Luis Enrique reiterated his belief that a PSG player should win the 2026 Ballon d'Or after the club's back-to-back Champions League titles. PSG coach Luis Enrique reignited his push for a Ballon d’Or winner from within his own squad during his press conference on Thursday, ahead of the club’s Ligue 1 clash with Monaco. The comments echo the stance he took last season, when he openly campaigned for Ousmane Dembele to win the award after PSG claimed their first-ever Champions League title, and come off the back of the club retaining that trophy this year. “I don’t care who wins the Ballon d’Or. But, in my opinion, it has to be a PSG player,” Luis Enrique said. He pointed to several players within his squad as deserving candidates, citing their achievements over the past year. “We have players who have won the Champions League. We have Fabian Ruiz, who won the World Cup… Ousmane Dembele, who won the Ballon d’Or last season,” he continued, before adding: “That’s my opinion. But I’m not interested in individual awards, the most important thing is the collective”. The 2026 Ballon d’Or will be awarded on October 26 at The London Palladium, with this year’s ceremony evaluating performances between July 2025 and July 19, 2026, a window that includes the World Cup final. L.Enrique: “A real pleasure to reconnect with our supporters” 💬❤️💙The press conference before #PSGASM.📺 https://t.co/pL69iJE18Q pic.twitter.com/0h4bzp07B2— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) September 3, 2026 Who are the favorites to win the 2026 Ballon d’Or Unlike previous years, there’s no clear frontrunner, with at least eight players in serious contention: Rodri, Lamine Yamal, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Michael Olise, Dembele himself, and Lionel Messi. Rodri enters as a strong candidate after winning the World Cup with Spain and being named the tournament’s best player, while Kane dominated domestically with Bayern Munich, winning the Bundesliga and finishing as its top scorer with 36 goals in 31 games, despite falling short in the Champions League and World Cup semifinals. Messi, meanwhile, also remains in the conversation after a standout World Cup at 39 years old, scoring eight goals in what statistically became his best tournament, and could become the first player to reach nine Ballon d’Or trophies if he wins it again.
‘It’s better to look a little further than the next game’Head coach ‘happy with the four wingers we have’Andoni Iraola has defended Liverpool’s summer transfer strategy and said the club were right not to pay “crazy money” for short-term fixes while Hugo Ekitiké, Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni are recovering from serious injuries.Liverpool had the highest net spend in the Premier League, with Bradley Barcola, signed for a potential £123m, added on Monday to a front line that includes the £125m Alexander Isak and £116m Florian Wirtz. Barcola could make his debut at Ipswich on Friday, despite not featuring for Paris Saint-Germain this season. Continue reading...
Arsenal were interested in a deal before Chelsea won the race (Picture: Getty) Morgan Rogers’ camp asked Arsenal to match Chelsea’s £117m transfer bid as he wanted to move to the Gunners, according to reports. Mikel Arteta identified Rogers as one of his top targets at the start of the summer and Arsenal were believed to be leading the race to secure his signature. The Premier League champions were willing to pay around £80m for Rogers, who was part of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for this summer’s World Cup. But Chelsea blew their London rivals out of the water with a stunning £117m deal with Aston Villa, making Rogers the most expensive British player in Premier League history. Exclusive Premier League previews Get ahead of the start of the season with our weekly football newsletter. Sign up now for free. Rogers said he was joining the ‘biggest club in London’ after switching Villa Park for Stamford Bridge but the Daily Mail says the England midfielder wanted to join Arsenal. The report adds that the player’s camp urged bosses at the Emirates Stadium to match Chelsea’s record-breaking bid as he was ‘keen’ to bolster Arteta’s title-winning squad. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph says Rogers was ‘enthusiastic’ about joining Arteta’s project at Arsenal and was ‘ready to pack his bags’ and move to north London. Chelsea signed Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa (Picture: Getty) Rogers was the first of several summer targets that Arsenal failed to sign during the transfer window. Atletico Madrid striker Julian Alvarez had his heart set on a move to Barcelona, Arsenal refused to pay over the odds for new Liverpool signing Bradley Barcola and Vinicius Junior signed a contract extension at Real Madrid. Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher was surprised Arsenal didn’t push harder to sign two-time Champions League winner Barcola from PSG. Rogers was reportedly keen to join Arsenal (Picture: Getty) ‘I’m happy it didn’t happen but I was looking at the Barcola thing,’ Carragher said on the latest episode of Stick to Football. ‘For me with Arsenal, left wing has always felt like where the drop is compared to [Bukayo] Saka, [Martin] Odegaard, [Kai] Havertz. ‘The new kid [Christos] Tzolis has made a decent start. But the longer the Barcola thing went on, and then Arsenal didn’t get Vinicius Jr or Alvarez, I was thinking is that [signing Barcola] not the one?’ {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"John Terry singles out act that Alonso did during Brighton game that spells well for Chelsea","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/08\/31\/5230901859085403608\/480x270_MP4_5230901859085403608.mp4","description":"He loves to see it.","duration":"T1M","height":480,"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/08\/31\/14\/110952603-0-image-a-22_1788181481167.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-31T14:03:31+0100","width":270} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener('metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded', function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === 'undefined' || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === 'undefined') { return; } var player = data.detail.carousel.el_; var container = player.closest('.metro-video-player'); var placeholder = container.querySelector('.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder'); if (placeholder) { container.removeChild(placeholder); container.classList.add('metro-video-player--related-videos-loaded'); } }); Rogers has enjoyed a promising start to his Chelsea career, scoring and providing an assist in the first two Premier League games of the season. After completing a stunning move to west London, the 23-year-old England star said: ‘I’m joining the biggest club in London. ‘The way the club wants to go and how it wants to move forward is something I want to be a part of. I think it was just perfect for me. I just can’t
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