100 EPISODES. THREE FOOTBALL FANS. ONE GOLDEN BALL. ABSOLUTELY NO AGREEMENT. We've officially reached Episode 100 of A Semi-Informed Football Podcast! After three and a half years of football conversations, bold predictions, questionable takes and the occasional argument, Marko, Mark and Matteo are back to celebrate a milestone we weren't entirely sure we'd reach.
s? And why do defenders, midfielders and goalkeepers rarely receive the same recognition as attacking superstars?
We also debate Kylian Mbappé's place among football's elite and whether his individual brilliance is enough without major team success.
Then come our dark-horse selections: Matteo makes a case for Lionel Messi, Mark champions Michael Olise, and Marko highlights Erling Haaland. We also discuss PSG stars Ousmane Dembélé and Vitinha.
Finally, we look ahead to the next generation of Ballon d'Or contenders, with predictions involving Rayan Cherki, Giovanni Leoni and Pau Cubarsí.
In this milestone episode:
Our picks are officially on the record:
Marko: Harry Kane
Mark: Harry Kane
Matteo: Lamine Yamal
Will the boys finally agree on something? Probably not. But after 100 episodes, would you really want them to?
A huge thank-you to everyone who's supported the show throughout this journey. Here's to the next hundred episodes of football, friendship and being just informed enough to have an opinion.
Join the debate in the comments: Who deserves the 2026 Ballon d'Or—Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal, or someone else entirely?
Subscribe to A Semi-Informed Football Podcast for more football analysis, European football debates, predictions and conversations from the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Champions League and beyond.
We're keeping you… Semi-Informed.
#BallonDor2026 #Episode100 #HarryKane #LamineYamal #FootballPodcast
00;00;07;08 - 00;00;12;27
Matteo
That being said, you proved me wrong again.
00;00;13;00 - 00;00;15;05
Mark
But what does it matter now?
00;00;15;08 - 00;00;22;23
Matteo
The now being said, you prove me wrong then.
00;00;22;26 - 00;00;41;23
Marko
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 100th episode of the Stemming from Football podcast. So 100 episodes in after all the conversation's arguments, questionable conduct or anything like that, we're still semi informs. Mark Martel. Pretty excited to have you guys on for 100th episode. What do you say your fantastic.
00;00;41;29 - 00;00;55;13
Mark
I'm shocked. I'm surprised that we're here. You know when we started this was just fun. Marco We go back a long time. You mentioned starting this. I thought I'd try it out. I remember that first episode. I was super.
00;00;55;16 - 00;00;57;17
Marko
Nervous. Yes. Yeah, right.
00;00;57;19 - 00;01;17;02
Mark
And then as time went by, just got so, so comfortable and a big shout out to Marco. I feel like you've led the show. You always prepare for the show and yeah, you just you just make the conversation and flow. And Matteo, you bring your biased Barcelona knowledge and that's pretty much it. And that.
00;01;17;05 - 00;01;36;00
Marko
Okay, that's helpful too. Yeah. No, no. I find that I am the definition of semi informed. So for all those out there, I might have some takes. They're not the right takes, but I have them anyway. So anyway, so on the episode today we're going to talk, you know, kind of reminisce a little bit about, you know, the three and a half years, I guess that I got it got us to 100 episodes as well.
00;01;36;08 - 00;01;54;21
Marko
And we're going to talk a bulk of the episode about the Ballon d'Or, a blunder being awarded on next Monday, Monday, October the 26th. So a lot of kind of discussion about that as well. So we're going to kind of run into a few things. So let's, you know, before we get into the Ballon d'Or, let's actually kind of take a look at the last little bit.
00;01;54;21 - 00;02;07;07
Marko
Let's say three and a half years. And Mark, I'll throw this one off to you right now. What about things that interest you? And then the world of football and just being able to talk about it like I found it exciting. You know, we we launched this I think our first episode was the lead up into the Champions League.
00;02;07;14 - 00;02;32;25
Marko
We had a really great conversation about the Champions League, which was really quite exciting. I said, If memory serves me, it was Man City over Inter that we got that episode. But what I found is that there's always a pinch of excitement when we got into podcasting around the bigger tournaments like the World Cup, the euro, like it was always a little bit more to talk about and a lot more to kind of discuss on air.
00;02;33;01 - 00;02;36;21
Marko
So maybe, Mark, maybe that was something that was kind of poignant for you.
00;02;36;23 - 00;03;01;17
Mark
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Talking about the world Cup, having all those podcasts. Yeah, that was definitely fantastic. Yeah. Anytime we get into the finals or in the late stages of a season, maybe one thing that stood out to me from one of our episodes was I called it first before Twitter, before anybody. I said, and Tony, Ariel is going to go to Liverpool.
00;03;01;17 - 00;03;17;00
Mark
And so I was listening back to that episode and I said that I think two weeks or three weeks before it was announced, and I could just see the writing on the wall. So proud of that and take that fab.
