{"id":79535,"date":"2026-09-02T15:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79535\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T15:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:46:14","slug":"la-liga-president-backs-barcelona-midfielder-to-win-the-ballon-dor-he-should-win-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79535\/","title":{"rendered":"La Liga president backs Barcelona midfielder to win the Ballon d&#8217;Or &#8211; &#8216;He should win it again&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2026 edition of the Ballon d\u2019Or awards will be the least obvious one in quite some time, with there being no real obvious contender.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While in 2024, Rodri and Vinicius Jr. were the only ones in contention, followed by Ousmane Dembele in 2025, there are at least more than two contenders this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, for La Liga president Javier Tebas, the answer is rather simple: Rodri.<\/p>\n<p>Tebas backs Rodri to win the Ballon d\u2019Or<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a recent interaction, Tebas has backed Rodri to win the Ballon d\u2019Or this year, believing that the midfielder should win it again after his heroics at the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fc-barcelona-v-athletic-club-laliga-ea-sports-2026-27-8-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Rodri, Barcelona player\" class=\"wp-image-210855\"  \/>Rodri should win the Ballon d\u2019Or, as per Tebas. (Photo by Alex Caparros\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tebas further believes Rodri deserves the crown despite being out injured for a large part of last season due to an injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEven though he was out for long periods due to injury, the World Cup he played in, he performed at an incredibly high level, incredibly high,\u201d he said (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Forca_Fcb\/status\/2095152437203988771?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">FCB World<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think Rodri should win the Ballon d\u2019Or again,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rodri was indeed the main point of difference for the Spain team that lifted the World Cup, with the midfielder notably being handed the Golden Ball.<\/p>\n<p>Who are the top contenders?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/fc-barcelona-v-athletic-club-laliga-ea-sports-2026-27-18-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Lamine Yamal, Barcelona player\" class=\"wp-image-211383\"  \/>Yamal will compete with Rodri for the Ballon d\u2019Or this year. (Photo by Alex Caparros\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rodri, though, faces some stern competition in his bid to win the second Ballon d\u2019Or of his career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the Spaniard does make a strong case for his World Cup performances, he <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/barcelona-star-is-now-the-leading-contender-for-the-2026-ballon-dor-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">faces competition<\/a> from his Barcelona teammate Lamine Yamal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yamal was a key differentiator for Barcelona last season and was a part of the Spanish World Cup squad as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another big contender is Harry Kane, who had a splendid year with Bayern Munich as he helped the team win the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal. However, he fell short of the Champions League and the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kylian Mbappe has an outside chance as well after winning the Pichichi trophy last season. But the forward failed to win any major silverware, which might hurt his chances significantly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 edition of the Ballon d\u2019Or awards will be the least obvious one in quite some time,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4016,92,222,223,8094,1102],"class_list":["post-79535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-ballon-dor","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-javier-tebas","tag-rodri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}