Ballon d'Or Power Ranking: January 2019

#7 Paul Pogba

Paul Pogba has effectively brought himself back into the race after the appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and how! Pogba, who did not start against Manchester City, Arsenal or Liverpool under Jose Mourinho, proved just how influential he can be after showcasing some stellar back to back performances.

Though the magic of his feet can take our breath away, it's when he sticks to the basics and helps dictate the tempo of proceedings that he becomes complicit in some of the more scintillating football that we've seen Manchester United play in recent times.

Pogba scored 4 goals and registered 3 assists from a central midfield position and if that's not impressive, it's hard to figure what is.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad