Toni Kroos has never been one to shy away from a bold opinion, and the retired Real Madrid and Germany midfielder has once again set tongues wagging with his stance on this year’s Ballon d’Or race, throwing his backing firmly behind Paris Saint-Germain winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ahead of some of the biggest names in world football, including Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Rodri. Discussing the leading contenders for the prestigious individual award, Kroos didn’t hold back, insisting that the Georgian star has done more than enough to justify being placed above several established superstars in the conversation for football’s most coveted individual prize.
What made the comments so striking wasn’t just who Kroos picked, but how emphatically he picked him. When pushed on who he would personally choose to win the award, the German legend was completely unequivocal, stating plainly that the Ballon d’Or should go to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, adding that while he probably won’t actually win it, he is, in Kroos’s eyes, the number one candidate without any hesitation whatsoever. It’s the kind of definitive, no-caveats endorsement that carries real weight coming from someone with Kroos’s standing in the game, a player whose own career was built on serial trophy success and who understands better than most what it takes to be considered among the elite in any given season.
Kroos’s reasoning for overlooking some of the sport’s most recognisable names centred on a fairly simple but pointed distinction between individual brilliance at international tournaments and sustained excellence at club level throughout the season. He argued that several of the players most closely associated with the 2026 award, including Messi, Bellingham, Mbappe and Rodri, all endured what he characterised as average club campaigns, despite their standout performances on the biggest stage at the World Cup. By his logic, that discrepancy matters, and shouldn’t simply be papered over by a handful of eye-catching displays across a single summer tournament, however memorable those moments might have been for neutral viewers and voters alike.
By contrast, Kroos pointed to Kvaratskhelia’s consistency at club level as the decisive factor in his own thinking. He described the Georgian winger as the standout performer for what he considers currently the best club side in the world, a nod to PSG’s continued dominance domestically and in Europe. It’s worth remembering that Kvaratskhelia’s case is built entirely on club form, given that Georgia’s failure to qualify for the World Cup meant he had no opportunity to enhance his reputation on the international stage during the tournament that has otherwise dominated so much of this year’s Ballon d’Or discourse. Had it not been a World Cup year, some observers believe Kvaratskhelia would already be far higher up the standard rankings and seriously challenging for the award outright, but Georgia’s absence from North America means he’ll likely have to settle for being an outside contender rather than the favourite heading into the ceremony.
Kroos is far from alone in making the case for Kvaratskhelia, either. Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has publicly backed the winger as his own personal favourite to win the award, describing him as fantastic and pointing to his standout displays both at Napoli two seasons ago and now at PSG, while acknowledging that Kvaratskhelia was one of the very best players in world football not to feature at the World Cup this past summer. Similarly, AC Milan legend Clarence Seedorf has echoed that same sentiment in backing the Georgian’s credentials, adding further weight to the idea that, among certain sections of football’s coaching and punditry class at least, Kvaratskhelia’s case is being taken far more seriously than the betting markets currently suggest.
That gap between qualitative opinion and market pricing is, in fact, one of the more interesting subplots of this year’s race. Prediction markets and bookmakers alike have consistently placed Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe at the top of the betting, largely on the back of Kane’s staggering goal output for Bayern Munich last season, which saw the England captain net over sixty goals in all competitions en route to Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal glory, while Mbappe’s case rests on a Champions League triumph with Real Madrid and continued prolific scoring for both club and country. Messi himself, despite an eye-catching World Cup campaign in which he inspired Argentina all the way to the final at the age of thirty-nine, currently sits at a comparatively modest position in most trader models, with markets suggesting the football world has, in many ways, already moved beyond the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly that defined the award for the best part of two decades. Lamine Yamal and Rodri have also emerged as significant contenders in the aftermath of Spain’s World Cup triumph, further crowding a field that already includes proven performers like Ousmane Dembele, last year’s winner following PSG’s first-ever Champions League success.
What Kroos’s intervention does, though, is add a genuinely interesting counter-narrative to a race that has, until now, largely been dominated by discussion of World Cup performances and tournament heroics. His argument essentially reframes the entire conversation, suggesting that voters should be placing considerably more weight on the grind of an entire club season rather than being swayed disproportionately by a few weeks of magic on the international stage, however spectacular that magic might have been. It’s a stance that echoes long-standing debates within football punditry circles about how the Ballon d’Or should actually be judged, and whether a genuinely brilliant individual tournament run should be allowed to outweigh a full season of consistent excellence delivered week in, week out at club level.
Whether Kroos’s endorsement moves the needle in any meaningful way remains to be seen, particularly given that the voting jury, made up of international journalists from across the top one hundred countries in the latest FIFA rankings, will ultimately have the final say when the votes are tallied ahead of October’s ceremony in London. Each voter selects their own personal top ten, awarding points on a sliding scale from fifteen down to one, a system that rewards broad consensus over passionate outlier picks, even ones as strongly stated as this. Still, for a player operating largely outside the biggest individual storylines of the summer, having someone of Kroos’s stature publicly declare him the number one candidate without hesitation is no small thing, and it ensures Kvaratskhelia’s name will continue to feature prominently in the conversation right up until the winner is finally revealed.
For Rangers fans and neutral football followers alike keeping half an eye on the broader landscape of the game beyond Ibrox, storylines like this offer a reminder of just how unpredictable and wide open the race for football’s most prestigious individual honour has become in the post-Messi-Ronaldo era. Where the conversation once began and ended with two names, this year’s field stretches from proven World Cup performers to under-the-radar club standouts, with genuinely credible arguments being made in multiple directions. Kroos’s comments won’t settle the debate, but they’ve certainly added another compelling layer to a race that, with the ceremony still weeks away, shows no signs of slowing down as a talking point across the football worl