The South American superstar isn’t quite what he once was considering he’s now 36 years old, but nobody would argue with his place at the summit. Nor could anyone dispute the recognition for Jude Bellingham, who managed to pick up the Kopa Trophy which essentially establishes him as the best-performing player in the world under the age of 21.
As for the Yashin Trophy, though, the best goalkeeper in the world was nowhere to be seen. In fact, he was not even included on the shortlist of candidates, with Emiliano Martínez of Aston Villa presented with the award after contributing to Messi’s World Cup triumph in Qatar, operating as Argentina’s first-choice goalkeeper during the tournament. Manchester City’s Ederson ranked in second, followed by Morocco’s Yassine Bounou, who also experienced a strong World Cup in the Middle East. The shortlist of potential candidates for the award included Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale and André Onana, who has made a dismal start to life as Manchester United’s new number one this season, but did perform well for Inter Milan last term.
Alisson Becker was ignored by those running the ceremony. The Liverpool goalkeeper was completely overlooked, likely as a result of his team’s fortunes last season, with the Reds finishing fifth in the Premier League table without picking up a single piece of silverware in any other competition.
Jürgen Klopp’s men suffered on the defensive side of the game in particular, conceding too many shots and generally getting cut open on a regular basis. Those who paid attention recognized that it was Alisson who saved Liverpool on a countless number of occasions, stepping up as his team’s last line of defence. “He is for sure the most consistent player we have this season,” said Klopp last term. “That’s actually not bad news, it’s good news, because if we are not in a great shape and the level of the goalie drops as well then we would have been completely lost. His performances speak for themselves.”
Indeed, Alisson’s numbers paint an accurate picture of what he delivered last season. He faced a total of 147 shots on target in the Premier League, and those efforts were worth around 51.1 expected goals, yet he conceded just 41 times — excluding own goals — with those figures essentially suggesting that he overperformed the average by about 10.1 goals.
To put it simply, a ‘normal’ goalkeeper facing the same shots as Alisson would have conceded around 10 goals more than the Reds actually let in. His overperformance in the region of 10.1 goals ranked him as the best-performing stopper in Europe’s top five leagues.
Lionel Messi made history yet again on Monday afternoon, picking up his eighth Ballon d’Or award in Paris. The footballing great managed to win the FIFA World Cup with Argentina for the first time in his career around 11 months ago, hence his place at the top of the rankings ahead of Erling Haaland in second and Kylian Mbappé in third.
