00:00And speaking of a couple other great African players, Mohamed Salah and Ashraf Hakimi finished
00:05very high in the Ballon d'Or rankings, but were unable to win it, which still has the 1994 Ballon
00:11d'Or won by George Weah, the only one won by a player from Africa. What do we think these guys
00:16have to do to win the Ballon d'Or? Do we think they actually can do it? And who can be the next
00:20one to take on that role from George Weah? What y'all thoughts? So this is an interesting year for
00:24African football because African players are uniquely positioned to have a major
00:29international tournament and then the World Cup, AFCON World Cup, which means that if an African
00:36player manages to do very well in AFCON and do very well in the World Cup, their ballot for winning
00:42Ballon d'Or should be weighed very heavily. A player like Salah or a player like Hakimi has the chance
00:48this year to win an unprecedented amount of trophies, whether it's with their league club teams or with
00:53their international teams. And I feel like the prestige that's not given to AFCON in recent years
00:58is slowly starting to catch up and people are slowly starting to value the tournament more and
01:01more. If an African team manages to pull off what Morocco did in the World Cup last time and go all
01:07the way to the semifinals. First ever African team to make semifinals. And then manages to win AFCON. I think on paper, had Hakimi had the season that he had then and also done reasonably well in the Champions League, say semifinals, win Ligue 1 and win Coupe de France, Ballon d'Or.
01:26Deserved Ballon d'Or. And I think if he doesn't win a Ballon d'Or with a season like that, or if Salah manages to win Premier League, do well in Chebid's League, win AFCON, do quarterfinals, semifinals in the World Cup, Ballon d'Or.
01:39And if they don't, then there's a conversation that needs to be had about how AFCON is looked at and how AFCON players are looked at.
01:44Ballon d'Or is obviously always going to be connected to Champions League ball. So for Salah, I think that's the only thing missing for him. Speaking about those two players.
01:52Yep. And he's yet to win AFCON, even though Egypt has the most AFCONs. So, I mean, if he was able to get that and then lead the Ballon d'Or, you know, and we've been asking, like, how great does he rank in terms of African players all the time? That would be the cherry on top for me.
02:04The question, though, is why didn't Hakimi deserve to win a Ballon d'Or this year?
02:08He's a defender.
02:08Just because he's a defender, he doesn't deserve it?
02:10He's not a...
02:10No, he's just not...
02:11It's the voting.
02:12He's not the person that the journalists are going to be like, this is the person that's the most exciting that people want to see on the poster.
02:18But...
02:19Because he's a defender.
02:20Hakimi is a defender that goes forward with a blistering pace, scores goals, gets in the middle.
02:26He's not scoring 40 goals in a six.
02:27That's fair.
02:28But I do think his play style as a defender mixed with if he's able to do who knows a back...
02:33I agree.
02:33But listen, I'm saying how...
02:34He's a defender with the best chance.
02:35I'm more saying how he can win it.
02:36You know what I'm saying?
02:37If he does that, a back-to-back trouble, which we've almost never seen, and then that similar win AFCON semis World Cup, you have to give it to him.
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