How Close Is Bellingham To Winning The Ballon D’or?

Jude Bellingham - probably one of the most known players this season, after winning La Liga and the Champions League in his very first season with Spanish giants Real Madrid. He only recently turned 21 and has already achieved more than many other footballers ever will - despite playing an average tournament at the Euros in Germany so far.

🚨 Jude Bellingham since joining Real Madrid:

• Champions League
• La Liga
• Spanish Super Cup
• UCL YPOTS
• La Liga POTS
• Golden Boy award
• Kopa award
• Laureus award

NOW A EURO FINALIST! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Vr4sTgUPsr

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) July 10, 2024

With his performance, especially for Real, Bellingham is a serious contender, if not the favourite, to win the 2024 Ballon D’or and follow in the footsteps of football legend Lionel Messi who won the title in 2023 after winning the World Cup with Argentina.

As he played in the MSL for the whole of last season, Messi most likely will not be a contender for the award but taking into account Bellingham’s performance for Madrid and England, how likely are his chances of winning the Ballon D’or for the first time?

From Dortmund to Madrid - Bellingham’s breakthrough

Bellingham joined the German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund from Birmingham City in the summer of 2020, just shortly after his 17th birthday.

He grew up in Birmingham, which is instantly recognisable thanks to his accent, but decided to join a bigger club in order to improve his career. Dortmund are known for signing young players and helping them through their development, so it was a no brainer for them to sign the English star boy.

In his time at Dortmund he developed rapidly as a player and it was standard for him to play in the starting XI. He played 132 for the Borussen and scored 24 goals and 25 assists during that time.

Then Real Madrid came into the picture. Of course, Bellingham played in the youth national teams of England for a long time but he received an incredible amount of attention during his time in Dortmund.

For the 2023/24 season he joined Madrid for €103m, an incredible amount for a player that young but it is safe to say that the Spanish side made the right move. According to Transfermarkt, he now has an estimated market value of €180m.

Although Dortmund would have loved to keep him, they are not big enough of a club to keep a player like Bellingham happy long term. Something similar happened with Erling Haaland who joined Dortmund young before leaving to Manchester City.

Bellingham’s success at Madrid

In his first season with Los Blancos Bellingham won the Spanish League, the Super Cup and not to forget, the Champions League where he played against his ex-club in the final.

First trophy with the greatest club in the world! HALA MADRID!🤍🏆 pic.twitter.com/58fZFkalTn

— Jude Bellingham (@BellinghamJude) January 14, 2024

Considering his age, there is no doubt that he is currently one of the best footballers in the world and maybe even the best of his generation.

In Dortmund he became interesting for bigger clubs, in Madrid his career skyrocketed. Everyone knows the name Bellingham and everyone knows his talent.

Bellingham signed a six-season deal with Madrid until 2029 and from what he has been saying in recent interviews, it is extremely unlikely for him to leave beforehand. He is more likely to extend his contract with them because, arguably, Madrid are the team to beat worldwide at the moment.

Performance at the 2024 Euros

While his performance has been more than outstanding on club level, the 2024 Euros in Germany have rather been a disappointment for the English youngster so far.

Two goals and zero assists in six games are far from what he imagined from the tournament and what people expected from him.

Nonetheless he makes the difference for England when they need him most. Most recently, a 95th minute bicycle-kick goal from him kept England in the tournament against Slovakia.

95 - Jude Bellingham's equaliser was England's latest ever goal in normal time at the UEFA European Championship (94:34), and was netted with his side's first shot on target in the match. Cometh. #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/J1kEOC84X6

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 30, 2024

While not showing his best performance, he helped England through the knockout stages and will now play the final against Spain on Friday where he will face another Ballon D’or contender: Rodri.

What are his chances of winning the Ballon D’or?

If England win the Euros in Germany, Bellingham’s chances of winning the Ballon D’or will massively increase despite already having a good shot at winning the award.

Even if he will not play a major role in the final, which is rather unlikely, we have seen in the past that winning a major tournament can do the trick, as it did for Messi in 2023.

If Spain do win the final, it might turn into a close battle with Rodri as he played a great season for Manchester City and an amazing tournament for Spain, leading them to the final in six straight wins.

Nonetheless, Bellingham had the better club season and just in general seems to be getting more attention than anyone else.

Other contestants for the Ballon D’or are Kylian Mbappe who will join Bellingham at Madrid for next season and Vinicius Junior who already is teammates with the Englishman.

🚨 Viní Jr. & Jude Bellingham are the only contenders to win Ballon d'Or 2024.

It will be a close race between Real Madrid's duo to lift the award on October. @diarioas 💪 pic.twitter.com/mpEEQZU6j3

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) July 11, 2024

Mbappe scored 52 goals for Paris Saint Germain last season and won the Ligue 1 but he also did not impress at the Euros, which lowered his chances of winning the award. Mbappe and France got knocked out in the semifinals against Spain.

Vinicius Jr. on the other hand has played a similarly amazing season as his teammate Bellingham. 26 goals and 12 assists go to his name and he has played a crucial part at Madrid last season. Nonetheless, he was expected to impress more during the Copa America. He scored twice for Brazil during their group stage clash against Paraguay but then had to watch his team get knocked out on penalties by Uruguay due to a suspension.

Overall, if Bellingham manages to win the Euros with England, he will be the top contender for the Ballon D’or. With reaching the final, he nonetheless came further than Mbappe and Vinicius Jr. in their tournaments. Only Spain’s Rodri can change something on the outcome of the award but even if Spain was to win the Euros - Was his club performance better than Bellingham’s? Arguably, no.