The Rondo: Did Ousmane Dembele deserve to win the Ballon d'Or, was Mo Salah overlooked, can USMNT's Christian Pulisic ever contend?

Tom Hindle: No. It really should have been Mo Salah. How do you break the Premier League single season goal contribution record, carry your team to a title, and not get the full acknowledgement for it? A lack of Champions League success certainly hurt him, but it was otherwise a season for the books. The reality for Dembele is that Ligue 1 is far too easy. 

Alex Labidou: Yes. He helped PSG finally win the Champions League, along with their usual dose of Ligue 1 and French Cup success. Ballon d’Or winners usually see their cases boosted by success in a major tournament, and Dembele is no different. Also, it isn’t said enough, but the Frenchman helped Luis Enrique implement a newer style of football, in which PSG combined elements from his success at Barcelona, while also instituting a hard-pressing style typically seen by German sides.

Ryan Tolmich: It's not a layup, but it was probably the right call. Dembele was one of the few candidates who had the right mix of everything required for the award. While it could have gone to one of those other candidates, that Champions League trophy clearly took him over the top. That made Demebele both a deserved winner and a feel-good underdog story, which is something that this award has had little of once the Messi-Ronaldo dominance ended in recent years.

TH: Salah, but the absence of Virgil Van Dijk from the top 10 is also baffling. 

AL: For the first time in years, it seems as if all of the categories and their winners were correct. If one had to nitpick, it would be Viktor Gyokeres winning the Gerard Muller award over someone such as Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe. Yes, Gyokeres had more goals overall, but the Portuguese league - where he did the majority of his scoring - isn’t as challenging as the Premier League and La Liga. The European Golden Boot, for example, takes league coefficients into consideration. But overall, these awards were spot on.

RT: Salah made as a good a case as anyone this year. In terms of individual achievement, few can go toe-to-toe with the Egyptian, who, at times, singlehandedly carried Liverpool's title charge. That's not to discount guys such as Dembele or Raphinha, another legitimate candidate, but Salah could have been rewarded for his heroics at Anfield.

TH: Yamal is perhaps the obvious shout here, but he may yet struggle with inconsistency - remember, he's 18. So, a word for Kylian Mbappe, who has been excellent thus far. Voters also tend to be skewed by the World Cup, and if France go far, then it might be his to lose. 

AL: Yamal came so close to winning it this year that he almost seems destined to lift the Ballon d’Or next year. All he needs is a club trophy and a good showing at next year’s World Cup.

RT: With this award being so tournament-dependent, it'll likely be someone who shines in both the Champions League and the World Cup, with the latter taking precedent if no one checks both boxes. Who can do both? Yamal with Spain and Barcelona, Mbappe with France and Real Madrid, Harry Kane with Bayern Munich and England or Raphinha with Brazil and Barcelona, to name a few. Given his continued growth, we'll lean Yamal, crazily enough - although the teenager will really need to show out in that tournament setting to get the nod.

TH: These days? There's zero value. It's a bit of a popularity contest that doesn't really tell us much about the relative quality of footballers. Vitinha in third? Pedri outside the top 10? Victor Gyokeres 14th? Vinicius Jr, despite having a remarkably poor season, gets a nomination? Silly. 

AL: It matters, as it’s a reward for a season’s effort. Yes, they don't always get the winner right - remember Robert Lewandowski’s infamous snub a few years ago, sigh. And it would be great if the award came after the European club season, for example, as opposed to the weird split between seasons and international play. But overall, it's still something fans and observers appreciate and respect.

RT: Minimally? It's a decent way to remember years and eras, but it doesn't always capture the entire picture. Is it an award recognizing the best player of that season or the best player in the world? Even the voters themselves have often flip-flopped between the two, which are drastically different. Because of that, it's hard to quantify, even if it does, at the very least, recognize a great player just about every time.

TH: Well, it will likely have to be a forward because of the way the award is skewed. It's not going to be Christian Pulisic. So eyes turn to the next generation. Is Cavan Sullivan the truth? Perhaps. Mathis Albert seems the more likely to develop into superstardom, though. And if it's not him, then maybe the kid just hasn't been born yet. 

AL: If Dembele’s win teaches us anything, it is that the right fit for a talented player can do wonders. So who knows, maybe  Pulisic’s renewed form under Max Allegri at AC Milan could eventually have him in contention? Yet, it is highly unlikely he’ll take the award home. And not to rain on the parade, but it could be decades before any American comes close to contention for this thing. Four to six years ago, observers didn’t know the ceiling of a group called the “Golden Generation.” Since then, we’ve learned this is a largely solid group, with one elite player - Pulisic - and varying degrees of good role players such as Weston McKennie and Tim Weah. That’s not a slight - they’re both at good clubs. But the Ballon D’Or is saved for the world-class. What’s unfortunate for the USMNT, is that it doesn’t appear as the next generation of players are as hyped. So it could be a while.

RT: Truth be told, that player might not even be on this planet yet. Reaching world-class status is one thing, but winning a Ballon d'Or requires a perfect storm of individual, club and international success. Could one of these rising young talents like Sullivan or  Albert get there someday? Sure. Maybe. Think, however, of all of the other fantastic players and legends that never lifted this trophy. Look to the kids and then the kids' kids. We may be a generation or two away.