Vinicius Jr, Rodri, Jude Bellingham? 2024 Ballon d'Or predictions | BBC Sport

Right, time now for our big talking point. The Ballon d'Or is awarded on Monday, but because we have the trophy here in the studio, I have to say this is the closest you two will ever be to the Ballon d'Or, or have been, as much as I respect your achievements on the football field. How do you feel about the Ballon d'Or here? You're out of order, first of all. I've played against 12 players who managed to win this thing, and a whole host of players who probably should have won it. The likes of Henri and Bergkamp, all these wonderful talents. The very first person to win this was Sir Stanley Matthews, what an ambassador he was for our game. Vinicius Junior looks like he'll be the next winner. I think Messi has won this eight times, and Ronaldo has won it five, not bad. Yeah, so Vinicius Junior, you're absolutely right, is indeed the favourite for the men's Ballon d'Or. But let me ask you, out of the Ballon d'Or winners, who was the toughest opponent that you played against? Well, I've played against a fair few, but I like Ronaldinho. We actually swapped shirts in a game, and apparently my shirt is... So what game was this? Celta against Barcelona. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. He made a beeline for me, you can imagine running over, asking for my shirt, and apparently it's in his house in Brazil, over the fireplace, Jason. Magnificent. Yeah. I've got a long list here, really. Oh, go on, here we go. I've still got time. Here we go, go on then, read them out. Well, I would say the original, what I call the original Ronaldo. He was an immense player. R9. Oh, yeah, yeah, he was amazing. And every foot he placed was precision. It was for a reason. The change of pace, very clever, really was a natural finisher as well. Gullit was another one who was decent. There's one or two in here, Pepin, who I played in my debut game for France, another one that was a different class. So, yeah, it's a bit of a who's who's list, but I think Henry, Thierry Henry, I see no reason why he shouldn't have been on that list. He was truly remarkable. OK, we have come to the end of the Messi-Ronaldo era. So who is the next generation? Is it going to be Vini, who's going to be dominating it for years to come? It looks that way. I would have actually liked, or I would like to see Rodri win it. It's not all about the attacking players, Martin. It's nice to hear you say that. But Rodri, brilliant midfielder, just knits everything together. But I sort of get why Vinicius is doing this. Well, Yamal at Barcelona now is the next kid on the block, 16, 17 years of age. One assumes he's going to be a winner of this in years to come. I hope one player doesn't really dominate, because then it kind of like gives you a feeling. What about the English copper players coming up? Well, absolutely. You look at Bellingham, you look at Cole Palmer, Phil Foden. Absolutely. It's 2008 since a player from the Premier League has won this thing. So maybe they don't look closely enough at our English Premier League players, because there's one or two now on the list. Things are changing. But maybe Haaland with his goals. Why not? I mean, he's world class, isn't he? How can you stop him? The number of goals he's getting is ridiculous. 44 goals already in the Champions League. Surely he comes into that list. What a wonderful honour to have the Ballon d'Or here in the studio, isn't it? Amazing thing, yeah. It's amazing.