Who are the best players never to win the Ballon d’Or?
Some of football’s biggest names have won league titles, Champions Leagues and World Cups. But one accolade has eluded many of them: the Ballon d’Or. Al Jazeera’s Samantha Johnson looks at the greatest players to never win football’s most prestigious individual award.
Players of Nigeria’s Under-17 women’s national team, the Flamingos, say they have shifted focus to personal and career development following their triumph at the 2026 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco. Similarly, Golden Ball winner, Oluebube Umejiaku, expressed gratitude to God for the team’s success in Morocco, saying she was already looking forward to greater achievements.
England visit Madrid for first time since fan abuse in 2004 ‘We had the same discussion before the Serbia game’ Thomas Tuchel will remind his England players of the anti-racism protocols as they prepare to play Spain in Madrid for the first time since the notorious meeting between the countries in 2004. England have since played three games in Spain, although they refused to return to Madrid for the first of them in 2009.
Nigeria cannot afford to approach the contest with complacency. The visitors have experienced players capable of exploiting defensive lapses, while several of their key men possess the individual quality to punish an opponent that has looked vulnerable at the back
The interim technical team led by Kim Lars Bjorkegren, with support from Ibrahim Tanko and Godwin Attram, invited four outfield players plying their trade in the Ghana Premier League for the two games against Somalia in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers. “This Somalia team that we watched, any decent Ghana Premier League team, especially those in the top three, will account for it…,” he said on Sporty FM.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports on the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital
Now that Huang has stepped down, Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey looks at the questions ahead for the company.