Socceroos midfielder Jackson Irvine was recently interviewed on an episode of the Stadio podcast. Amongst other things, the 32-year-old expressed his belief this year’s Ballon d’Or should go to Barcelona and Spain midfielder Pedri.
“From a footballing perspective, and maybe I’m biased as a midfielder, but he is, for me, the best footballer in the world at the moment, and has been the best player this season,” Irvine said.
“Of course statistics and trophies now become the main profile and protocol for how a player should win something. But for me Pedri was the catalyst for everything good that Barcelona did this season.”
In a climate lacking prime versions of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, there is a heavily even field fighting for this year’s Ballon d’Or.
Mohamed Salah and Ousmane Dembele have had career years for two of Europe’s best performing clubs. Kvicha Kvaratskhelia won league titles in two countries. Napoli’s Maradona regen, Scott McTominay has been whispered in conversations. And then there are Pedri’s Barcelona teammates; magical teenager Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, who started this season on fire.
But for Irvine, Pedri is above all those candidates. Not only because it’s his play that provides opportunities for Lamar and Raphinha to “really shine,” but because of consistent imprinting of himself on games.
Pedro Gonzalez Lopez "Pedri" of FC Barcelona celebrates with Ousmane Dembele after scoring his team's first goal during the LaLiga Santander match between FC Barcelona and Sevilla FC at Camp Nou on April 03, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Pedro Gonzalez Lopez "Pedri" of FC Barcelona celebrates with Ousmane Dembele after scoring his team's first goal during the LaLiga Santander match between FC Barcelona and Sevilla FC at Camp Nou on April 03, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Pedri” of FC Barcelona celebrates with Ousmane Dembele (Photo by Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
“The way he can control a game in every aspect of it…it’s like everything he does, he does with intent,” he explained.
“I feel like midfielders can come and link and play short passes and look like they’re heavily involved in a game without really affecting it in a certain way. I feel like everything he does he does with purpose.
“It’s about his teammates as well. It’s not about eating up statistics for himself. It’s about consistently finding ways to get players that are going to win them the game in the right positions in the right moments.”
That final point is crucial when assessing Pedri’s game. To the naked eye, he is the type of footballer easy to lose throughout a game.
He is a link man in every sense of the word, passing and moving and passing and moving and passing and moving in barely noticeable fashion, slowly creating spaces for those with greater attacking talents to exploit oppositions.
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His numbers this season say as much. In La Liga, Pedri scored four and assisted five, one fewer than Las Palmas’ Oli McBurnie. In Europe, he created two goals in 14 games. By comparison, Spanish teammate Marc Cucurella had more goal involvements this season. Cucurella is a left back often tasked with tucking into midfield.
As Irvine noted, statistics are the be all and end all in modern footballing discourse. Those with more stats are widely viewed as better players, those with fewer are tarred with the opposite brush.
Putting it simply, those ideals do not apply to Pedri. Just as they didn’t apply to Rodri last season. Or Toni Kroos, Andres Iniesta, and Xavi, to name a few, before him.
The latter pair, stalwarts of Barcelona and Spain’s immense success in the 2000s and 2010s, would consider themselves unlucky to peak in the Messi-Ronaldo era.
Both, like Pedri, had a valid claim to Ballon d’Or honours; Iniesta particularly during 2010. Both were undone by Messi and Ronaldo, but may have fallen short regardless due to their statistical limitations.
Yet both, like Pedri, were as influential to Barcelona’s success as Messi and the club’s great attackers. Both created space and found passes that put those attackers in the best possible positions to excel, just as Pedri has this season.
Awarding the Ballon d’Or to Pedri would not only be a reward for the Spaniard’s brilliance, it would make amends for Xavi and Iniesta’s lack of recognition and show, for a second year running, that there’s more to football than meets the statistical eye.