Historically, awards for the best player in the world have almost always gone to forwards and, at most, offensive midfielders. 💱 However, this tradition may come to an end this season. With each round of the English Championship and the Champions 💱 League, it becomes less surprising that the next Ballon d'Or or The Best trophy could go to a defensive midfielder.
At 💱 27 years old and in his fifth season with Manchester City, Spanish player Rodri has long since left behind being 💱 treated as a mere sidekick. Today, he is directly responsible for the success of the team that has won the 💱 last three editions of the Premier League, is the current European champion, and will face Real Madrid tomorrow in the 💱 Champions League quarterfinals.
Although he does not have the same offensive production as his teammates Erling Haaland and Phil Foden, Kylian 💱 Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain), Jude Bellingham or Vinícius Júnior (Real Madrid), other candidates for the award, Rodri's function is not to 💱 score goals, at least not as his main duty. His job is to control the ball, and he has done 💱 so masterfully. With an average of 105.8 passes per game in the Premier League and 107 in the Champions League, 💱 and a pass completion rate of over 90%, Rodri is the player who has distributed the most passes in both 💱 competitions.
According to the "Sofascore" platform, which uses artificial intelligence to turn statistics into notes that measure the performance of each 💱 player, Rodri is the standout player in the English league (8.05) and the third-best in the Champions League (7.92).
In more 💱 than 30 years of history, the FIFA awards (such as The Best) have only crowned two players with more defensive 💱 characteristics: German player Lothar Matthäus (1990), who played as a libero and midfielder throughout his career, and Italian defender Fabio 💱 Cannavaro (2006).
The Ballon d'Or, which has been awarded since 1956, has a slightly greater diversity of winners, having even been 💱 awarded to a goalkeeper, Soviet player Lev Yashin (1963). However, its most recent winner who primarily played in defense is 💱 the same as the FIFA awards, Cannavaro. In other words, for the past 18 years, all the world's best players 💱 have been offensive options for their club teams and national teams.
After securing their first Champions League title last season, City 💱 now has an even more ambitious goal: to be the first club in over 40 years to win back-to-back titles 💱 in the world's top interclub tournament.
The last team to "lose its virginity" in one year and become champion again the 💱 following season was the English Nottingham Forest, which won the trophy for the first time in 1978 and repeated the 💱 feat in 1979.
Since then, only Milan (1989 and 1990) and Real Madrid (2024, 2024, and 2024) have been able to 💱 win the Champions League in consecutive seasons. However, both of them had previous victories before starting these sequences.