"It's his time" - Rio Ferdinand backs "special player" to win 2021 Ballon d'Or award

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has tipped Bayern Munich frontman Roberto Lewandowski to win this year's Ballon d'Or award.

France Football is scheduled to reveal the winner of the 2021 Ballon d'Or award on 29th November. Lionel Messi, Karim Benzema and Mohamed Salah have all been tipped to bag the award by many, while Bayern Munich's Lewandowski is also a prime candidate.

Lewandowski is on the wrong side of his 30s but has continued to perform at a high level for the Bavarians. The Poland international scored 48 goals and provided nine assists from 40 appearances for the Bundesliga champions last season.

The former Borussia Dortmund frontman has taken his fine form into this season, scoring 22 goals and providing two assists from 16 matches for Julian Nagelsmann's team already. Lewandowski also found the back of the net three times for Poland at this year's European Championship.

With less than a month to go before the winner of this year's Ballon d'Or is revealed, Manchester United legend Ferdinand has backed Lewandowski to bag the prestigious award. He said:

"This is a special, special player. Ronaldo and Messi have always been the benchmark, always, but Robert Lewandowski, it’s his time to potentially win the Ballon d’Or this year."

Ferdinand pointed to Lewandowski's goalscoring record over the last year and explained how he is a fan of the striker's goalscoring abilities.

"In the calendar year, by the way, in the 38 games he’s played he’s got 50 goals. No one is neat that. This is today in the game, the goals are ridiculous, he scores every type of goal – that’s what I love about him. He’s got your No.9 goals where you’re at the back-post heading balls in like that, he’s got deft touches", Ferdinand said.

While Ferdinand has backed Lewandowski to win the Ballon d'Or award, it remains to be seen if France Football thinks the same.

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Rio Ferdinand baffled by 2021 Ballon d'Or nomination

Lewandowski is the player Ferdinand wants to see win the Ballon d'Or this year. One star the former defender does not want to see anywhere near the trophy is Chelsea's Jorginho.

Ferdinand has revealed that he was baffled by the Italian being nominated for the 2021 Ballon d'Or. He said:

"He’s not the best player at Chelsea and he’s not the first name on the sheet for Italy either. He’s a very good player, don’t get me wrong and I’m not trying to be disrespectful, I don’t see how he gets on the list of those players and the level these guys have been playing at. If you look at Chelsea, in the run-in to winning the CL, I think [N’Golo] Kante was MOM in five of the last six games. It baffles me."

Notably, Jorginho won the Champions League and Euro 2020 during a memorable summer in 2020. However, Lewandowski and Messi are still widely regarded as the frontrunners for this year's Ballon d'Or award.