00;03;17;03 - 00;03;23;05
Marko
Yeah, there you go. Matteo So how long is it before Mr. Arriola gets fired?
00;03;23;07 - 00;03;24;21
Matteo
Honestly, about three, three weeks.
00;03;24;26 - 00;03;26;03
Marko
Yeah, right, right, right.
00;03;26;09 - 00;03;43;28
Matteo
But I think, you know, one of my favorite memories on this podcast here, I've only been here for around to two and a bit years, and you guys almost passed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This World Cup journey, we've had this past summer was so interesting because you're right, it was like a whole collection of different takes we did on it.
00;03;44;01 - 00;04;03;07
Matteo
We summarized the games themselves, which we did the beginning of the podcast years ago. Then we started adding things like who we think's going to stand out, individual surprise teams. We incorporated all these skills and different takes we've had over these past three years of filming this and thought it was super cool and big soccer for international football too.
00;04;03;07 - 00;04;13;07
Matteo
So seeing this all end up in the most perfect ways, seeing intense knockouts and, you know, great comeback stories, it was phenomenal to me.
00;04;13;07 - 00;04;28;07
Marko
But yeah, no, no, I agree with you, too. Like, like I found this is just kind of, you know, preparing for each episode. It was a learning experience to learning about things that I didn't really know about, even kind of delving in the history of some clubs, some countries, the international squads, you know, that that's all been interesting.
00;04;28;12 - 00;04;42;12
Marko
What I really, really like is when people give me sort of, even if it's just kind of in person feedback or just written feedback where they said, You know what, I really loved your take on this or I really loved the back and forth the three of you had when you were talking about this and you were arguing or anything like that.
00;04;42;12 - 00;04;55;28
Marko
So, you know, honestly, that's the really reason that we're we're doing it. We're doing it because we like talking about the world of football, the world of soccer. We love talking about, you know, different viewpoints and, you know, how that all comes together. So that's really the benefit of this show, do you think for sure.
00;04;55;28 - 00;05;11;15
Matteo
Like having us so close knit? Right. I can tell you firsthand on the socials I've gotten DMS, I've gotten comments and responses where people are reaching out, given their feedback, telling them what they agree with this would be with. That ultimately is what we serve to do. Mm hmm.
00;05;11;18 - 00;05;14;06
Marko
For sure. Can you act on that one, Mark?
00;05;14;08 - 00;05;43;04
Mark
Yeah. No, I was just going to say I love I love talking about the sport and I know you guys do too. And I think that's what's brought me the most joy just getting to, to talk about something I love. I mean, I love recording the podcast just because it brings me joy and I really think that we bring some very different views and and takes than what's out there in the mainstream soccer media.
00;05;43;06 - 00;05;56;14
Mark
Like, we see a lot of articles, but then we have these very different viewpoints and we take a look at issues from a different lens. And so I really, I really appreciate that from the both of you as well.
00;05;56;16 - 00;06;08;28
Marko
Yeah. Yeah. So this sort of semi informed lens, I guess it is. So anyway, let's kind of move on from this kind of sentimental stuff and everything. Let's actually go right into the Ballon d'Or because I think this is going to be an amazing conversation and it's only going to ramp up over the next few days or so.
00;06;09;00 - 00;06;30;08
Marko
So what I'm going to do is I have this kind of the stuff all written down to just a little bit of kind of background on the Ballon d'Or, and then we'll kind of jump into a conversation of it, right? That right now. So first of all, the world was founded in 1956. So to kind of align with our 100th anniversary of this episode of the 100th episode, it's actually the 70th anniversary of the ceremony, and it's going to take place in London.
00;06;30;12 - 00;06;49;05
Marko
And that's next Monday, October 26th. So again, I think we've talked about this on the podcast every single year we kind of talk how it how's the selection and everything like that. It's a journalist jury. It's selecting winners based on individual excellence and they give it a point system. And when all is said and done, the amount of points is actually what's put puts people over the line.
00;06;49;12 - 00;07;15;09
Marko
And we're voting on both the male player and the female player of the year. Now, I guess before we kind of actually take a look at the the nominees or kind of I wanted to throw this out to you because this is something that I've been thinking about. Is this really a trophy based on individual performance or is it a combination of winning trophies alongside the team?
00;07;15;11 - 00;07;40;03
Marko
And I'm going to kind of preface that when we take a look at, you know, what, Roger had an amazing year that year that he won, but also Spain did phenomenally well with the euro. Modric had a great year the year that he won, but he brought Croatia to the to the finals of the World Cup. So is it more of an individual talent or can we has the has has the club and the country really have to play into it and say, I'm going to give that to you first?
00;07;40;08 - 00;07;41;25
Mark
Oh, man.
