Nicolas Jackson tipped to win Ballon d’Or by former Chelsea team-mate | OneFootball

The prestigious prize is awarded to the best player over a specific period

As the dust settles on a rather dramatic 2024 Ballon d'Or ceremony, Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson has been backed to claim the prestigious award one day.

This week saw Manchester City midfielder Rodri pick up the biggest individual prize in football for 2024, a decision that did not go down well at all within the Real Madrid camp due to Vinicius Jr being overlooked despite the Brazil forward being widely expected to win.

As a result, Los Blancos opted to boycott the ceremony entirely even though they claimed a host of other awards on the night, including Carlo Ancelotti being named as the best coach of the year and Jude Bellingham finishing third in the men’s Ballon d’Or rankings.

However, he may have strong competition from an in-form Chelsea star - and it’s not Cole Palmer.

And in the view of Kalidou Koulibaly - the Blues forward's Senegal international teammate - the 23-year-old has ability to become the first African to win the Ballon d'Or since George Weah nearly three decades ago.

In form: Nicolas Jackson has been impressive so far this season.

Getty Images

“I hope he will continue to score,” Koulibaly said in an interview with GiveMeSport. “We know for all strikers life is goals, and Nicolas is no different. He has a good attitude and personality. And for me, he'll become the story of Senegal, just like Sadio Mane did.

“I am always telling him he has to follow Mane. And I hope he will be the best player in Africa and why not in the world? He has the talent, so all things are at his feet.

“Nicolas has to believe he can be this good. That is the most important thing. All the players who have won the Ballon d'Or believed they could.

“They all thought they could win this trophy. So you have to put this in Nicolas' head.

“Of course, I don't tell him to be selfish and ignore his teammates, but he has to think about the Ballon d'Or, and if you put this image in his head, he can achieve it. And that's what I tell him all the time.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

* FIRST NAME

* LAST NAME

* EMAIL

Your email address

* PASSWORD

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

Show

* Required fields

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from Evening Standard. Read ourprivacy notice

I'LL TRY LATER

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .