Ousmane Dembélé

Gabriel finished 21st, behind William Pacho, Joao Neves, Marc Cucurea, Vinicius Junior, Ferran Torres, and then in 15th place was Declan Rice.

From 14th, downwards, Vitinha, Ashraf Hakimi, Paul Cabasi, Drew Bellingham, Fabian Ruiz, Michael Alisse, Erling Haaland, Ousmane Dembele, Kovicic Kovacic, Lionel Messi, Rodri, Laminia Mau, and Kylian Mbappe.

And of course, the winner... what we'll talk about in a second, but in the women's side of it as well, Arsenal's Alessia Russo finished 9th and Mariana Caldente finished 13th.

But the winner of the men's Ballon d'Or was Harry Kane.

Not even those supposed in-the-know journalists were actually in-the-know, or if they were, they clearly had been sworn to absolute secrecy.

What defines the best player in the world? What felt like a foregone conclusion was that the winner would come from either Bayern Munich's Harry Kane, Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe, or Barcelona's Lamin Yamal, the latter of whom was last year's runner-up behind Ousmane Dembélé.

The issue that the Ballon d'Or never really addresses, of course, is exactly what determines who the best player in the world is.

For years, there has supposedly been tactical voting, which arguably makes a mockery of an award clearly meant to stand alone as the most prestigious individual award in the game.

With

Tongi on Dembele, we'll take him there.

Yeah, exactly.

So, yeah, obviously really encouraging midfield performances.

No. What's the rest of the top ten? Because I didn't stay around to see this whole breakdown.

Top ten is Harry Kane, Cillian Mbappe, Laminia Mall, Rodri, Lionel Messi, Kevice Kvarska, Ousmane Dembele, Erling Haaland, Michael Alisse and Ibn Ruiz.

Yeah.

I mean, I think the top ten is Ruiz would be

first was Stanley Matthew second and then Sir Bobby Charlton Kevin Keegan won it twice Michael Owen won it do you

know how English are funny they remind us of all the people that won it he was the first Englishman since Michael Owen let's move on when this guy won it Dembele the last winner did they tell us how many French people won it

people probably won it a lot more but what I love about Hurricane is by far the oldest of the trio and uh lami yamal his city is so high he's won the last three young players of the dembélé i mean sorry mbappé hasn't won it has it no okay this is his highest investment you'll get there

um uncle can't be a good stand-up comedian he can't even crack a funny joke uncle said killing mbappe won't be top five according to his source but our source needs to be probed kudos to harry kane well deserved award i'm happy for him unless you come in from through leary Good morning, SportsZone.

Fabien Ruz is 10th.

He's behind Michael Lise of Bayern Munich, who is behind Erling Haaland of Manchester City, who's at number eight, who's behind Ousmane Dembele of Paris Saint-Germain, who's at number seven, etc.

That was

my favourite moment of the whole thing.

So yeah, it is more difficult for keepers, defenders to win it.

It's mostly all midfielders and attackers.

Last year was an attacker, Dembele, brilliant Frenchman.

And the year before that was Rodri, a midfielder, number six.

Uh-huh.

Periodically, but not so much.

No, it's because there are midfielders and attackers.

That's true.

It's mostly all midfielders and attackers.

Last year was an attacker, Dembele, brilliant Frenchman, and the year before that was Rodri, a midfielder, number six, like what

you would say in the middle of an AFL team, I guess, you know, like

the conductor.

Kata sixth.

Dembele seventh.

Haaland eighth.

Elise 9th, Ruiz 10th, and we'll give Drew Bellingham, well, it can't even spell, 11th.