00;07;41;27 - 00;08;03;15
Matteo
Well, it's a great question because the Ballon d'Or itself is awarded to the best player in the world. That's what it's for. But if you look at the criteria for oh, cooperates team achievements and individual performances, the three main criteria are, like I said, individual performance, right? How decisive, impressive and standout they were throughout the year team achievements as well.
00;08;03;15 - 00;08;23;10
Matteo
So a collective performance trophies major titles won with both club and country as well as class and fair play. No one wants to see a great player who acts like an idiot when the award. Yeah, I think having some kind of character to your game is definitely a big plus to have. But to answer your question, I still think it's an individual award.
00;08;23;10 - 00;08;27;28
Matteo
However, we've seen throughout the years team important to grow more and more and the winner.
00;08;28;00 - 00;08;41;22
Marko
Yeah no no and Mark I mean to send this off to you but I'm going to say just kind of prefacing it is that if somebody scores 50 goals but really wins nothing but somebody scores 20, but wins Champions League or the World Cup, like who has it? Who's more apt to win that work?
00;08;41;23 - 00;09;08;09
Mark
I don't think it's that simple. I do think there is a correlation from being the best player in the world and your team winning trophies or your team's success, but you need to be that impact player if you're an impact player. But then you're injured or what have you and your team wins, not because of you. Then you've won a trophy, but it's not because of you.
00;09;08;11 - 00;09;37;27
Mark
So I think you really need to be that legendary player. We're talking the best player in all of football. You have to stand out. You can't just you know, latch on to your team's success. You're the one who needs to have helped out. Now, having said that, there are many players that are great that didn't win trophies, but that doesn't mean that they're they're lesser of a legend.
00;09;38;00 - 00;09;56;07
Mark
Maybe they carry their team very far. Maybe they exceeded expectations. I think you pretty pretty much answered the question when you said the year Modric won because Madrid took the small nation of Croatia. As far as what Mark with third place right.
00;09;56;10 - 00;10;01;05
Marko
Now, they were no, they were they were finalists to them.
00;10;01;11 - 00;10;18;12
Mark
As finalists. That's right. I'm sorry. So. So look at the impact Modric had That was in a star studded team around him. Yeah, there's great players, of course, but that was because of Modric. And so it was fitting for him to win.
00;10;18;14 - 00;10;41;15
Marko
Okay. So on this on this concept, again, this kind of negates my next kind of point, maybe a little bit. But on the point of Modric. But one thing that I've always taken a look at, and again, being the father of a defender, I always kind of take a look at this. Does the Ballon d'Or favor Goalscorers over midfielders defenders and hey gasp goalkeepers?
00;10;41;15 - 00;10;42;20
Marko
I think he sure does.
00;10;42;23 - 00;10;58;01
Mark
Yeah. For a long time that has yeah I think because a lot of a lot of people they only look at those stats and as important as those stats can be, for example Messi what did he get that year? Mateo was in 92 goals.
00;10;58;03 - 00;10;58;28
Matteo
91 goals.
00;10;58;28 - 00;11;26;28
Mark
Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's a, that's a really, really impressive style. I mean, that's worth winning right there. But Marco, I think we're starting to see a change. And I think that nowadays there's other analytics and that's why you have a player like Rodri win the World Cup player, win the Ballon d'Or, because I think people are starting to see more meaningful contributions regardless, though, I think it's tough.
00;11;26;28 - 00;11;31;21
Mark
Pressed for a defender to win or especially a goalkeeper.
00;11;31;24 - 00;11;51;04
Marko
Okay, amazing. I'm going to throw this one off to Mateo too. So again, let's set let's actually take a look at Spain's World Cup, Barcelona's La Liga title. The Barcelona is on right now. Right now is Lamine Jamal, genuinely one of the best players in the world and a frontrunner for this award this year. Are we getting a little bit carried away there?
00;11;51;06 - 00;12;07;21
Matteo
No, I think he's not one of the frontrunners. He is the frontrunner. Reason being look at this trophy cabinet. And although, yes, he did not play a pivotal role in the World Cup, he was quite poor by his standards. He still has that to his to his name. And if you look at the Ballon d'Or, it's based off of voters.
00;12;07;21 - 00;12;32;26
Matteo
And voters are so easily influenced by these awards, by these achievements, no more greater than the World Cup. But besides that individual talent, he's one of the best, if not the best in the world. Only 19 years of age where he carries Barcelona at times. Fantastic. All last season, let alone this season. I think if you combine the talent, character and the trophies, he has to be the front guy.
00;12;32;28 - 00;12;48;17
Marko
Yeah, No. Okay, so I want to add something to that. And what I want to find out with, again, with with Lamine to do you think people, when voting for Lamine are going to say, you know what, he is definitely a talent and he will one win one, but he's only 19 right now, so just not this year.
00;12;48;17 - 00;12;50;04
Marko
Do you think that factors into it?
