Noise is “either joyful shouts of praise or the chaotic roar of war and the emptiness of loveless

speech”.

The noise we are hearing has to do with the 2026 Ballon d’Or Award scheduled to hold in London.

The noise maybe because the Award, in its 70th edition, is holding in London for the very first time and Three Lions captain, Harry Kane is among the 30 shortlisted nominees.

Ordinarily, everything about England is noise.

From the boast that their league, the Premier League is the best in the world, or that there is only one Football Association as they will never refer to their FA as the England Football Association, EFA but the FA.

Or the noise which accompanies every of their World Cup campaign with the slogan, Football is

coming home. They see England as the home of Modern Football and want it to come back home, 60 years after it returned with a home win of the 1966 World Cup in controversial circumstances.

The noise surrounding the 2026 Ballon d’Or which London is hosting is like the proverbial Agama which praised itself after it fell from a height it thought was enough for it to receive the praise of onlookers.

The organisers of this year’s Ballon d’Or listed 30 nominees which would soon be pruned to 10 from which only the last three would go into the final contest. Shockingly no Nigerian player made it into the 30-man list, unlike when Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman made it and Osimhen was among the top 10, the first Nigerian ever to achieve that.

Only two Africans, Achraf Hakimi from Morocco and Sadio Mane from Senegal made the cut which includes Rodri, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham, Ousmane Dembélé, Erling Haaland, Harry Kanen and Vinícius Júnior. From among this list, the most noise is coming from four players, Mbappe, Yamal and Kane.

Only Messi and Kane have the noise being made on their behalf while Mbappe and Yamal are, like the Agama lizard, making their own noise by blowing their trumpet and claiming they deserve the Award.

Even though Yamal, the youngest among the nominees, singled out himself and Mbappe as the
most deserving of the Award, he believes that this year, because of his contribution to Spain’s World Cup win, he should be the winner.

Hear him: “I honestly believe there are two of us who are the best in the world, and this year I’d de- serve it because of what I’ve won.”

Mbappe. On the other hand hand, has been mod- est in his replies to questions concerning the Ballon d’Or. In reply to a question if he thinks he deserves to be named the best player this time around, he said, “It’s always difficult to talk about an individ- ual trophy. Do I deserve the Ballon d’Or? With the new criteria, what counts? Catching the eye, scor- ing goals and making an impact? I think I fit those criteria. I’d say yes, but it’s the people who vote and I’m always optimistic.”

For Messi, he has kept off the debate of who de- serves the Award but he has people campaigning on his behalf. One of such is his compatriot and coach of Atletico of Spain, Diego Simeone.

To Simeone, “The 2026 Ballon d’Or has to be Leo Messi. Zero doubts. With the World Cup he had at that age… no doubts.”

From his Inter Miami family are the head coach, Kily González and President and co-owner, David Beckham who believe nobody deserves it better than their talisman.

“There is no other like him. I have no doubt that the Ballon d’Or has to go to him, With the age he is, the World Cup he did, what he represents for everyone, not only in football, but also in life values.

It should be fair for him to take it,” González said.

Beckham said, Messi, “deserves to be considered for the Ballon d’Or. In my opinion, he should win it.”

Kane’s support is coming from his Bayern Munich team-mates, Michael Olise and Luis Diaz, who are equally nominees for the Award. Olise said Kane was the best player in the world last season while Diaz said, “For me, he’s number one to win it”.

Kane has played down the Award noise, stressing that he focuses on his job on the pitch.
“I don’t really like talking about myself. I focus on my work on the pitch. Everyone has their own opinion on the subject, and that’s OK,” he stressed.

One man who sees the noise as unnecessary is England legend and the winner of the 2001 edition and the last English winner, Michael Owen.

He jokingly said when he won it 25 years ago, that he “had absolutely no idea what the Ballon d’Or was “ because the British press didn’t cover it then”.

It is therefore safe to say that the noise about this year’s Ballon d’Or is the hype by the media with the English media in the lead, because London is hosting it. However, it would be an icing on the cake for them if home boy, Kane wins it, after Owen.