One of the biggest award nights in football is there and we will find Ballon d’Or awards in France. Argentina’s Lionel Messi is favourite to win his 8th Ballon d’Or this time. If we talk about the women’s category, there are few names who are ready to break Alexia Putellas’ consecutive run.
The Ballon d’Or Feminin is likely to stay in Barcelona for another year. Barcelona is one of the giant clubs in women’s football and it has given terrific players in past years. Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas won the award in 2021 and 2022. She can’t defend her crown this year. The Catalan star faced an ACL injury and she was ruled out of the 2022-23 season. Who’s going to take the crown back from her? We will find out a brief rankings of the players.
This ranking will be determined on the basis of the impact created by the player. This year, FIFA also hosted the Women’s World Cup and Spain were the winner for the first time. There are few big names who can win the Golden Ball. Injuries also hurt some big names such as Lyon’s Catarina Macario and Arsenal’s Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema.
Let’s go through to the top 10 rankings on the basis of the performances:
Man United’s Mary Earps was a star player for her club who picked 21 clean sheets in 2022-23. She was the FA Cup runner-up for United and World Cup runner-up for England. Mary Earps was the World Cup Golden Glove winner and helped the Lionesses to play in the FIFA World Cup final.
Georgia Stanway is the 9th in our list who plays for Bayern Munich. She was instrumental in her goal-scoring ability. Stanway netted 14 goals and produced seven assists. She helped her club to win the Frauen-Bundesliga for the 5th time and also won the Women’s Finalissima.
Olga Carmona from Real Madrid is another classy player who was part of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad. She scored seven goals and registered two assists in 2022-23. Her low finish beyond Mary Earps helped Spain to win the final against England. She netted an 89th winner in the semifinals against Sweden.
Barcelona midfielder Patri Guijarro was instrumental in her club’s another domestic title and Spanish Super Cup. She scored eight goals and provided 13 assists. She also won the Champions League for the club. She would have added her name to Spain’s WC-winning squad but withdrew her name before the event.
Fridolina Rolfo from Barcelona also made into the list. She was outstanding for the club in dominating the 2022-23 season, scoring 17 goals, and registering 10 assists. She also won Liga F, the Spanish Super Cup and the Women’s Champions League. She was also among the nominees for this award last year. She scored three goals in WC to take her national team (Sweden) to third place.
Kadidiatou Diani from Lyon was one of the leading goal-scorers of the 2022-23 season. She scored 32 goals and provided 10 assists. She scored four goals and assisted three times for France in the Women’s World Cup. She won the Silver Boot as well.
Chelsea’s Guro Reiten is one of the favourites for Golden Ball. She scored 15 goals and provided 23 assists in 2022-23. She helped the Blues to win the Women’s FA Cup against Man United. She was also the Women’s Super League winner. It was her first domestic double. She scored a stunning goal in the Champions League quarter-final win against reigning winner, Lyon.
Sam Kerr was the leading goal-scorer in 2022-23 with 34 goals. With the trophy of Women’s FA Cup and Women’s Super League, she completed a double for Chelsea. She was the only goal-scorer for Chelsea in the Women’s FA Cup final. She missed out early games for Australia in the World Cup and came back in knockouts to help her nation play semifinals for the first time.
Alex Popp from Wolfsburg will be the favourites to win the Golden Ball. Her national team got eliminated in group stages in the Women’s World Cup but she scored four goals in three games. She scored 311 goals in the 2022-23 season including seven assists.
Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati is the most favourite player to win the Golden Ball this year. She won each and every major trophy in 2022-23. She completed a treble with Barcelona with Liga F, the Spanish Super Cup, and the Women’s Champions League. She completed football by winning the Women’s World Cup trophy for Spain. The midfielder scored 19 goals and provided 21 assists. She was the best player in the Champions League last season and won the Golden Ball in the World Cup.
Editors pick