00;12;50;06 - 00;13;07;21
Mark
Yeah, I think so, because Mateo started off by saying that the Ballon d'Or should be awarded to someone of good character. And then we see this Lamine Jamal kid bragging that he's the best player. He should be the only one considered for the Ballon d'Or. That's really not the character you would expect of a winner, right?
00;13;07;21 - 00;13;34;15
Marko
Yeah, but it reminds me that's the mature the young player that I know called Cristiano Ronaldo, right? Yeah. Having that soup. That's super ego but really having to I guess the, you know the the ability to cash those checks as well. But. Okay. So let's jump into another point right here. So we have another player that ended up leaving the prem, going to the Bundesliga and Harry Kane having a phenomenal set of last few years, like really, really proving people wrong, saying that he wasn't finished from leave, leaving the prem.
00;13;34;18 - 00;13;49;10
Marko
But do you think people will vote for Kane and do you think that I'm going to put a rider on this as well? Do you think people will take a look at voting for Kane as an opportunity to say that, hey, he should have won at one point in the last few years, so maybe was like a cumulative one to give it this year?
00;13;49;10 - 00;13;50;17
Marko
Mark, what do you think about that one?
00;13;50;20 - 00;14;11;29
Mark
Yeah, I'd hate to think that people are doing that. The fact that it's in London tells me Harry Kane's going to win. Do I think he should win? Absolutely. Hands down. I think he was the best player in the past year. He was exceptional at every level, meaningful contributions to club and country. So yeah, definitely. I don't know.
00;14;12;02 - 00;14;21;24
Mark
And Marco, I don't know. I don't. I don't think people are going to be voting that way. I think he deservedly he deserves to win the award. And I think that's what people are going to see.
00;14;21;27 - 00;14;40;26
Marko
Yeah, amazing, Amazing. So let's actually throw this to another player playing in Spain. Not a Spaniard, but another player playing in Spain. I still see individual moments of brilliance here, but Mateo actually, and up with the World Cup Golden boot, a major talking point, even though France didn't really win the tournament, how does he factor in?
00;14;40;28 - 00;15;00;23
Matteo
And that is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in the world and he has been for the past number of years. Everyone knows this. But I think where he falls short in this criteria is that he doesn't win much with his team. But this he hasn't since he's joined Real Madrid in a year where he's on a superstar team of what club and country and he fails to win any award as a team.
00;15;00;26 - 00;15;07;00
Matteo
I think there's something wrong there. This is the second year in a row going trophyless in every regard.
00;15;07;03 - 00;15;32;26
Mark
Yeah. Okay. I'm going to jump in here and agree with Matteo. And it's more than his second year. If we go back to PSG, he left PSG to find the Champions League and instead after he left, PSG won twice. Twice. So yeah, I have to agree with Matteo Lake. I I'll, I'll even go as far as saying something crazy that he's actually not one of the greatest players right now.
00;15;32;29 - 00;15;45;16
Mark
I think he's a great individual, extremely talented. But when I think of a player, I think of someone who really contributes to the team. I don't think Mbappé does that.
00;15;45;18 - 00;16;03;16
Matteo
Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. You know, I don't want to throw him under the bus here, but it reminds me and towards the latter end over and all those stints in Europe when he was on New and the Manchester United whenever he joined the team this is the stats It's not opinion. They finished worse than before he came and this is not saying that about player but it's not working with the team.
00;16;03;16 - 00;16;07;06
Matteo
So it begs the question what is wrong with the player?
00;16;07;08 - 00;16;25;25
Marko
Yeah. Or you know what? In this, in the case of Ronaldo I'll have this conversation up and down is that you know what I think they've they asked for a savior. They got a goalscorer but that just wasn't enough. Right. So, you know, it is a reasonable conversation. But really what I want to kind of isolate here, I think I got the answers right here.
00;16;26;02 - 00;16;30;10
Marko
But again, Mark, who wins this? Then your vote?
00;16;30;12 - 00;16;34;07
Mark
It should go, in my opinion, to Harry Kane.
00;16;34;08 - 00;16;36;05
Marko
Yeah. Matteo, your vote.
00;16;36;05 - 00;16;38;23
Matteo
Then I'm going to say aluminum. ALL Yeah.
00;16;38;26 - 00;16;58;23
Marko
You know what? I'm going to I'm not going to kind of be divisive here or anything like that. I do like Harry Kane. I watch a lot of Bayern. I love the fact of a player not in the Premier League of winning it. You know, I bring a little bit to Bayern up again, a very, very tough and tough place to win it and honestly he's been unreal since he's come to Bayern.
00;16;58;23 - 00;17;00;21
Marko
So I'm going to give this one to Harry Kane.
00;17;00;23 - 00;17;29;07
Mark
And I'm going to chime in here that Matteo even admitted that Jamal wasn't at his best at the World Cup. He wasn't the pivotal point. You take him out of the equation, Spain still would have won, but he was also injured for a lot of the season. And, you know, how can a player that's missed that much and with a Basel team that was really good and RAPHINHA was really good.
