VIDEO: Ronaldinho, Kevin De Bruyne or Andres Iniesta? Chelsea star Cole Palmer picks his favourite FIFPRO legend

Palmer is already a PFA Young Player of the Year winner. He was also named England’s Men’s Player of the Year in 2023-24, made the Conference League Team of the Season last year - as Chelsea captured that European crown - and won the Golden Ball at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.

Palmer hit 25 goals during his debut campaign at Stamford Bridge, bringing him to the attention of a global audience, while finding the target on 18 occasions in the 2024-25 campaign. Those exploits have been recognised with inclusion in the latest FIFPRO Men’s World XI.

He has made that star-studded team alongside Gianluigi Donnarumma, Virgil van Dijk, Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes, Jude Bellingham, Pedri, Vitinha, Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal.

Champions League title holders Paris Saint-Germain dominate that side, unsurprisingly, with France international forward Dembele now a Ballon d’Or winner. Palmer can be rightly proud of getting the nod.

In the years to come, he will hope to earn more selections and build his own legacy. If he can do that, at just 23 years of age and with a long-term contract being committed to at Stamford Bridge, then a day may come when he is ranked alongside some of the best to ever do it.

In the present, Palmer has rattled through a few icons and selected his personal favourite - with World Cup winners and Premier League icons figuring prominently in that either/or battle.

Palmer’s initial selections were as follows:

Iniesta vs Kaka: Iniesta

Zidane vs Gerrard: Zidane

Ronaldinho vs Modric: Ronaldinho

De Bruyne vs Xavi: De Bruyne

At the semi-final stage, Iniesta edged out Zidane and Ronaldinho prevailed against De Bruyne. Brazilian icon Ronaldinho took the ultimate crown, with his fellow Barcelona icon Iniesta having to settle for a runner-up finish.

It may be that Palmer ends up on the books at Camp Nou at some point in the future, with Barca forever in the market for the best players on the planet. The England international has been urged to leave himself open to such offers.

Former Chelsea midfielder Gus Poyet told GOAL recently: “I always encourage the English players to go abroad. One thing that they miss is to see something different. I always said when we played in England, as soon as a foreign player started playing the football you play anywhere else in the world, it’s ‘that one cheats, that one goes down’. Okay, the word cheat probably was right, but we play like that all over the world. I want to say to the English players ‘go to Spain, you wouldn’t last five minutes because they go down every 20 seconds’. You need to learn that game as well and another country. I think it is always a good learning situation.

“It’s individual, though, because the Premier League is the best - that is non-negotiable. I don’t care what anyone says. Spain had a moment when it was close to the Premier League, only because [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo were there. Now, there is no comparison. You are in the best league in the world, so I imagine that for players to go from the best to somewhere else is difficult. I would say if it is a top team, a Real Madrid, then you must. You will have an incredible and unique experience, not only in football but also in life. You will learn from that for the future, forever. I would like to see those quality players go to other places and enjoy that.”

Palmer is currently sidelined with a groin injury. He has not figured for Chelsea since being forced out of a Premier League clash with Manchester United on September 20. He has no need to go under the knife, with the threat of surgery being fended off, but the Blues playmaker remains a few weeks away from making a return to action.