The year 2026 will soon be upon us, and with the Premier League being the only top league in action this weekend while AFCON is fully under way, now is a great time as ever to take stock of the Ballon d'Or power rankings for the 2025/26 season before the calendar officially flips. Lamine Yamal, Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappe are widely seen as the front runners, but how exactly do they stack up with reigning winner Ousmane Dembele totally out of the picture due to injury?

The European Golden Shoe, the European Golden Boot...whatever you want to call it, this award is one of the most prestigious in world football, and unlike the Ballon d'Or, it is entirely objective. All it is about is scoring goals. That's it. That's the name of the game. You score the most goals, regardless of what happens to your team, you win this award.

As Manchester United get ready to face one of the European contenders in the Premier League on Boxing Day in a marquee battle against Newcastle United, Man United fans are taking serious stock of the squad with the January transfer window looming ahead. After a major summer transfer window of changes to the attack, Manchester United are looking forward to upgrading a midfield that remains woefully behind the top teams in the Premier League.

Manchester City are in another tough Premier League title race with Pep Guardiola's protege Mikel Arteta and his strongest Arsenal side yet, though, technically speaking, that is familiar territory for the Citizens who have overcome a deficit to the Gunners before. Injuries have been holding back Man City more than usual over the past couple of seasons, and entering this weekend's Premier League fixture against Nottingham Forest, City have a couple of more key ones to worry about.

Arsenal star forward Kai Havertz has been out since mid August with a knee injury that required surgery, and while the Gunners are first in the Premier League and pretty clear title favorites at this point, historically, this club has learned to never take an early lead over the likes of Manchester City for granted. A weakened Liverpool - and even a Man City that is not as strong as they used to be - gives Arsenal more breathing space than usual in the Premier League, but an all hands on deck approach is preferred, especially for an attack that is the weak link of this deep and talented young squad.

Real Madrid seem to look like a completely different outfit from year to year, and as part of their continued evolution into the future, they are expected to let a few more veteran players who are not making an impact go in the summer 2026 transfer window. At the top of the list is center back David Alaba, who makes around 20 million euros per season but is scarcely healthy enough to play and is pretty underwhelming when on the pitch at this stage of his career.

Manchester United were one of the most active teams in the summer 2025 transfer window, and their attacking aggressiveness paid off with the signings of Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha, and Bryan Mbeumo. Maybe more importantly, Man United also made a huge addition in goal, replacing the entirely unreliable Andre Onana with the competent Senne Lammens. After a rough adjustment period to start the season, Ruben Amorim now quietly has Man United in seventh and back in European contention.

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim saved his job this season by turning a tide of embarrassing results around, but with the Red Devils still in seventh place, there is still a lot of work for the Portuguese manager to do before he can say he has turned things around at Old Trafford. After major summer transfer investment and an overhaul of the attack with Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha, and Bryan Mbeumo coming in, Man United expect to be among the top four contenders for Champions League football in the near future.

Manchester United have shown improvement throughout the course of the 2025/26 season under Ruben Amorim, who has done enough to save his job status from being an impending firing to a man who will likely get another season at a club that has otherwise been mired by dysfunction. This past summer, Man United completely overhauled their attack with Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha, and Benjamin Sesko, and while they have all had a good effect, United are still interested in other forward options like Yan Diomande and Antoine Semenyo in 2026.

Real Marid superstar forward Kylian Mbappe has been the team's brightest spot from a goal scoring perspective, but as Real continue to disappoint in the table while Mbappe racks up the goals, Madridistas can't help but wonder if, like at PSG, Mbappe is holding the team back for his own personal gain. That was a common theme throughout the 2024/25 season when Mbappe won the European Golden Boot yet Real came up trophyless after winning La Liga and the Champions League without him, while Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo Goes, and Jude Bellingham all looked worse with him.

Michael Olise was always a wonderful player, and he was honestly already a world class winger for Crystal Palace. It's just that, obviously, a young French winger playing for Crystal Palace isn't going to get the hype they deserve, especially with the national team crowded wtih talents like Kylian Mbappe and Rayan Cherki. Well, Olise has now become as good as any French player not named Mbappe, and I am sure you will find some people who will debate that Olise's impact on his team is even more positive than Mbappe's.

Barcelona have been in the market for an additional center back with many of their current top options proving to be either unreliable or overly prone to injury. More depth is needed at this critical position, and, for the most part, Barca appear to be aiming high. Their favorite option in central defense is the player every top club in Europe has been dreaming about for years, Alessandro Bastoni of Inter Milan.