00;17;29;09 - 00;17;38;21
Mark
And how can a player who doesn't even win the young player of the FIFA World Cup, how could we really consider this guy for the Ballon d'Or?
00;17;38;23 - 00;17;56;06
Matteo
I can tell you, because on the Barcelona comment, first of all, he was injured for a portion of the season. You're right. So were his teammates, none more so than Raphinha for months on end. So I guess you could say sure. Him missing a month or two and a bunch of games can play a role in his not winning this award.
00;17;56;06 - 00;18;05;14
Matteo
Potentially. But when he did play he was on for the exception of the World Cup. I think when he plays, he is one of if not the best player in the world.
00;18;05;17 - 00;18;29;24
Mark
And I like that. And I think that's the part you miss. I don't think any of us are doubting his talent when he's fit, but missing that portion. And then Bastian, someone who was on fire, that just doesn't make sense. I think he'll win it one day. I don't think this year he deserves it.
00;18;29;27 - 00;18;48;27
Matteo
I just think when compared with Harry Kane, for example, he has the trophy cabinet to make up for that absence and his importance in those games because Harry Kane was phenomenal. I'm not taking anything away from him. If he won either the Champions League or the World Cup, I think 1,000%. He's the favorite for the award. But because you won, no real major trophy.
00;18;48;27 - 00;18;51;18
Matteo
Sure you want to count the Bundesliga, but let's be real.
00;18;51;25 - 00;18;54;19
Mark
Well, do you want to count La Liga?
00;18;54;21 - 00;18;57;03
Matteo
I mean, I think it's a hardly to win than the Bundesliga.
00;18;57;04 - 00;19;00;04
Mark
Do you? Do you want to count La Liga?
00;19;00;07 - 00;19;04;14
Matteo
Yes, sure. And if you don't? So we have the World Cup.
00;19;04;16 - 00;19;10;08
Mark
Of World Cup that we all agreed he wasn't pivotal in.
00;19;10;11 - 00;19;11;28
Matteo
No, I know that.
00;19;12;00 - 00;19;25;16
Mark
So really, it's not like you're saying Harry Kane didn't win the tournament. Well, neither did Jamal. So this whole big trophy cabinet that you're talking about, they've each won their league. Congratulations.
00;19;25;18 - 00;19;33;06
Matteo
You can't discredit him for not. You can't say he didn't win the World Cup. He did okay, because he didn't play an important role. Come on. It has to be a consideration there.
00;19;33;13 - 00;19;39;08
Mark
He won the World Cup. Okay, So do we give it to Pedro Porro? He won the World Cup.
00;19;39;10 - 00;19;43;03
Matteo
No, because then you combine the club season with that. There's no, no, I.
00;19;43;06 - 00;20;00;04
Marko
I honestly think I don't think it comes down to this, but I remember seeing this one was the last time Messi won his his last Ballon d'Or is that somebody had like a score sheet or where they went in all these different like maybe was 20 categories or so and they had like a weighted average as to like what the contribution was.
00;20;00;07 - 00;20;16;14
Marko
And when it came down to it, you looked at it and you're like, Oh, I guess Messi really did deserve it that year because he went through, he did get ranked. So that's what I think it is. I think it's not like Lamine won the World Cup. I'm like, You have to put him as a front runner. No, but it helps bring up his Yes.
00;20;16;14 - 00;20;36;13
Marko
I guess model is algorithm operates by saying that he has a contributing factor that might help. However, again, like we mentioned earlier in the show with Luka modric, you know, losing the big game but still winning the but still winning the Ballon d'Or, that was something that was overwhelmingly in his favor before before that. Right. So, you know, there are events that contribute to it.
00;20;36;18 - 00;20;39;28
Marko
But as a whole, they look at a lot of different pieces of the puzzle.
00;20;40;03 - 00;21;01;23
Mark
And kudos to the journalists for recognizing Modric, his contributions. He doesn't need to score a lot, doesn't need to assist a lot. There's a bunch of other things that he does. Yeah. And and so I think when we look at that and again, Yamal is not a bad player, but when he's meaningless in the World Cup, yes, he wins.
00;21;01;23 - 00;21;13;10
Mark
And sure, we could add it to algorithms and say they get the most points. But in your heart, in your football least the heart, you got to recognize he doesn't deserve it. This year. He just doesn't.
00;21;13;13 - 00;21;27;27
Marko
Fare. Fair enough. I'm going to throw a few names out here and just give you guys the opportunity, but I'm going to kind of serve it up to you on a platter. But like wild cards, right? So not your favorite, but one that, you know, just sneaks through and maybe gets a really, really high ranking or maybe even steals this thing.
