Played in Portugal academies and finally got my shot at the first team. Impressed an old British guy in my first season, went to the prem league. Ended up going to Spain, winning the UCL a bunch and a lot of balon d ors. Now I’m in Saudi
I don’t agree with the top 5 narrative. I think it’s more competitive than that at this point. If you’re in EPL or La Liga, at a team consistently competing for the title or with consistently good showings in Europe (so that leaves Man City, Liverpool, maybe Arsenal and Real, Barca, maybe atletico), or if you’re at the TOP Italian team competitive in Europe (kind of like Juventus 2015 - 2020), then you have a shout for being remembered as one of the best.
It comes down to competitiveness in Europe, and you’re really only going to consistently get that at a few teams. Those teams drop in and out of form, but for the most part it’s going to be a handful of English teams, a handful of Spanish teams, and Bayern. Maybe 1 Italian team every few years but that’s about it
Has to be Messi 2023. Yeah there’s a lot of questionable winners that everyone is bringing up (Ronaldo vs Ribery, Messi vs Sneidjer, Modric vs Greizman, etc) but at least you can make a solid argument for those questionable winners. It would be hard to say Modric doesn’t deserve a Balon d Or. But Messi winning this year is truly astonishing… in a bad way
Pirlo