Gary Neville has claimed that one Manchester City player will be a contender to win the Ballon d’Or this year.
Back in October, seven current City players were included in the top 30 Ballon d’Or rankings for 2023.
Even though the Citizens won the Treble, Lionel Messi was still crowned the best player in the world once again after helping Argentina win the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Now that another domestic season has come to an end and the European Championship is about to begin, one pundit has shared his early thoughts on which players will be up for the next award, with one City player getting mentioned.
Neville backs Phil Foden to be a Ballon d’Or contender
In his latest column for The Overlap newsletter, Neville had this to say on the matter.
He said: “The UEFA team of the season was released on Monday made up of the best players in the Champions League in 2023-24 and Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Harry Kane were all in it.
“All three of those will be Ballon d’Or contenders at the end of the year.”
Foden has had a stunning season
In 53 appearances across all competitions this season, the 24-year-old scored 27 goals and delivered 12 assists as he helped his side win a fourth Premier League title in a row as well as the UEFA SuperCup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
In the Premier League, Foden, who is currently picking up a weekly wage of £225k-a-week, bagged 19 goals and supplied eight assists in 35 games.
This ultimately led to the Englishman being named the Premier League Player of the Season.
Even though Bellingham has won La Liga and the Champions League in his debut season at Real Madrid, and Kane scored 44 goals in 45 games in his first campaign at Bayern Munich, we agree with Neville that Foden should be considered as a potential Ballon d’Or winner alongside his two England teammates.