00;21;28;02 - 00;21;50;07
Marko
I haven't seen one where I've been truly shocked by the winner in the last little bit, maybe a little bit upset. But again, it's all been reasonable. But let's take a look at a few wild cards. Let's take a look at Erling Haaland, Michael, to say the tuna, Declan Rice, Ousmane Dembele, any one of those names that you would kind of identify as a wild card or maybe another name that I even even mentioned, I'm going to I'll give it off to you first.
00;21;50;09 - 00;21;52;26
Matteo
Out of the you know what? Okay, I get it now.
00;21;52;28 - 00;22;08;23
Marko
It doesn't have to be part of my list. But anything else where you say, you know what, this player should have serious contention this year, not in the future, but this year. I think that this person, you know, not one of the favorites. I'm like, I'd like to see him be acknowledged that I think I have an idea of who you're going to see.
00;22;08;23 - 00;22;14;08
Marko
But I'll tell you afterwards, if you tell me the right person, yeah, I'll I'll confirm that. But no, no, I'll give that to you. Go ahead.
00;22;14;12 - 00;22;34;01
Matteo
Okay. So I'm pretty sure you know how I'm going to say for this. And it's going to sound nuts, but someone who has a realistic chance as a dark horse, it could be Lionel Messi. It could be and I say this because of what he did against both. I'm not saying he's the favorite, but you can't deny he's taken MLS by a storm.
00;22;34;01 - 00;22;54;18
Matteo
He won the MLS Cup. Finally. One of them was Copas and Top Scorer was the best player in all these awards there with the club dominated the states in a 39 years of age. What he did at the World Cup was the best across almost every category at 39 years of age, knocking out powerhouses like Harry Kane's England along the way.
00;22;54;21 - 00;23;00;18
Matteo
I think he has a realistic chance considering as well, the Messi PR effect a journalist will definitely consider.
00;23;00;21 - 00;23;23;15
Marko
Yeah, no, no, I think I think you like the what what really kind of strikes me I guess I'm wrong about is just just how like I guess Argentina was perceived in that whole tournament but also remember that part in the final where Cucurella was mentioning that somebody got hit in the mouth and. Yeah, yeah, mad, mad, messy, you know, called the refs to say, Hey, he's covering his mouth.
00;23;23;20 - 00;23;26;29
Marko
Yeah, yeah. I'm like, I didn't respect that at all because.
00;23;27;06 - 00;23;27;15
Matteo
It wasn't.
00;23;27;16 - 00;23;37;17
Marko
I to get the edge, right? Yeah. But I honestly, that left a sour taste in my mouth, so I wouldn't I wouldn't take a look at that. Mark, you can comment on what he just said or do you want to kind of mention your own wildcard?
00;23;37;19 - 00;24;07;02
Mark
Listen, Messi being in MLS and doing well, I think Mateo is just inflating this so much. You would almost think that Mateo is also cheering on Ronaldo's chase of a thousand goals in the Saudi League. Now, come on. It's it's them. It's the same thing, Mateo Messi is the world's greatest player of all time. So when he goes to MLS, you know, it's like it's like playing against a men's team.
00;24;07;04 - 00;24;24;24
Mark
So, no, I can't give him credit for that. Does he does he play the beautiful game beautifully? Yeah, absolutely. Sensational goals in the MLS. But you're you're in the MLS. All right. Have you seen those keepers in the MLS? Yeah, exactly. They're not.
00;24;24;26 - 00;24;25;09
Matteo
Going.
00;24;25;09 - 00;24;31;12
Mark
To be going. They're not exactly sending goalies off to Europe anymore. So.
00;24;31;14 - 00;24;36;09
Marko
Yeah. Yeah. You know. Okay, so Mark you know Yeah. Back let's, let's go through a wild card.
00;24;36;11 - 00;24;39;29
Mark
Yeah. Okay. I got, I got a list of here of players who probably.
00;24;40;02 - 00;24;44;12
Marko
I think I want to get you get one shot at Mark. You don't get a list of players, Just take one.
00;24;44;15 - 00;25;07;15
Mark
Fine. I'll pick one for me. I'm not going to abandon Michael Olise all season. I've said it. I don't base that off the goals and all that stuff. I'm sure there's metrics that do track other stats, but his off the ball movement, his touch, his the weight of his passes, the way he finds players he creates outs, creates, creates.
00;25;07;17 - 00;25;28;28
Mark
His dribbles are phenomenal. His take ons are phenomenal. The way he sets up his teammates. Harry Kane Diaz, he's been unreal the way he was in the World Cup up until that one poor game he had. It was unreal. Like he was setting up on Bobby all the time and he was plotting goals, which he's really not a goal scorer, but he was scoring.
00;25;29;01 - 00;25;36;26
Mark
So for me, if you're looking at the a super caliber player, I'd have to go with Michael all these.
00;25;36;26 - 00;25;52;21
Marko
A Yeah, and honest, honestly. So again, we all know Mark's part of like the Michael Michael OSA fan club and I would have guessed that 100%. I would have guessed that from Mark saying that he was going to pick all the same again, just such a great value add to a French team, but a French team that's already phenomenal.
