TWG Special Bonus Episode: Dissecting the Ballon d'Or Nominations

0:00You're listening to the MIB Media Network, and this is the women's game. Guys, Trinity Robbin, I think kind of got snubbed. Like, again, we're looking at this list as players who have been so impactful for Club and Country, I don't know that they really looked in-depth at the end of his cell. Hi everybody, and welcome to this very special mini-sode all about the balance or nominations that came out today. We're talking about who should win. We're also talking about who got snubbed. Becky, to start us off, what is the Ballendor? So basically, the Ballendor is just this very prestigious French award that honors the best player in the world, and it's presented by a magazine called France Football. Previous winners have included Aetana Beaumont-Mite, Alexia Poutes, R Megan Rapino, out of Heckberg, so some really incredible players and names to be talking about. Right, okay, and so what we learned today is the list of players who are nominated for the award, the actual award is going to be given out and announced on October 26th. Before we get into the nominations and go through all the names, just did no.

1:02So that everybody knows the time period that players, managers, teams are being judged on is August 3rd, 2025, through July 19th, 2026. So we're thinking of players who did really well at events like the Asian Cup, Champions League, she believes. Obviously, they're a domestic club play. Just for your like mindset, last year's Euros, which ended July 27th, 2025, and then this summer's Waffcon are both outside of this year's window. So specifically for players who shown during the summer's Waffcon like Monique and Gauk, Mick Ailey Bahina, and Tabitha Chouin-Ga, we'll be hoping to see them on next year's Ballon Door List. So the biggest news of the day as far as I'm concerned is that US Women's National Team and Gautham midfielder Roosevelt is nominated. This is her second time making the list. It's obviously due to her huge impact on Gautham FC's championship win last season. She scored the lone goal in the end of the sell final. Her impact this season for Gautham has also been really notable. She has four goals. She's been named to the end of the sell best 11 of the month, twice this season. She's shown for the US Women's National Team in 2026, bringing

2:05her signature creativity and flair to the midfield in six games, scoring two goals. I, as Rose's friend, I'm just so happy to see her get this nod. It really just speaks to her impact on the game. And I do feel like she really, really deserves it. I feel like it's a little bit of a long time coming. Rose is finding such an impactful player at some major tournaments for the Women's National Team. And of course, she's super influential with Gautham. So I'm like you, so glad that she is finally getting the roses with this nomination because she really does deserve this. I would say also the next biggest news, at least for US Women's National Team fans, is that Lily Johannes is nominated for the best young talent award. Lily is the first ever American player to be nominated. Okay, the award was introduced last year. So it is a short list, but still it's really cool to see your name on there as she begins a new campaign with Leone and also tries to not just make the World Cup roster next summer, but to have a real impact on the team in tournament. She did win three trophies with Leone in her first season. In the Premier League, she got four goals and six assists last season and then champions league two goals and one assist. That's impressive for a player that young. And of course, she also won

3:10the She Believes Cup with the US Women's National Team. All this other stuff from Lily is so, so, so impressive. She's winning not just at the team level, but she is really contributing. So I'm super happy for Lily to get this kind of global recognition. I want to talk with the other end of the cell player. As besides Rose Lavella got nominated, there were four more. Temuashuinga, Barbara Banda, Lorraine and Manaka, who was nominated for her time with North Carolina, even though she just made the move to Chelsea. Temuashuinga, obviously, is a two-time golden boot winner in the end of the cell. She plays for Kansas City and I was actually really excited to see Manaka Matsukubo on here as well. She was an end of the cell MVP finalist last season for her incredible play with the courage, which continued throughout this spring until she made that move overseas. This is Manaka's first time being nominated and she's just 22 years old. So I feel like especially with such a big move to a club like Chelsea, this will not be her last time on the list. Were you that good at 22? I'm like, tried to remember. I don't even think I was playing professionally at a 22. No. I do want to shout out Lorraine. I think it's so cool that there is another goalkeeper that's

4:13been nominated. She was the 2025 shield winner and ended up a goalkeeper of the year last year with Kansas City current. She plays for Brazil. She had 14 clean sheets and 62 saves for the current last season. So very impressive stats. Love that. Well, you know what else I love Becky is that we really started this mini-soed off with an American lens, which obviously the rest of the voters of this list didn't really do. I'm going to read through the list really quickly. Just interrupt me if you have any comments. Starting off, we have Sama Basha, who plays for Leanez. Barbara Banda, Clara Boul for Bayern Munich, Esme Brute for Barcelona, Mariana Caldez, who plays for Arsenal, and then Scarlett Camberos, who plays for Club America. Oh, I definitely have to say something about this. Scarlett is the first Mexican women's player to be nominated. She formerly played in the end of her cell for both Angel City and Bay of Sea, but things have really clicked since she moved to Club America. She scored 22 goals in the 25-26 season. The most of any Club America player, they went three trophies last year and qualified for the Club World Cup. So fun to watch. I feel like I've been hearing her name more and more

