The election for the World Footballer of the Year is coming up. The Ballon d’Or will be awarded on November 29. We show you the top 10 candidates for the award and tell you how good they are in FIFA 22.
Who will be world footballer 2021? The Ballon d’Or is the Oscar of soccer: It’s not about teams and ensembles, it’s about the best individual players of the calendar year. Who will take the title this year? 30 candidates have been nominated, which we will of course list again for you. But we show you the top candidates and how good (or bad) they are in FIFA 22. Let’s go!
Ballon d’Or 2021: All world footballer nominees
For the sake of completeness, we’ll show you all 30 candidates nominated for the Ballon d’Or 2021. But let’s not kid ourselves: we don’t need 20 of them anyway. What are Gerrard Moreno, Cesar Azpilicueta or Lautaro Martinez doing there? But well, of course they were also on the ball, of course. So here’s an overview of all the nominees for the World Player award:
- Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
- N’golo Kanté (Chelsea)
- Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund)
- Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus Turin)
- Mason Mount (Chelsea)
- Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)
- Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG)
- Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
- Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)
- Nicolo Barella (Inter Milan)
- Lionel Messi (PSG)
- Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)
- Pedri (FC Barcelona)
- Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
- Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus Turin)
- Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
- Neymar (PSG)
- Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan)
- Ruben Dias (Manchester City)
- Simon Kjaer (AC Milan)
- Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern)
- Jorginho (Chelsea)
- Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC)
- Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea)
- Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea)
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
- Gerard (Villarreal)
- Phil Foden (Manchester City)
- Kylian Mbappé (PSG)
- Luis Suarez (Atletico Madrid)
Who will win the Ballon d’Or 2021? The Top 10 in FIFA 22
Only the players who have the highest chance to win the Ballon d’Or 2021 make it into our Top 10. So the best of the best. There are already some leaks circulating, which limit the selection to the top 3. One says Robert Lewandowski will win the Ballon d’Or 2021, ahead of record winner Lionel Messi and Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema.
According to another leak, however, PSG newcomer Messi will become world footballer for the seventh time overall, followed by Lewy and Benzema… Nothing is certain, of course, but you can see a clear pattern there. So here are the EarlyGame Top 10 Ballon d’Or contenders and their FIFA stats.
Ballon d’Or place 10: Neymar
Yes, the Brazilian is also on the shortlist of world footballer candidates this year. He reached the final of the Copa America ’21 with the Selecao and scored two goals during the tournament. The guy is just 29 years old now…. There were times (Barca times) when people were sure that he would become the successor of Messi and Ronaldo and easily win two or three golden balls…
To really make it to the world footballer, PSG would probably have to win the Champions League once. In this star ensemble then to shine extra, is really hard, but if ‘Ney’ would carrien, then he would have earned the Ballon d’Or honestly. So 2022 then.
In Ultimate Team, however, the winger has been a world-beater for years, as his 10 stars (5 Weak Foot. 5 Skills) and pace make him the absolute exceptional attacker every year again. Everyone would love to have him in their FUT team.
Ballon d’Or place 9: Bruno Fernandes
What an awesome kicker! Remember Ronaldinho? This is him now. So here’s what I mean: Bruno Fernandes is the best “real 10” in soccer today. A playmaker like you want him to be, passes that hardly anyone else can manage. He’s extremely important for ManUnited’s offensive game and can take apart defenses with his overview alone.
No hate though: His biggest problem is Manchester United – the Red Devils lack titles above all. And even if world footballers are actually chosen on the basis of their skills, we all know that team successes are also important in the end. He can’t get any higher than ninth place this year.
Ballon d’Or 8th place: Kylian Mbappé
The top scorer in League 1 in the 2020/21 – Season is, of course, not to be missed. Kylian Mbappé probably needs no introduction. What the boy pulls off is simply unique – one must also not forget that he is only 22 years old. Why is he only in 8th place? Because France, one of the clear favorites for the title, was knocked out by Switzerland in the round of 16 at the European Championship.
Let’s not kid ourselves: If the Équipe Tricolore had won the title and Mbappé had scored three or four goals instead of 0, he would be in first or second place in the rankings. So the youngster will have to be patient. Is there any doubt that he will become a world footballer at least once?
Ballon d’Or 7th place: Cristiano Ronaldo
CR7 so far down the list? Insult to majesty! Ne seriously: What Cristiano Ronaldo does with his 150 (36) years after his return to Manchester United is simply insane. Without him, the Red Devils would probably be completely lost, the game is now already full-throttle tailored to him and he pays it back with good performance.
