Rodri winning the 2026 World Cup Golden Ball reminds many people of 2024. Once again, the Manchester City midfielder became a symbol in Spain's journey to conquer major titles, after contributing to bringing La Roja to the EURO championship and then continuing to win the World Cup.
Rodri personally was honored by FIFA as the best player of the tournament, while two teammates Pau Cubarsi and Unai Simon respectively received the Best Young Player and Golden Glove awards. That achievement affirmed Spain's dominance in this year's tournament.
However, the decision to award the Ballon d'Or to Rodri quickly sparked controversy. The 30-year-old midfielder surpassed heavyweights such as Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham, although all three had outstanding performances throughout the tournament.
According to Sky Sports' Power Rankings, Messi, Mbappe and Bellingham are the three highest rated players of the 2026 World Cup respectively. Rodri even only ranked 18th in this ranking system.
The above assessment is built based on Sky Sports' True Performance model, a system that analyzes more than 40 professional indicators to score players' performances by position. The maximum scoring range is 100 and reflects the level of influence of players in each match as well as the entire tournament.
Statistics show that Rodri is not even the Spanish player with the highest score at the World Cup. However, what makes him highly appreciated by the judging panel lies in the overall influence on the champion's playing style.
No player touches the ball more than Rodri at the 2026 World Cup. More importantly, this midfielder uses that number of touches to completely regulate Spain's game.
In terms of attack, Rodri ranks second in the league in terms of the number of passes to the bottom 1/3 of the field and is in the top 15 in terms of the number of chances created. When he has no ball, he leads the league in the number of tackles, and is also in the group of 4 players who recover the most balls in both the midfield area and the opponent's half.
Besides the numbers, Rodri's experience and leadership ability are also considered important factors helping Spain maintain stability on the championship journey.
However, the statistics still create conflicting arguments. In 43 indicators analyzed by Sky Sports, Rodri only entered the top 10 in 13 categories, one indicator more than Bellingham but far behind Messi and Mbappe, who are both in the top 10 of 18 different categories.
Messi even had the highest-scoring individual performance of the tournament with a hat-trick against Algeria in the opening match. Meanwhile, Mbappe surpassed Messi to win the Golden Shoe thanks to his explosive scoring performance.
Attacking statistics such as goals, assists, clear chances or through passes all lean towards Messi and Mbappe. Although the evaluation system has balanced between playing positions by taking into account defensive indicators, the data still shows that these two attacking stars are more prominent than Rodri in many aspects.
Therefore, the debate surrounding the 2026 World Cup Golden Ball is not about whether Rodri deserves to be one of the best players of the tournament or not, but about whether he is really better than Messi and Mbappe.
Perhaps, the decision of the judging panel reflects more than the success of a champion team.
Overall, Rodri is completely worthy of the 2026 World Cup Golden Ball if viewed from the perspective of tactical contribution and influence on the champion's playing style. However, if we put it on the scale with the explosion and impressive numbers of Messi or Mbappe, this title still leaves many controversies. The final answer probably depends on how each person defines the value of the best player.
