With another week of action in the books in world football, it’s time to rank the top Ballon d’Or candidates at the beginning of February.
5\. Manchester United AM Bruno Fernandes
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Bruno Fernandes led the way again for Manchester United, as the Red Devils defeated Fulham 3-2 over the Premier League weekend behind another cerebral performance from the best pure playmaker in world football right now,
A [Manchester United](https://manunews.com/) player is always going to be favored over a Como player, and while Nico Paz has been brilliant, his statistics are dwarfed by Fernandes, who has an outrageous 5 goals and 12 assists with 3.2 key passes per game.
4\. Bayern Munich ST Harry Kane
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Harry Kane has quietly cooled recently, and while people love to praise his all around game, the reality is that a striker’s all around numbers and impact in that regard are always going to be lower than a winger’s, unless that striker plays like Kylian Mbappe (we’ll get to him in a bit).
With four assists, 1.3 key passes, 1.1 dribbles completed, and 1.1 fouls drawn, Kane’s numbers are solid but far from the spectacular levels that are needed to be reached in order to win the Ballon d’Or.
3\. Real Madrid CF Kylian Mbappe
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In all reality, even though Kylian Mbappe is one of the only things keeping Real Madrid worth watching and in the La Liga title race at this point, he is inevitably going to suffer in any Ballon d’Or conversation when his team is struggling as badly as Real is right now.
Mbappe’s numbers are impressive with 22 goals and 4 assists to equal Kane’s in a tougher La Liga, as well as 2.9 dribbles completed and 2.4 key passes per game to prove that he does more than score goals. But despite all this, his team isn’t winning games, and a lot of his stats are just empty calories.
2\. Bayern Munich RW Michael Olise
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With 10 goals and 15 assists, Michael Olise is having a historic Bundesliga season at Bayern Munich, and while Harry Kane overshadows him because he is a bigger name, everyone who is actually watching the games can see that this has quietly become Olise’s team.
He puts in so much of the hard work to start and carry attacks, finishing them off with brilliant curled finishes or some of the prettiest crosses you are seeing in European football right now.
1\. Barcelona RW Lamine Yamal
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Lamine Yamal may not have the basic counting stats of a Kylian Mbappe, Michael Olise, or Harry Kane, but his eight goals and nine assists are still plenty impressive for a guy who works 10 times as hard for his team as the other players.
Whereas the rest of them share the spotlight equally with other attacking stars, Barcelona unequivocally belongs to Yamal. His 5.4 dribbles completed are by far the best mark in European football, and he is also putting up 2.1 fouls drawn and 2.9 key passes per game.
Joe Soriano is the editor of _The Trivela Effect_ and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like _The Real Champs_ (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage _NFL Spin Zone_ and _Daily DDT,_ covering the NFL and pro wrestling.