5:14and more. For sure. Obviously, this recognition is only going to increase that. Continuing down the list, we have Kirsten Kasper, who plays for Man City, Temuash Wingo, Cat De Coy for Barcelona, Melchie Du Mourne, who plays for O'olean as Becky, and I know you're a big fan of hers. I am a huge fan of hers. I hope people have listened to Good Vibes because I was raving about there there, but just to remind everybody. She's hailing from Haiti. This young forward is an absolute hero at home, which she says is the most important thing to her. This year, she won the French League's Player of the Year, the first time a Haitian player men or women's has. She thanked Haiti and Creole, which was widely celebrated. She also earned back-to-back a wave of Champions League, a young player of the season honors. Her performances last season for Leone grew more audacious by the week and was a favorite for the Ballon D'Or by the Champions League final. I know I remember hearing so much about her in the build-up to that final, which as we all remember, Barcelona ended up beating Leone, but Melchie was so critical for Leone and is just so fun to watch. So I'm glad that you shuttered her out. Back to the list,

6:16Caroline Graham Hanson, plays for Barcelona, Alex Greenwood, plays for Manchester City, Patrick Guihara, for Barcelona, Pernaud Harder, for Bayern Munich, Yui Hasagawa, for Man City, Rose the Vell, for Guaum, for Barcelona, is the time she was nominated for, but now she's on London City, Lorraine, who we've mentioned, Melvin Mallard, who played for Manchester United last season, now is on Chelsea, Manacabat, Zacubo, Viv Mietema, who plays for Man City, and then Eva Paior, who plays for Barcelona as well. Becky, I was talking about Eva Paior on good vibes, and just the episode that came out earlier today, and I am a really big fan of hers. She's Polish, this is her fourth nomination, and she reached the Champions League final actually six times, and only won her first this past year. This year, she worked to a back from a knee injury, and then she ended up scoring 16 domestic goals, and 11 Champions League goals, including a brace in the final. I'm so glad that you mentioned the Champions League final, because if anyone was watching that, she was so influential in that final. The runs that she was making, the ability

7:16on the ball, like I thought she was the best player on the day, by far. And I think, when we're going to talk a little bit more about this in a minute, but I do think that the big events, especially in the year with no World Cup, no Olympics, the big events, it's the Champions League final, and she scored a brace in this game, and that just holds so much weight. So I think she's actually maybe one of the front runners, but we're going to come back to that in a second. Continuing down the list, Claudia Pina plays for Barcelona, and then Alexey Patelius, played for Barcelona. Now she's on London City. This is like the easiest game to put on this list. I mean, it really is. She's already won the award twice, which is wild. She's the front runner to win it again. I think it's really safe to say she captained Barcelona. They won the crud droople at Barcelona in her final year with the historic club. She's synonymous with Barcelona and just the excellence of that club. She also scored nine goals and made seven assists in her final season in League of F before making the move to the WSL. Alexia Ohel. Next up, we have Wendy Renard for O.A. Leonés, Alessia Russo for Arsenal, Buddy Shaw for Man City. I want to say something

8:19about Buddy because she had such a prolific year with Man City. And unfortunately, the team didn't play in Champions League. Her national team, Jamaica, had virtually zero competitions. I love that she's on here. I think she's absolutely deserving. I just don't know if her performance with City and the League will be enough to trump some of the players that were in Champions League and had a huge impact in the Champions League. I totally agree. It's like such a tough question because I love Bunny. I love watching her play. I think she's just so dominant. Let's finish off the list. Mimoko Tanikawa, who plays for Bayern Munich is also nominated, then Caroline Ware, who played for Real Madrid last season is now on O.A. Leonés and then Tessa Woolert, who played for Inter Milan and now is on Como. Notably, no A-Time on my T-M this list. She was injured for much of her season with Barcelona, but for the first time now, in three years, it means we'll have a new winner because she's won it three years in a row, which again, you guys, like this is just the most prestigious award and for her to have been so dominant is so impressive.

9:21It's crazy that she's not on here at all. Without A-Tana in the mix, I think the front runners to me are obviously Lexi Potea's. I love Eva Pior. Bunny Shaw is in the mix. She has to be, but I think that's more of a long shot again, just based on what we said before. And then I'm still thinking Melchidumourne is up there Becky, who am I missing? What do you think of Alessio Rousseau? I think she's up there. I think she's been, I feel like she's finished in the top five, the past several years. Having the euros out of it is tough for her because I think that that, you know, was weighted so heavily last year. Arsenal didn't win Champions League again, so I feel like maybe she's off by a year, but you kind of never know, like a lot of this award is kind of name recognition and even past accomplishments and like past placement in the award, which is one of the reasons why I think it's so crazy A-Tana's not on here. Again, A-Tana was injured for a lot of the season, but sometimes I just feel like that's how they vote.