00;25;52;21 - 00;26;10;05
Marko
I get it by such a great value add. Mateo. Mateo, if anything, I thought you might have said we've seen you there, so. Oh, and that's that was that was my take for that. But you know what? One name that I'm going to put out there again, I have no skin in the game on this. It's just that I think he had a phenomenal year.
00;26;10;05 - 00;26;31;26
Marko
I think he had phenomenal showing and he's going to have a phenomenal career. But Erling Haaland, just bring in that Norway team as far as he did, you know, like almost past England. Yeah, almost single handedly. Yeah. How how he can scored. Well, it's not only scoring it well, it's just being such a force on the field and honestly such a such a positive influence on the game of football too.
00;26;31;28 - 00;26;49;29
Marko
Yeah. Where people were just following his every move when he was in the USA for, for, for the World Cup. You know, again, I think. I think this is a poster boy for the game going forward. And I think he seems like a legitimate human being. So honestly, that that's that's the wild card I would pick again, you know, I love him as a player.
00;26;50;01 - 00;27;01;13
Mark
Marco, what where would you what would you say about them? Beli or the tenia or coverage scale? Yeah, I mean, these three players with back to back champions leagues.
00;27;01;14 - 00;27;37;19
Marko
PSG 100%. I would not be. I don't think he's my favorite I would not be surprised if Dembele wins another one again he had that type of year He had that type of contribution virtually, I think was probably the the missing factor that PSG had to play to really kind of get them the Champions League. And he's the one player where honestly, a PSG saying, you know what, we can we can kind of we can kind of let Barca go because we have this phenomenal winger and he's going to be here for a while and he leaves everything on the table, like when I see him and how he can take the ball off the
00;27;37;19 - 00;27;54;22
Marko
touchline when you think it's going out of bounds. Yeah, it's just he is such a phenomenal player. Again, Dembele is, which is the key here. Virginia was a very, very kind of he was like kind of the captain of that that midfield again, I've talked about it a number of times. I've talked about it with friends and everything like that.
00;27;54;27 - 00;28;09;13
Marko
I think his World Cup really let everybody down. So I think that leads a little bit of a bad taste in the mouth. But again, anybody on that PSG team really could have made it. But I think of the three, I would have said Dembele is the most likely to go a little bit further or a little bit get a little bit higher.
00;28;09;13 - 00;28;15;09
Marko
Voting in the Ballon d'Or. But again, both of the other two are just phenomenal players as well.
00;28;15;15 - 00;28;17;18
Mark
So, Mark, what do you think is going to win?
00;28;17;21 - 00;28;20;29
Marko
Who do I think is going to win? I mentioned that before. I said Harry Kane.
00;28;21;01 - 00;28;22;04
Mark
Harry Kane. Okay.
00;28;22;06 - 00;28;52;10
Marko
Yeah. So with that said, I think we're kind of wrapping up on thing. Let's just actually mention one more name. Let's say let's go, let's give it a time period of, you know, between now and five years naming a player, maybe you maybe it's going to be the same as your wild card or anything like that. But naming a player like, say, in the next five years, that maybe isn't huge now, but you think that, you know, they're going to be a force and they're going to be a force within the Ballon d'Or conversation going forward.
00;28;52;15 - 00;29;14;05
Marko
Right. Could be a favorite player that you see, maybe smaller coming up on the team or, you know, somebody that plays a position like keeper or a defender that you don't think gets as much recognition for really should get that. So but I'm going to throw that off to you first. Is there somebody that you see on the agenda that you would like to see win this award and deserves to win this award?
00;29;14;08 - 00;29;44;17
Matteo
I mean, I'm not sure if this guy isn't classified as a superstar now, but he absolutely is in my eyes. Ryan, Turkey, I mentioned him before and this is my best prediction in the pod. But a year and a half, two years ago, when I said, do you have a huge impact on the Premier League? And here is today one of the best creators in the entire league, I think given the right circumstances on a packed French team, which he can really start in, maybe if he leaves it in Jordan team, that actually won't get relegated, you know, to win a trophy.
00;29;44;19 - 00;29;50;15
Matteo
He has all the right combinations lined up for him to win a Ballon d'Or. So Ryan is my answer.
00;29;50;17 - 00;29;52;16
Marko
Perfect. Mark, how about you?
00;29;52;18 - 00;30;14;20
Mark
Well, listen, it's kind of interesting. This turkey player. Do I do I see him win Ballon d'Or in next five years? No, but I do think he's good enough. I think he is the one who's keeping Man City alive. To be honest, I know they're in first place, but I think it's because of him really? Because, again, at some point, city's an injury away.
00;30;14;20 - 00;30;26;19
Mark
I don't believe in Maresca. So to me, Turkey's the glue right now for City In terms of the next five years. Who's going to win the Ballon d'Or? Marco, We've got to make this ten years.
