Real Madrid Ballon d’Or SNUB reveals HUGE Trent Alexander-Arnold future CLUE

The annual event that the Ballon d’Or has come to be speaks of the continuing importance of individuals in a team sport.

Whilst Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have, for better or worse, dominated the past near-two decades of the award, the tide has started to turn.

Other players are finally getting a look in and it’s quite unlikely that either of the two will win the award again. This year it was expected that Vinicius Junior would take the trophy home.

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However, reports are emerging this afternoon that it will be Manchester City’s Rodri that is crowned.

Only last week, Trent Alexander-Arnold was saying in an interview with Sky Sports’ Harriet Prior that he wants to be the first full-back to ever with the Ballon d’Or because he truly believes he can.

And we are in no position to argue against that. What Trent does from the right-back position is nothing that has ever been seen before in football history.

And with the ongoing rumours that he may be eyeing up a move to Real Madrid as his Liverpool contract expires at the end of the season, part of this mindset may be that the move would make winning the honour more likely.

It makes sense on the surface. The only two players outside of Messi and Ronaldo to win in since 2007 did so playing for Real Madrid - Luka Modric in 2018 and Karim Benzema in 2022.

But this year’s Vinicius Junior snub should be a warning to Trent. Simply put, Real Madrid are spread too thin.

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Trent would struggle to succeed at Real Madrid

They had a fantastic year, winning La Liga at a canter and taking home their 15th Champions League. Yet whilst Vinicius Junior was outstanding for them, once-Liverpool-linked Jude Bellingham was also out-of-this-world-good.

There is every chance that Bellingham and Vinicius could have split each other’s votes due to playing on the same team.

And now they have added Kylian Mbappe, meaning that if they are once again incredibly successful, the media narratives will focus on this signing. Individual awards are largely narrative-based, after all.

And that’s even if they are good. This past weekend’s display against Barcelona suggests that Mbappe’s addition may have unsettled the team.

Winning the Ballon d’Or from full-back is already a nigh-on impossible task. The last defender to win the award was Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, the year he also captained Italy to a World Cup win.

If he is to do this, it is much more likely that a team-leading performance with Liverpool will make him stand out. There is a chance that Mo Salah leaves at the end of this season. If Trent were to become the creative outlet of the team in the future, he may just have a chance.

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