Brazil legend Zico believes Mesut Ozil should be in Ballon d'Or running

As Lionel Messi looks to close in on another record by claiming a fifth consecutive Ballon d’Or, Brazilian legend Zico has thrown Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil’s name into the hat for football’s most coveted individual prize.

It was only last week that another former winner Zinedine Zidane stated that Frank Ribery should be considered for the award and despite Messi’s dominance over the past few years, this time around the award looks to be a little more open.

“Ozil is a great player. He’s the brain of the German national team,” the Selecao legend was quoted as saying by Sport Bild.

“I already get excited just by seeing him play. He has the ability to read the game and play a killer pass.

“Germany have not had a playmaker like him since Wolfgang Overath in the 1970s. It would only be right if he were among the candidates to win the Ballon d’Or.”

Ozil scored one and assisted one before coming off with an injury during Germany’s 5-3 victory over Sweden on Tuesday evening. A performance like this coupled with the impressive start to his career in North London back up Zico’s statements, but is the playmaker relentless enough to stake a credible claim for Ballon d’Or?

Both Ronaldo and Messi had Performance Score ratings double that of Ozil in La Liga last season and although all three are different types of players it just shows the tough competition he faces for the prize.

As a playmaker his figures (10 assists), though high, are not that much better than his rivals and show just how good the all-round contributions of Messi and Ronaldo are. Most would say that their key category is scoring goals and finishing on 28 and 27 league goals for the year so far shows them to be far ahead of Ozil who’s scored just five league goals in 2013.

It isn’t just those two players that Ozil has to better in order to claim the coveted Ballon d’Or, though. Bayern Munich dominated European football last season and at the heart of this supremacy is dribbling extraordinaire Frank Ribery, attempting 122 take-ons in last season’s Bundesliga. Not only was that the second highest in the top 5 European league, but the former Marseille man contributed 10 goals and 14 assists in just 27 league games.

The only game that Bayern lost in last season’s Bundesliga came against Leverkusen, a game that Ribery did not feature in. His importance to the team this year is underlined with that fact along with his impressive 21 wins from 23 league games since the turn of the year as well as inspiring them to the Champions League crown last year.

With Ronaldo being the key figure at Los Blancos last season, Ozil was always in the shadow. But after making a sensational deadline day move to the Premier League he will now have the chance to flourish as the main man in a title-chasing team. Zico’s comments maybe a little premature at the moment, but if the German trickster continues to develop his game then he will surely be in the running for future individual crowns.