Atletico Madrid are third in La Liga, and while few are taking them seriously as title contenders, they are in the conversation and are a key injury to Barcelona or an impending implosion from Real Madrid away from being in the thick of it. For the most part since their Luis Suarez fueled 2020/21 triumph, Atleti have been just on the outside looking in from the main title contenders in Spain, but, lately, they have been ramping up their investment in the transfer market.

Chelsea are coming off a hard fought 2-2 draw with Newcastle United last Premier League weekend, and this weekend, they will go up against an even more difficult opponent in Aston Villa, who just beat Manchester United last weekend and are suddenly title contenders. Overall, it's been a difficult season for the Blues, but they are still in the top four of the Premier League.

Coming off a tough loss to breakout Premier League title contenders Aston Villa and the magic of Morgan Rogers, Manchester United are in need of a statement against another tough opponent this weekend in Newcastle United. The task will be even taller, though, with both Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo out for the AFCON tournament, as well as injury woes to star midfielders Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo.

It has been far from a banner 2025/26 Premier League season for Chelsea superstar Cole Palmer. The Ballon d'Or hopeful was the hottest player in the league coming into the season after leading his team to Club World Cup victory over reigning Champions League winners PSG as THE best player of the tournament. But injuries have blighted Palmer's impact this campaign, as he has only been able to start five Premier League matches and one in the Champions League.

Literally all of the Big Six clubs in the Premier League were interested in Antoine Semenyo at one point, and, initially, it seemed like Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur were the favorites to sign the Bournemouth star winger. Then, Manchester City got involved, Arsenal fell out of the race, Tottenham joined them after Semenyo rejected Spurs, and then Chelsea tried to come in as late newcomers to the party.

Liverpool picked up an important win on Saturday against Tottenham Hotspur, outlasting a Spurs side that picked up two red cards to win 2-1. It has been a difficult season for the Reds, as they have been mired in Mohamed Salah controversy in the last couple of weeks with legitimate questions surrounding the future of Arne Slot. Meanwhile, Liverpool now have a fresh concern to worry about, as superstar striker Alexander Isak picked up an injury while attempting a shot in the win over Tottenham.

Manchester United started the 2025/26 season in embarrassing fashion, and while there should still be major questions about Ruben Amorim's suitability for the job in terms of finally bringing the Red Devils back to a Premier League title contention standard, it is true that there have been positive signs of life at Old Trafford in recent times. Although Man United made major signings to overhaul their attack that have proven to be beneficial, there are still a litany of needs across the roster, specifically in the midfield.

Real Madrid barely survived against Talavera in the Copa del Rey Round of 32, and manager Xabi Alonso really has goalkeeper Andriy Lunin and a few fortunate goals for the club avoiding a monumental upset worse than the Alcoyano scale. Alonso's coaching has been called into question strongly by Madridistas, who remain fully unconvinced by the Spanish international in the manager's chair after a, quite frankly, woeful showing against a lower division side.

Real Madrid and Manchester City have quite the historic Champions League rivalry going, and in the latest iteration of their almost annual matchup in Europe's premier footballing competition, the Premier League giants came out on top 2-1. Although Real Madrid got off to the hotter start with the opener and were outplaying Man City, a couple of blunders gifted the Citizens a lead that they would not relinquish as Ballon d'Or hopeful Kylian Mbappe could only sit helplessly and watch from the bench.

Manchester United defensive midfielder Manuel Ugarte joined the club with a ton of fanfare ahead of the 2024/25 season after being a star for Sporting CP and even PSG, but he has been so far beneath his 50 million euro price tag that if even Ruben Amorim can't save him, there may be no point in even trying to get anything out of him.

While Liverpool attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz clearly has not lived up to his 100 million pound price tag to this early point in the 2025/26 Premier League season, he's been far from the worst new transfer in the English top flight. To that end, here are five transfers from the summer 2025 window who have been significantly worse than Wirtz has to this point.

Manchester United completely changed their attack this past summer transfer window by spending big on Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha, and the best of them all, Bryan Mbeumo. But who else could Manchester United try to bring in to get back to their status more than a decade ago of being a bona fide Premier League title contender? Here are five dream options, with no regard to cost or likelihood of transfer, who could help transform the Man United squad and push them back up to the elite of the Premier League.

Manchester United want to sign a top midfielder in the winter or summer transfer windows next year, and if it were up to most Man United supporters, they'd sign two of them. As the 2025/26 Premier League season has gone on, Nottingham Forest breakout star midfielder Elliot Anderson has become an increasingly attractive option for Manchester United in the middle of the park.