Ballon d’Or 6th place: Gianluigi Donnarumma
The player of the tournament at Euro 2021, Donnarumma is, after all, among the armada of new arrivals PSG signed in the summer. Although he was Italy’s safe back-up at the European Championships, he is fighting with Keylor Navas for the regular spot in the Paris box. Well, who has such luxury problems in the goal…
At 22 years old, he still has every chance of winning in future elections. However, keepers (and defensive players in general) are known to have a particularly hard time in the election for world footballer.
In the virtual goal, however, no one can fool him. He’s the meta-keeper in FIFA 22, and he’ll stop just about anything. That is, at least when there isn’t another bug that causes him to steer haphazardly. But that’s a general problem and not a Donnarumma problem.
Ballon d’Or 5th place: Karim Benzema
Real Madrid’s life insurance in the forward line. Since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema has become increasingly important for the royals, in the past – Season and also at the start of this one, you notice: without him, nothing runs in the Real forward. No Ronaldo no Party” has long since become “No Benzema no Party”.
The fact that he is only in 5th place is, as with Mbappé, not least due to the disappointing European Championship. As European champion and top scorer, the 33-year-old would probably have the best chance of winning the title. Moreover, Real didn’t even become champions… so why is he so far ahead according to the leaks…? So it’s only enough for 5th place in our ranking. Yes, that’s right: we don’t care about the leaks.
Ballon d’Or 4th place: Jorginho
Let’s move on to the secret favorite for a high spot. Or is he just overrated? After all, the Italian not only led his national team to the European Championship title as a midfield boss, but also won the Champions League with Chelsea! His “I’m going to jump up at the penalty kick before I shoot” tactic is also often copied and rarely achieved. (Is this actually coming in FIFA 23?)
The 29-year-old would have deserved a respectable place, let’s see where he ends up. In FIFA, unfortunately, we know that pretty well, namely in the garbage.
Ballon d’Or 3rd place: Lionel Messi
Of course, there is a certain Argentine who already has six golden balls in his living room (or wherever you put them). Before the first people start shouting: mEssI iS vOlL sChlEchT bEiN PSG. Don’t forget: He finally did it in the summer, winning the Copa America with Argentina. His first title with the national team, the curse is broken. The country had been waiting for a Copa triumph since 1993.
But admittedly: Messi wasn’t really that blatant in 2021 – especially if you measure him against his own achievements and highlights. Nevertheless, he’s still a difference-maker and will still bring plenty of joy to all Paris fans.
Ballon d’Or 2nd place: Mohamed Salah
Why is the king of Egypt not in the top 3 in the leaks, please? Anyone who has seen Mo Salah play in recent months knows that he is currently the best player in the world. Ball control, overview, finishing. No one can put anything past him. Under Jürgen Klopp, he achieved absolute world class and, with 22 goals, was second just behind Harry Kane (23 goals) in the list of goal scorers for the 20/21 – Season in England.
In the Premier League and especially among Liverpool fans, of course, Salah is the clear favorite to win the Ballon d’Or. We think it will be a neck-and-neck race with Messi and our No. 1 spot.
Salah’s virtual likeness shaved. He’s really nice in FIFA and can pick apart any defense. Look at the stats – no more questions.
Ballon d’Or 1st place: Robert Lewandowski
Our World Footballer of the Year 2021 is Robert Lewandowski. Actually, mainly for the reason that hardly any player in this list (and not even among the top 30) is SO IMPORTANT for his team, as the Pole. If Benzema is Real’s life insurance, then Lewy is probably the whole world for FC Bayern Munich, because let’s face it: without Lewandowski, Bayern would look pretty old in parts.
Every game, Julian Nagelsmann’s team is good for one or two goals against – but Lewandowski is up front, and he’s more ice-cold than any other striker at the moment.
FIFA 23 RELEASE – WHAT IS KNOWN SO FAR
FIFA 22 is still in full operation, but in the background the game makers of EA Sports are already working on the next part – FIFA 23 will be released in autumn 2022.
But under which name will the classic game be continued in autumn 2022? As things stand, it is not at all certain that the game will continue to bear the name of the world association FIFA. We have the most important information about FIFA 23 for you, why the game series will get a new name and on which consoles the next part of the soccer simulation will be available.
WHEN WILL FIFA 23 BE RELEASED?
We can’t give you an official launch date for the next part of the FIFA game series yet. EA hasn’t communicated much in this regard yet, so so far we can only assume that FIFA 23 will be released in the period between mid-September and early October 2022, just like its predecessors. In the past years, the latest launch date of a FIFA game was October 06.