Roberto Mancini: Jorginho deserves to win the Ballon d’Or
Italy manager Roberto Mancini believes Jorginho deserves to be awarded this year’s prestigious Ballon d’Or after he won Euro 2020 with the Azzurri and the Champions League with Chelsea.
The metronomic midfielder has enjoyed a sensational 2021, in which he top scored in the Premier League for Chelsea as Thomas Tuchel’s men snuck fourth, as well as winning the club’s second European Cup and reaching the FA Cup final.
Jorginho also held the midfield fort as Italy triumphed in this summer’s European Championship, earning a place in the ‘Team of the Tournament’ as Mancini’s side beat England in the final at Wembley, and he recently won the Super Cup to boot.
By helping the Blues beat Europa League winners Villarreal in the Windsor Park showpiece, Jorginho became the first player to win the Champions League, European Championship and the Super Cup all in one year. He also broke Marcel Desailly’s 25-year record at the Euros for most interceptions at a single tournament.
And just to top things off, the 29-year-old was recently named UEFA’s ‘Men’s Player of the Year’, an accolade previously won by Cristiano Ronaldo (three times), Lionel Messi (twice), Andres Iniesta, Franck Ribery, Luka Modric, Virgil van Dijk and Robert Lewandowski since the award’s inception in 2011.
Given the prizes he has clinched, both at club and international level, not to mention the individual gongs he’s taken home, Italian national manager Mancini believes his midfield stalwart deserves to be recognised with a Ballon d’Or to cap off his year.
“I would give him the Ballon d’Or, he deserves it because he won everything this season,” Mancini claimed.
The Premier League and European Championship-winning coach was speaking at a press conference ahead of Italy’s World Cup qualifiers in September, in which the national side take on Bulgaria, Switzerland, and Lithuania, with Mancini’s men already top of Group C in Europe’s qualification stage.
