Ronaldo

but you never know.

do you remember the famous Ronaldo Nazario goal that he scored against Compostela oh of course so Nike put that in an advert and seven of the Compostela players got together to try and sue them for reputational damage so you know just saying yeah it does it does happen Can

I have a word for Fermin

Lopez, who I think is an absolutely brilliant player that people don't really talk about enough.

You've made everybody in Chinkford very proud and you thoroughly deserve to win the Ballon d'Or.

And yet, on Monday night at the London Palladium, when Ronaldo Nazario stepped out to present the 70th Ballon d'Or, the trophy went to a 33-year-old striker who, two years ago, was still the punchline of every trophy joke in football.

Harry Kane is the 2026 Ballon d'Or winner, the first Englishman to lift it since Michael Owen in 2001.

And, depending on who you ask, this is either the most deserved award in years or daylight robbery against a teenage world champion.

The official website accidentally named Kane, Yamal and Mbappe as winners before the show even started, and the ceremony was pushed back by half an hour.

But when the moment finally came, just after Alexia Puteas collected her third women's Ballon d'Or, the palladium erupted.

Chants of Harry rolled around the theatre as Kane walked up to receive the trophy from Ronaldo, a man who knows a thing or two about being the best striker on the planet.

Kane's first words on stage? He called the London setting a good omen, thanked the voters and admitted the race must have been brutal to judge.

Well, I mean, it's obviously completely deserved, but normally I get like, oh, you're the England representative, English representative, the journalist.

Why aren't you normally voting for the England english players but you know they've just not been good enough but actually it's been quite nice this year to have three that absolutely had to uh to to vote for and harry kane i thought was a worthy winner And it's been quite interesting, the whole post-Messi, Ronaldo era, because I started voting in 2006, Cannavaro, Italy World Cup.

And then it's basically been the two of them.

I'm in Messi 8, Ronaldo 5.

So that's 13 of those, so 21 years I've been doing it.

And you would get a sort of Modric, Dembélé and occasional players like that.

I mean, on the football side.

Just before we leave

kicks out is that fans become, yes, not frustrated that your team wasn't the best on the day, but you applaud our position for playing an incredible game, and you applaud beautiful players.

We do it to Messi, we do it to Ronaldo, you know, why shouldn't we do it to Vinicius Junior? Just because he doesn't maybe look like those players, and now we feel that, you know, you've got to And that's what I want to see the beautiful game become again, the beautiful game where people appreciate incredible football.

We pay money to go to the games, not to do that to players, you know? So that is what I would love to see change.

Yeah.

I think I have won already.

I'm taking R9 at Inter.

Like, what are we doing here, gents? What are we doing? So I have Maradona and the best ever version of R9, pre-injury, I will say, as well.

It's

five-a-side, though.

I think you can make a case for Peaks-Latano at five-a-side over R9, I'll be honest.

oh I don't know I think the thing is like obviously R9 benefits from being like a grass pusher on 11er side but I think he is also very much a incredibly tight spaces dribbler like one of the greatest dribblers of all time I think I arguably have outside of Messi the two greatest dribblers of all time on my team but you know it is always oh I get a second I get another pick as well yeah So I...

Do I do...

7 or 8 times.

Cristiano Ronaldo.

Yes, Cristiano Ronaldo won it five times and is therefore an inferior player.

Ousmane Dembele.

Yes, Ousmane Dembele won it in 2025.

Luka Modric, that is a correct answer.

2018, JJ.

The original Ronaldo.