“Won’t be picked anytime soon”: Louis van Gaal believes even Noa Lang can win a Ballon d’Or before Kevin De Bruyne

“Won’t be picked anytime soon”: Louis van Gaal believes even Noa Lang can win a Ballon d’Or before Kevin De Bruyne

Kevin de Bruyne and Louis Van Gaal

Despite a stellar season for Manchester City, former Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal believes Kevin de Bruyne would not win the Ballon d’Or this season.

The Belgian playmaker, along with Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, is one of the front-runners for the accolade this year, having played a vital role in another title triumph at the Etihad Stadium. With 19 goals this season, he set a new career-best, including a remarkable four-goal haul in a recent resounding victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers. In the meanwhile, he added 14 assists to his total.

Despite such numbers, Van Gaal believes De Bruyne will be snubbed for the Ballon d’Or this season since France Football prefers forwards and wingers for the prize. Due to the duopoly of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric is the only midfielder to receive the prize in the previous 15 years.

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Louis Van Gaal’s opinion on Kevin De Bruyne winning the Ballon D’Or 

Kevin De Bruyne
Kevin De Bruyne

Instead, Van Gaal joked that Club Brugge youngster Noa Lang, who had a fantastic season in the Belgian top division this season, would likely be significantly higher in the pecking order.

“Of sure, Kevin De Bruyne,” van Gaal remarked ahead of the Netherlands’ Nations League match against Belgium. That, in my opinion, is the Golden Ball winner, but he won’t be picked anytime soon. They are always choosing attackers. Noa Lang has a higher probability than De Bruyne in that regard (laughs).”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBc8H5VHEJ0

Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the award was not given out in 2020, but it was revived the following year, with Messi controversially winning it again, despite many anticipating Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski to win it. De Bruyne was one of a long number of players that backed the Polish striker before the prize was given.

The Manchester City playmaker has not played in either of his country’s previous two matches, although he had scored five goals in only four outings before that, while also captaining the Red Devils for the third time in a 1-1 stalemate with Wales in World Cup qualifying for Qatar 2022.

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