BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand does not believe Chelsea midfielder Jorginho should be in contention for this year’s Ballon d’Or.
The Italian is among the favourites for the award, alongside Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi but, despite having won the Champions League with the Blues, and Euro 2020 with Italy, Ferdinand feels Jorginho would not be a worthy winner:
“The Jorginho one baffles me. He’s not the best player at Chelsea and he’s not the first name on the team-sheet with Italy either. Listen, he’s a very good player and I’m not trying to be disrespectful but I don’t see how he gets on the list with those players at the level those guys have been playing at.”
“If you look at Chelsea in the run-in to winning the Champions League I think Kante was man of the match in five of the last six games so it baffles me. He’s won two of the big trophies I get that, I understand it but when you’re putting him up against the four other players there it doesn’t really make sense to me.”
It is an extremely harsh take from Ferdinand. Jorginho definitely has a lot of detractors in this country, simply because he isn’t particularly mobile and doesn’t always produce headline-grabbing performances.
Even so, he is crucial to how both Chelsea and Italy play, dictating play with his passing in a deep-lying midfield role. Without his contributions, the Champions League and European Championship successes may not have happened.
On an individual level, he is not as good as Lewandowski or Messi, but his achievements over the last six to twelve months speak for themselves.
