The panel of CBS Sports was taken aback when Thierry Henry revealed that he is now the favourite to win the Ballon d’Or in 2025.
As a result of their respective victories over Benfica, Feyenoord, and Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, and Paris Saint-Germain all advanced to the quarterfinals of the Champions League competition that took place last night.
It is also important to mention Barcelona, who secured their place in the subsequent round of the competition by claiming a 4-1 aggregate victory over Benfica.
As a result of their victory in Portugal the previous week, the Catalan giants entered the second leg of the match on Tuesday at Camp Nou with a one-goal advantage.
And when Raphinha scored the game-winning goal for his team, they increased their lead on aggregate by a factor of two.
He added another goal as Barcelona emerged victorious with a score of 3-1 (or 4-1 overall).
Not only did Raphinha inspire his team to victory over Benfica, but he also made history in the Champions League by establishing a new record for the most goals scored by a Brazilian player in a single Champions League campaign through his total of eleven goals.
Since the beginning of the season, the Brazilian forward has scored 27 goals across all competitions, and he is having an incredible season overall.
As for the 2025 Ballon d’Or, Henry is of the opinion that Raphinha is more deserving of the award than players such as Mohamed Salah and Harry Kane.
“Raphinha is ahead for me now, he is ahead because of what he is doing in the Champions League,” he stated during his appearance on CBS Sports.
The Champions League has seen him score 11 goals so far. There are a number of players who are in the running for it, including Mo Salah, Kane, and [Ousmane] Dembele.
In addition to winning your league, it is highly dependent on how well you perform in the Champions League. Although Raphinha has scored a lot of goals, he has only been given one penalty.
Henry made the following argument: “I am not saying that Kane and Salah should not be having penalties. Mo Salah is having a season in the Premier League that we will never see again.”
“What I am saying is that if a guy has nearly the same number of goals as you guys scored, without taking into account penalties, I am not going to say that what you did is bad; it is outstanding. However, I need to talk a little bit more about this guy.
“Raphinha, when people talk about being complete as a striker, you need to know everything there is to know about putting on pressure, defending, and helping your full back. In addition to that, he possesses everything.
In the summer of 2022, Raphinha, who was 28 years old at the time, moved from Leeds United to Barcelona. Over the course of his first two seasons, he scored ten goals across all competitions total.
Within the context of goals, he is having the most successful season of his entire career.