00;30;26;22 - 00;30;28;08
Marko
Yeah, okay.
00;30;28;10 - 00;30;30;12
Mark
Because. Because in the next five years I do.
00;30;30;16 - 00;30;35;04
Marko
We're making up rules to do whatever you want, I guess. Yeah, Yeah. Give me one name.
00;30;35;06 - 00;30;40;08
Mark
But I do expect Jamal and Holland to win a Ballon d'Or within the next five years.
00;30;40;08 - 00;30;40;24
Marko
Yeah, Yeah.
00;30;41;01 - 00;31;05;03
Mark
Within the next ten years. I want that. Well, 15 years. I'll give you a shot pick, Mark. But you're going to like this. I'm going to pick a defender in the next 15 years. I am so bullish on Giovani Leoni from Liverpool winning as a defender. He's going to win the Ballon d'Or. I just can't get over some of the the film of him in Italy.
00;31;05;05 - 00;31;28;03
Mark
Again, I got to find the clip and send it to you guys. And I know he's young, I know he's coming off this injury and I know he hasn't even played this season. But I'm telling you, if he if he lives up to that video I saw, it is Maldini. It is Maldini. And so this guy is going to take the world by storm as a defender.
00;31;28;06 - 00;31;45;29
Marko
Okay. So that's interesting because I don't know, off the top of my head, the only defender's to win it in the last 30 years where I think Cannavaro won it right after the World Cup and I think was Matthias Summer too in the nineties as well. But defenders typically don't kind of kind of rank highly in this as competition.
00;31;46;02 - 00;32;07;17
Marko
But saying that I'm going to follow your lead and see a defender and I'm actually happy that Matteo didn't mention this. Yeah, because I think that this is somebody that I'm looking forward in the next five years, not 100% sure what happened, but I really like to see how. Koba Oh, yeah, right. My son's a defender. I just think he does some amazing things.
00;32;07;17 - 00;32;31;23
Marko
At the age of 19. He has the whole world looking for him again. Is it an uphill battle for a defender to win it? Definitely. Definitely. But again, this is this is a player that I really enjoy watching. And I think that, again, even from the World Cup, being able to kind of take the stranglehold of that, that the defense, you know, kind of making, I guess, thinking of the keeper's life, you know, I'm like his his is life easy, basically.
00;32;31;29 - 00;32;34;04
Marko
But that's somebody who I like. See.
00;32;34;07 - 00;32;41;02
Matteo
Yeah. You see, he's not only a great defender, he's a great creator. And that's what separates every defender from a player.
00;32;41;04 - 00;32;43;12
Marko
Yeah. Yes, yes. And I think.
00;32;43;15 - 00;32;47;20
Mark
It is hard pressed for a defender to win because Maldini himself never won.
00;32;47;22 - 00;32;48;25
Marko
That's right.
00;32;48;27 - 00;32;56;22
Mark
Greatest defender of all time. All the legends agree, hardest defender to play against. And yet he never won.
00;32;56;25 - 00;33;16;00
Marko
Yeah. No, I guess we could all mention that. It really depends on like again like you mentioned is that somebody quick like a left back or you know, a center back that's just dangerous Or even if even a sweeper, a sweeper that doesn't let anything go by. Right. There's a lot of different kind of opportunities out there. But again, this is something that's really, really interesting.
00;33;16;01 - 00;33;19;01
Marko
And you know what? Maybe maybe the journalists kind of go a different way.
00;33;19;04 - 00;33;22;17
Mark
What about a right back? Who goes to Madrid expecting to win the Ballon d'Or?
00;33;22;20 - 00;33;41;18
Marko
Yeah, right, right, right. With with that said, I think we're going to wrap things up today because I think we had an amazing conversation. I'm know just talking about 100th episode, we're talking about you know, the Ballon d'Or. And let's see how some of our predictions for the blind or or some of our conversations actually factor into the final thing.
00;33;41;21 - 00;34;01;29
Marko
But honestly, thank you so much for everybody for listening. Thank you for everybody for listening and kind of sticking with us to about a hundred episodes. You know, it's been it's been a ride. We love it. Again, recommend like if you could kind of reach out to friends and family and say, you know what, we have this phenomenal podcast we listen to on the great sport of football and we'd love to you to listen in.
00;34;01;29 - 00;34;06;28
Marko
That'd be a huge, huge honor for all of us. But until next time, we're keeping you.
00;34;07;01 - 00;34;09;23
Mark
Semi informed and to the thousands that this.
00;34;09;25 - 00;34;12;18
Marko
Person goes on with them for like 36 minutes.
00;34;12;19 - 00;34;14;19
Mark
Yeah, we'll just edit material.
00;34;14;21 - 00;34;18;25
Marko
Yeah.
00;34;18;28 - 00;34;20;10
Matteo
That being said, you prove me wrong again.