The 2021-22 Champions League is reaching a triumphant and dramatic conclusion, meaning the club season is almost at a close.
With the 2022 Ballon d’Or being awarded in the fall for the first time, meaning it will encompass a true European league season rather than a calendar year, it's time to summarize who has the best chance at hoisting the coveted prize.
Recent history shows that Champions League success can often hold the key to finishing on top of the podium, with the winners from 2014-2018 all being a reigning champion of Europe. Still, scoring goals in heaps across Europe's top domestic leagues can also be helpful, with
This year's Ballon d'Or will be awarded in October, as part of the new structure. With that in mind, here’s The Sporting News' power rankings of the frontrunners.
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5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt)
Salah had a very strong claim to being the best player on the planet towards the end of 2021 but he has tailed off from those very lofty heights since the turn of the calendar year. With just the Champions League final remaining, Salah has tallied 31 goals and 16 assists across 50 appearances for Liverpool this season, but just 10 of those goals and seven assists have come since 2022 began.
The Egyptian also suffered international heartbreak in 2022, with defeats to Senegal in both the Africa Cup of Nations final and World Cup qualifying, meaning Salah will not be present at the 2022 FIFA showcase in Qatar. Add that to Liverpool's heartbreaking miss in the Premier League title race, and it's been a tough year of almosts for Salah.
In fact, his Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane, who picked up much of the slack in the latter half of the season, has a decent claim to have leapt Salah for this very position on this list.
All that said, Liverpool are chasing a historic treble, and Champions League final victory could provide a boost, especially if Salah directly contributes to potential success.
MORE: How Mohamed Salah won a share of the 2021-22 Premier League Golden Boot
4. Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain & France)
The young Frenchman made headlines when he rejected a much-anticipated move to Real Madrid to stay with PSG. It's a massive boost for the French giants and makes Mbappe one of the highest paid players in the world, rightly so. At 23 years old, he is proving to be a yearly contender for the world's biggest individual award.
Sadly, the 2021-22 season did not finish how PSG would have liked. While the Parisians finished atop the Ligue 1 table with room to spare, defeat in the Champions League quarterfinals to Real Madrid in heartbreaking fashion left the club grasping at air yet again in European play.
Still, Mbappe proved he is the team's most electric player, even given the presence of Lionel Messi and Neymar. He scored an incredible 39 goals and assisted 26 more in 46 appearances this season, gargantuan numbers any way you slice it. He picked up at least a goal or assist in each of PSG's eight Champions League matches, and finished the Ligue 1 season in unbelievable form, scoring 13 goals and assisting nine more in the final nine league games, all coming once the club had been eliminated from Champions League play.
While he will likely be upstaged this season by those who progressed further in European play, Mbappe will surely remain on this list for years to come and almost certainly hoist the trophy, likely more than once.
3. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City & Belgium)
The Belgian playmaker had yet another fantastic season for Man City, scoring 19 goals and assisting 14 more across the 2021-22 campaign. His contributions were critical as Man City held off a fierce Liverpool challenge to win the Premier League title, including the assist to Ilkay Gundogan's title-winning goal against Aston Villa on the final day of the league season.
The two-time defending PFA Players’ Player of the Year has partly been denied a run at major global gongs due to untimely injuries, but he has been in full flight lately. His goal in the first leg proved the difference against Atletico in the Champions League quarterfinals, and he scored a goal and assisted another in the first leg against Real Madrid in the semifinals, one of the most memorable Champions League games in recent memory.
Still, the season came just short of glory as Man City collapsed in the second leg against Real Madrid, and De Bruyne's efforts will leave him just shy of an opposition player whose magic conjured up a come-from-behind performance.
2. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich & Poland)
Many cried “robbery” when Lionel Messi beat Lewandowski to the Ballon d’Or last time around and the Bayern Munich great has continued his phenomenal form unchecked.
His 46 goals in 50 outings for Bayern this season put him in a class of his own - the sort of absurd levels Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo used to set a decade ago. He scored 34 goals alone in league play across 35 matches, helping Bayern to yet another Bundesliga title.
Still, the campaign was bittersweet. While Lewandowski pushed Bayern to domestic league success, the club bombed out of both the Champions League and the DFB-Pokal far earlier than expected, with a Champions League defeat to Villarreal in the quarterfinals especially tough to swallow. The club scored just one goal across two legs, with Lewandowski bagging the opener in the second leg.
Lewandowski's efforts this season have been stellar, but a failure to will Bayern to victory on the world's biggest club stage will leave him just short.
1. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid & France)
At 34 years old, Karim Benzema is having a renaissance campaign. The Frenchman has pushed Real Madrid not only to a La Liga title, but to the brink of a league & European double.
Benzema leads the Champions League with 15 goals, and nobody behind him can realistically catch him to take over the lead with just one game to go. Benzema's heroics in the competition have seen Real Madrid climb back from near death twice, with his incredible second-half hat-trick against PSG plus a second comeback show against Man City.
He has also driving Madrid to domestic dominance, having a hand in 39 of Los Blancos' 80 goals to take Carlo Ancelotti's men atop the league table, finishing 13 points adrift. He came through in the clutch again with a very late winner against Sevilla on April 17 to cap a three-goal turnaround, just the latest of his domestic heroics.
Benzema is in the form of his life and is also out of international exile. If he can maintain these levels for another seven months, then he will spearhead France’s charge for back-to-back World Cups.
MORE: How Karim Benzema escaped Cristiano Ronaldo's Real Madrid shadow in Ballon d'Or chase