The Chelsea midfielder has his say on who should win this year’s Ballon d’Or award.
Chelsea midfielder Jorginho has offered his verdict on who should win this year’s Ballon d’Or award.
The Blues playmaker is also a contender for the prestigious award after winning the Champions League last season and Euro 2020 with Italy. In addition, he was named UEFA’s men’s best player in August.
The 29-year-old says that Ballon d’Or should not be given to primary goal scorers like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski.
Messi and Ronaldo dominated the Ballon d’Or scenes in the last decade bar Luka Modric, who won the award in 2018 following his brilliant campaign in the World Cup with Croatia.
Jorginho feels that players other than prolific goal scorers should get the recognition.
The Blues midfielder said (h/t The Daily Mail): ‘It’s not up to me to say if I should win the Ballon d’Or, but it would be an incentive for other players, to show that not only goals are taken into account.
‘I don’t want to have too many expectations, but I would be hypocritical if I said I don’t think about it.
‘It’s great if it happens, but if it doesn’t, I won’t complain. I keep my feet on the ground and I focus on something else, I’ve already won the best player of the year by UEFA.’
Jorginho also opened up on opting to play for Italy despite being a Brazilian by birth.
The Azzurri star added: “They [Brazil] tried to convince me, but in the end I chose Italy, otherwise I would have been ungrateful.
“It would not be bad to win the World Cup. The Champions League and the Euros can’t be underestimated, but the World Cup goes beyond anything else. We won’t be the favourite in Qatar, but we can’t even go unnoticed as we won the Euros.”
