The next 15 winners of the Ballon d’Or have been predicted with the help of artificial intelligence, and the list includes some names that are somewhat unexpected.
Lionel Messi, the current holder of the French football award, has earned a record eight gongs, and Cristiano Ronaldo has the most nominations for the top prize (18). Since the award was first presented in 1956, the French football award has undergone considerable evolutionary changes.
On the other hand, artificial intelligence has provided fans with answers that are unexpected, and they are eager to gain a glimpse into the future of the France Football trophy, which is awarded to the best player.
The X (formerly Twitter) account Football Archive has requested that AI choose who will be awarded the top reward till the year 2038, and there are a lot of topics that are worth discussing.
There is a strong possibility that Jude Bellingham, a star player for Real Madrid, may win the most prestigious award in 2024. If this were to occur, he would be the first English player to win the major award since Michael Owen in 2001.He was the winner of the Kopa Trophy, which is awarded to players who are under the age of 21.
Artificial Intelligence was asked to name who will follow Lionel Messi as a Ballon d’Or winner
Jude Bellingham, who won the Kopa Trophy at last year’s ceremony, is tipped for 2024
Kylian Mbappe, who was third on the 2023 list, is expected to take the top prize in 2025, before Messi claims a ninth award the following year, when he would be 39 years of age.
Victory for Messi would extend the Argentinian’s dominance in winning the award at the expense of his Portuguese foe Cristiano Ronaldo, who is not predicted to win the top prize again.
Moving forward, young talents Phil Foden, currently at Man City, and Gavi, now at Barcelona, are expected to top the poll in 2027 and 2028 respectively.
Foden’s club colleague Erling Haaland, who was second in 2023 while also scooping the Gerd Muller Trophy, is predicted to go one better in the main Ballon d’Or in 2029.
Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jnr is tipped to win the first award of the 2030s, having earned the Socrates Award for his humanitarian work last October.
Brighton and Ireland star Evan Ferguson is the surprise pick for the 2031 award, despite no player from the Irish Republic ever making the Ballon d’Or’s top three to date.
Erling Haaland, who was second in the 2023 ceremony, is predicted to go one better in 2029
Brighton’s Evan Ferguson is a surprise name, and set to win two Ballon d’Or’s, according to AI
Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz, currently 21, is expected to win the top prize in 2032, with Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala, who finished second behind Bellingham for the Kopa Trophy in 2023, claiming the big one in 2033.
The first name to appear twice on the list, Frenchman Mbappe, who has just left PSG, is expected to follow up his 2025 award with another nine years later, when he would be 35.
Ferguson will then win his second ever Ballon d’Or in 2035, to follow up his success four years earlier, according to the AI data.
Lamine Yamal, currently just 16 years of age, but plying his trade at Barcelona, is expected to be the Messi or Ronaldo of his era by earning back-to-back Ballon d’Or awards in 2036 and 2037.
And Turkey’s Arda Guler, who is now playing for Real Madrid at the age of 19, is the projected winner of the 2038 prize.
Lamine Yamal is set to be an icon in his era with back-to-back Ballon d’Or’s in 2036 and 2037
Turkey’s Arda Guler, currently playing for Real Madrid, is projected to win the prize in 2038
The full list of the next 15 Ballon d’Or winners, according to AI, from Bellingham to Guler
With the 2023 ceremony taking place in October last year, it is expected that the next award ceremony will be held at some point this autumn.
Beyond that, football fans have a decade and a half to see how many of these predictions are accurate, and which are wide of the goalposts.