Any narrative around Kane’s game in the Ballon d’Or run-in is incredibly disingenuous if you look to simplify his game to just goals. He’s my pick for the best player in the Ballon d’Or window for a few reasons. Arguably the most impactful player across the entirety of the pitch in the world and that’s before out scoring any player in world football (which puts people in the conversation itself). A great understanding and willingness to engage in the pressing game and hard defensive work. A cheat code in build-up. The intelligence to drop deep and figure out where opponent’s weak spots are in the early part of the game before exploiting them later on. A superb passing game. Arguably the best finisher in the world. Domestically dominant, breaking attacking and results records. In the UCL, his performances and output in the tougher games were excellent and better than almost every name he’s up against. Late, tight elimination to the winners is nothing to ashamed of when his individual performances in those games were impressive too. Slightly underwhelming relative to his top standards in the World Cup but he was still good. A third place finish and a key part played pre Argentina is not enough to demote him for me. Taking the average of performance + impact, it’s hard to put anybody else above. Olise is there. Lamine was great but on performances I have him below Kane because he suffered from not being the protagonist always whilst much of Bayern and England’s game ran through Kane from build-up to finishing moves. The system’s he played in were well drilled and responsibility was shared in a way that explains why some of Arsenal’s players miss out on individual plaudits - in seasons the sum of the team can be greater than its parts. Kvaratskhelia was excellent but without a World Cup campaign. Mbappe, for me, underwhelms on many fronts last season — his protaginism gave him great output but not always in the bigger games domestically. He lacked impact across more parts of the game (defensively, build-up, creation) compared to a Kane and his performances didn’t provide greater winning impact for his side - both France/RM underperformed expectation with both teams making them their main man.