Choosing between Boniface and Harry Kane isn't easy, but Bayern Munich's new No. 9 gets the nod because of his world-class creating. Kane produces chances like no other striker in European football, now that Karim Benzema has left the continent to ply his trade in Saudi Arabia.
Scarily enough, it still feels like Kane is only operating at 70 percent effectiveness for his new club. But Kane's 70 percent is still better than almost every other player in the world. Kane has eight goals and four assists for Die Roten, with Thomas Tuchel taking full advantage of the veteran striker's preference to drop a little deeper and start attacks in transition or even in the build-up phase.
Kane operates at the highest level technically, and Bayern know how valuable he is. They prioritized signing him for 95 million euros, which is a fee they basically never pay for someone who is 30 with an injury history. Kane, however, is that good and that important to boosting the club's Champions League chances in the immediate future.
5. Manchester City DM Rodri
It isn't often you see a defensive midfielder ranking highly on a list of Ballon d'Or contenders, but Rodri isn't just any defensive midfielder. He is the beating heart of Manchester City, performing the most important defensive duty of them all in the Pep Guardiola setup.
For Guardiola, defense is all about controlling the pitch. And there is no better way to control the game than to control possession of the ball in a productive manner. That means having possession while also using it to manipulate the opponent into creating openings for yourself as an attacking side. In this way, you are defensively strong, because if they do not have the ball and then have to work harder to progress the ball upon winning it, you are truly in control.
Rodri achieves this by being nearly automatic with his passing, finding the right lanes and options to make sure Manchester City continue to recycle the ball. On the defensive end, he shields passing lanes and basically performs the opposite on the opponent, preventing them from controlling his team out of possession.
With a pass completion percentage over 95 on nearly 110 attempts per game, Rodri is operating at a historically great level on the ball and in terms of his importance to how Manchester City play. Rodri is a ball-winner, progressive passer, and even a goal-scorer when called upon. He is the best defensive midfielder in the game, with all due respect to his contemporaries.
4. Tottenham AM James Maddison
As valuable as Rodri has been to Manchester City, he is usurped by another Premier League star in Tottenham newcomer James Maddison. The Ballon d'Or, for better or for worse, tends to favor the glamor positions, and few roles are as glamorous as the central attacking midfielder, which seems to be enjoying something of a revival in the 2023/24 season.
Ange Postecoglou has worked wonders with Spurs through the first couple of months of the campaign, but even the greatest manager would be nothing without his great players. Tottenham may not have Harry Kane, but Maddison has helped the team push to an even higher position in the table. It's still early, but it is quite the sight to behold Spurs sitting at the top of the league a season after they didn't even make it to Europe.
Maddison, alone, is not responsible for this, but he is the main man right now on a resurgent Spurs side that is experiencing the most impressive rebound of any club in Europe's top five leagues. The former Leicester City man is scoring goals and creating chances with the best of them, leading all players in Europe's top five with 65 shot-creating actions.
3. Inter Milan ST Lautaro Martínez
The hero of Inter Milan's 2022/23 Champions League Final run, Lautaro Martínez shook off a disappointing period in front of goal during the middle of the season to become Europe's most in-form striker at the end of the campaign. Yes, even above Final opponent Erling Haaland.
Lautaro has carried that form into the 2023/24 season, maturing into a much more refined and well-rounded striker than he was back in 2019/20 when he first broke out for the Nerazzurri. Despite constant transfer links to powerhouses around Europe, Lautaro has remained faithful to the Giuseppe Meazza, blossoming into the kind of striker who can win the ball five times in a game on his own and then go and score three bangers.
The Argentinian international has found the back of the net 10 times in 8 appearances, giving him the edge in the Capocannoniere race against a very formidable opponent in Napoli's Victor Osimhen. Lautaro has been even better at creating chances for others and attacking by defending than Osimhen - or any other Serie A striker, for that matter.
2. Stuttgart ST Serhou Guirassy
Yet as ridiculously good as Lautaro Martínez has been for Serie A's best club in 2023/24, what Serhou Guirassy is doing for VfB Stuttgart is even more mind-blowing. Stuttgart weren't a talentless team in 2022/23. Really, they were a bit unlucky, as their expected goals differential was actually seventh in the Bundesliga. Despite this, Die Schwaben needed a relegation playoff victory to stay up!
Guirassy was a member of that 2022/23 Stuttgart outfit, quietly impressing with 11 goals in 22 appearances (0.60 per 90). Without him, Stuttgart would have certainly been relegated, as nobody else scored more than five times.
Already in 2023/24, Guirassy has scored 13 times, finding the back of the net in nearly every match. He hasn't put together a single bad performance, because on top of the goals, Guirassy is averaging 2.6 fouls drawn and 2.1 key passes per match. He is constantly creating danger and chances for himself, finishing in ways that go beyond simple tap-ins.
It is not a stretch to claim that Guirassy has been the best player in Europe's top five leagues to this early point in the 2023/24 season. Statistically speaking, he has been the most impressive, specifically leading everyone on the continent in goals.
1. Real Madrid AM Jude Bellingham
Guirassy may have the stats, but Jude Bellingham has all that plus the extra spice necessary to win a Ballon d'Or. Bellingham is, as of right now, unquestionably the biggest star in world football. He has seized the crown that was seemingly destined for Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, performing at a level beyond what is expected from a midfielder.
Bellingham's 8 goals and 2 assists through his first 10 La Liga matches with Real Madrid mean that he is the most prolific new Madrid signing since Cristiano Ronaldo. That doesn't surprise anyone who watched Bellingham closely at Dortmund. He was a pure 8 and an all-around superstar, carrying Dortmund within inches of the Bundesliga title, which they probably only lost because of his injury at the end of the season.
Carlo Ancelotti and Real Madrid certainly aren't surprised. They signed Bellingham for 100 million euros for a reason, despite having already invested heavily in the midfield with the additions of Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga in the previous two transfer windows. Further, Ancelotti switched the formation to include a playmaker and no true striker because he believed Bellingham could carry some of the scoring load.
Beyond the goals, Bellingham has been just as brilliant in the all-around aspect. He rarely misplaces a pass, is nearly untouchable with the ball at his feet, and makes economic use of possession. Bellingham maneuvers into the right spaces to glue patterns together, needing just one or two touches to help his team penetrate the penalty area against even the lowest of blocks. Bellingham has been money as a playmaker, goal-scorer, and ball-winner in both La Liga and the Champions League.
