Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane, and Jude Bellingham’s battle for Champions League title is just the beginning

Now that the post-Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo era has truly emerged in Europe, individual awards that once seemed designed to generate tedious debate finally offer some intrigue. As the two greatest players of their age fill their pockets/expand the game’s global reach, no true icon has emerged to take their place. This was to be expected – the years before Messi’s emergence and Ronaldo’s breakthrough were defined by brief ascendances of players like Ronaldinho, Kaká, Andriy Shevchenko and Fabio Cannavarro.

Individual awards were not so often won for inspiring results, but for greatest contributions to team glory. The last defender to win the Ballon d’Or did so because Italy were too obstinate for a few weeks in Germany in 2006. Liverpool won the treble in 2001 and so Michael Owen was crowned player of the year.

The same could happen in the coming weeks, where performances in the Champions League and European Championship will contribute greatly to defining the narrative of who he is as the first great player of this new era. As always, you can catch all the Champions League action on CBS, Paramount+, CBS Sports Networkand CBS Sports Golazo Network.

Kylian Mbappe, Paris Saint-Germain

If anyone needs summer team honors to boost their bid for individual accolades, it’s Kylian Mbappe. The guiding star of the post-Messi and Ronaldo era has put up impressive numbers over the last eight years and even needed a hat-trick in a World Cup final just to reach his first podium last year. The harsh reality is that the global football public is largely indifferent to what he achieves in French domestic football. PSG manipulated the game in their favor. Nobody cares about back-to-back hat-tricks against Reims and Gibraltar.

That’s why Mbappe has to leave, and although his long-awaited arrival at Real Madrid has always been framed as the culmination of a childhood ambition, it’s also about positioning himself more effectively to be in the conversation with the greatest on the planet. . He could already be there if he takes PSG to Borussia Dortmund and whoever is lurking in the tie between Bayern Munich and Madrid. Certainly, if this week delivers the Old Regime arriviste, Spain v France, Mbappe’s soon-to-be clash against the imminent present and the man himself would beat it, the narrative arc could be too powerful to keep Mbappe away from the big prizes, regardless of events at Euro 2024.

On the other hand, Mbappe’s record at World Cups is such that you could easily imagine him bending Euro 2024 to his will too. France do not look as threatening now as they did before their run of post-World Cup withdrawals, but the relative youth of Didier Deschamps’ Germany team means captain Mbappe could lead the way once again. After years of sharing the spotlight with Neymar and then Messi at PSG, these could be the weeks in which Mbappe establishes himself not just as world football’s next big star, but as a man leading club and country to the biggest awards. by the sheer force of greatness.

Harry Kane, Bayern Munich

Just like Mbappe, the England captain will need titles to establish himself as the best player on the planet in 2023-24. The memes are already loaded for Harry Kane if his first season at the trophy factory on Saberner Strasse ends as dismally as all those years at Tottenham.

It doesn’t really matter that he has 10 more top-flight goals than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues, while also providing as many assists as Martin Odegaard, Kevin De Bruyne or Ousmane Dembele. The fact that Bayern Munich have evolved by leaps and bounds as an attacking force, that Leroy Sane and Jamal Musiala are among those who have developed at a frightening rate under the do-it-all number nine, simply won’t be a factor in deciding the best . player in the world. Nor the decade of work by a small businessman in the shadow of the Ballon d’Or duopoly, putting Spurs in contention, invariably delivering without reward. It will have to come down to the silver medal as far as Kane is concerned.

Likewise, Kane’s candidacy becomes even more compelling with just one of the major trophies left on the table for him. Bayern could have won the Champions League recently without the England international, but they didn’t look remotely close to doing so before he arrived and he would certainly be seen as the X-factor if he crossed the line. As for the Euros, whoever captains the Three Lions to a major trophy is destined to live in the national imagination for all eternity.

In international tournaments, Kane’s story reflects England: brilliant, but not enough in the most important moments, be it the miss against Croatia or the penalty scored over the bar in the defeat to France. Taking the big leap forward would represent a worthy candidacy for the Ballon d’Or.

Jude Bellingham, Real Madrid

Equally, who’s to say Kane won’t be eclipsed this week and into the summer by the strength of the upcoming English game? Jude Bellingham is the bookmakers’ favorite in his country to win the Ballon d’Or this season and, for once, there isn’t much reason to wear rose-red glasses. At 20, Bellingham is the most valuable player on the biggest team in the world, his 22 goals and 10 assists taking what is a fairly ordinary Real Madrid team to their 36th Spanish title and the semi-finals of the Champions League.

The daggers at home and away for Barcelona only served to highlight the Bellingham legend, already the record holder for English goalscorers in the colors of Real Madrid, a man who seems to enjoy the pressure that comes with Zinedine Zidane’s former number 5 . “The complete Galactico,” Marca called him in December. It feels right. At the start of this season, Madrid needed a center forward. They got something like that from Bellingham. When needed, now or in the future, he can drop as deep as needed, perhaps a pivot in midfield, a true number 10 like he is for England or something else entirely. All of his excellent work was done with an altruism that characterizes this particular generation of Madrid stars.

Victory again at Wembley, 14-time European champions, will not only serve to strengthen Bellingham’s defense for the Ballon d’Or. In fact, it was Vinicius Junior, the winner of the 2022 final, who shone brightest when the Champions League lights came on at the Santiago Bernabéu. With a Copa América on the horizon at the same time as the Euros, he could yet end this triumvirate by achieving great honors for club and country. Make no mistake, however. If Real Madrid overcome Bayern and whatever comes next, Bellingham will be the victor in the race for football’s biggest individual prizes.