Germany legend Lothar Matthaus believes Chelsea midfielder Jorginho has a strong case for being given the 2021 Ballon d’Or.
Asked to name his favourites for the prize, Matthaus downplayed Liverpool Mo Salah’s chances of winning, but he does think that either Jorginho or Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski should be in serious consideration.
“What Klopp’s superstar Salah has been delivering for a few months is of course absolutely world-class. It is quite possible that this will help him a lot in his choice of world footballer. But that was not the case for the whole year. In the spring, he and Liverpool had serious problems. Jorginho from Chelsea has been convincing for almost the entire last season and played a key role in winning the Champions League and the European Championship with Italy. He’s not as spectacular as Lewandowski, whom I personally keep my fingers crossed for the most. This time, however, he lacks the international title.”
Lionel Messi remains the bookies favourite but Matthaus was pretty dismissive of the Argentinian legend’s achievements over the last year:
“Messi won the Copa America with Argentina, but achieved nothing great with Barcelona. There are no top favourites.”
Matthaus certainly makes some good points but it will be up to journalists, coaches and captains of national teams from countries right across the world to decide the winner of the award.
The ceremony to announce this year’s winner takes place on November 29th, and it really is a hard one to call considering we don’t know much about the voting process.
Whether voters will consider Jorginho’s contributions to winning the Champions League and the European Championship as important as Lewandowski or Messi’s individual goal records in their decision, we shall have to wait and see.
