Thierry Henry says who deserves Ballon d'Or after three Arsenal stars are nominated
Three Arsenal players have been nominated for the Ballon d’Or this year.
The Gunners had a magnificent 2025/26 season, winning the Premier League title and reaching the final of the Champions League.
Several players in the squad deserve praise for their contribution, but the three standout outfield performers were Declan Rice, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.
But none of them deserve to win the prestigious award, suggests Thierry Henry.
Thierry Henry reveals who deserves to win the Ballon d’Or in 2026
Henry is arguably the greatest footballer to never win the Ballon d’Or.
The Frenchman controversially missed out on the award in 2003 to Pavel Nedved, despite having a significantly better individual season.
That is the reason why no player in Arsenal’s illustrious history has ever managed to win the Ballon d’Or award.
This year, Rice, Saliba and Gabriel, who are all among the best players in the world, are in the running for the accolade, but none of them really stand a chance.
The likely winner will be someone from Paris Saint-Germain because they won the Champions League last season, but Henry believes it shouldn’t be any of them either.
On CBS Sports on Tuesday night, the Arsenal legend and his team spoke to Kylian Mbappe after Real Madrid’s win over Inter Milan in the Champions League.
At the end of that interview, Henry said to Mbappe: “Kylian, well done!
“All the best for the Ballon d’Or. You deserve it!”
Gabriel Magalhaes and Declan Rice could silence Kylian Mbappe again
Mbappe is one of the best players in the world, and you can’t really blame people if they end up voting for him to win the Ballon d’Or.
The French superstar directly contributed to 49 goals in 44 games last season. In total for Real Madrid, he has directly contributed to 103 goals in 109 games, which is an outrageous return.
However, the one thing Mbappe hasn’t done is score a goal against Arsenal.
Real Madrid take on the Gunners in the Champions League this season, and we’re sure Gabriel and Rice would love to silence Mbappe and his teammates again.
They did comfortably in the last two meetings, so there is no reason why they cannot do it again this term.