10:22Unfortunately, do you want to get into this now or should we get into that a little bit later if we want to talk more criticisms? Let's say a few other little factoids. I don't know if anybody noticed, but I was saying the names of the club teams that these players play or played on. 26% of it was Barcelona players. They make up eight of the 30 nominations. So even though, you know, there's been a lot of talk of Barcelona maybe losing some of their sparkle. They've lost a few players. They've been going through a weird financial thing. They are still the most like prevalent team on this list. By far. I mean, by far. It is pretty ridiculous. I mean, Barcelona is outrageously good team. They had such an amazing showing last year. They've got truly special players. And so 26% is it too much? Is it not enough? I don't know. Is it skewed? Is it skewed? One other thing to note is that there are three Japanese players this year as opposed to none last year. And I think this is worth noting, I have been really impressed with the quality and just the

11:23presence of Japan's players in the end of the cell, the WSL. And I remember when the US and the national team played against them in the April window, I was just really, really impressed. So I feel like a strong showing from Japan on this ball and door list is one of the things telling me that we should watch out for the next summer at the World Cup. Okay, we are going to get to snubs. And I know all the Emily Fox fans out there are literally flipping out. So don't worry, it's coming. But before we talk snubs, let's talk predictions. I kind of just said this, but I do think the way this award works is that the people who vote for it tend to pick one of the really obvious front runner candidates. And I actually think that this year that would be totally fair. For me, Alexi Pateus is going to win. That's my prediction. I think she deserves it. And I think that when you see her name on the list, it feels obvious to vote for her. What do you think? I agree. I think she will win. I do feel like you can make a real argument for Melchidumarne and Epipyor. I do think they'll probably for me the top three. I think that that could be absolutely true. Emily Fox fans

12:26getting a formation line up time for some criticisms of this whole thing. Who got snubbed? The most obvious choice to me is Emily Fox, USO and the National Team and Arsenal defender. She has been a standout for club and country. She won the FIFA Women's Champions Cup with Arsenal. She also helped the gunners progress to the Champions League semi-final, which is like no small task. She was named to the PFA WSL team of the year. She was named to the UEFA Champions League team of the season two years in a row. She is clearly to me one of the first names on the US Women's National Team team. She is consistently strong both defensively and playing out of the back. She has this special map for dribbling. I know it can be hard for defenders to get noticed, but this is like a total mess for me. Like Foxy was an obvious choice. Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. It's basically that she's a defender and a defender can't just be consistently excellent. They need to be like doing things within games, probably scoring goals or making like game-saving tackles on the regular or else they're just not going to be a name recognition for an outside back that just

13:29does her job and does it so well weekend and week out. So it's very unfortunate. I agree with you. I think that is a snub. Yeah, I feel like outraged on behalf of defenders. You should. What will it take for a defender to like break into the top three? I have no idea what it would take. I think that this is a problem with the world, Becky. A problem with the world is we don't give enough credit to defenders. Thank you. A couple of other snubs. Esther Gonzales, who was the Torin 25 and NBSL Golden Boot runner-up. Yule Brand, who plays for Leon Liannez and Germany. She scored the winning goal for Leon to make it to the Champions League final. I just really remember her being so impactful in Champions League. She also had a great domestic season. Sama Paryuello, who one of the things, remember, I said about Eva Paior in the Champions League finals that she scored a brace, so did Sama. Yeah, and I feel like whenever, even if she's like a not starting but a super sub, the things that she can do with the limited amount of time that she gets on the field is really impressive and people should take notice of that. Yeah, so I think

14:30that that was a snub. And then, guys, Trinity Rudman, I think kind of got snubbed. Again, we're looking at this list as players who have been so impactful for Club and Country. I don't know that they really looked in depth at the NBSL. Trinity Rudman scored five goals in two assists last season. She was sidelined with the back injury, but then I think if you want to include the window that counts from this season, she scored six more goals before the cutoff date. I think that she's such a flashy, fun, talented goal scorer. There are so many things about Trinity Rudman that make me want to see her name on this list, so I think it was kind of a snub. Yeah, I think it's tough. The injury that sidelined her for about four months. I think, imagine what she could have done within those four months. Like, she had a limited amount for the journalists to rate. And if you take out a third of that, I know. That's a pretty big chunk and a lot of opportunity for Trinity where she could have kept playing at the elite level that she is. That is fair. I think we're going to

15:32see her on it next year. And you know who I think is name is going to be right next to her is Ashley Sanchez. Okay, but this is not about the NBSL, even though it kind of is beyond the snub, Becky, there are some other criticisms of this award that have been buzzing around for years. One of them obviously is this European bias. Can this award be a truly global award if it is consistently heavily biased towards Europe? Or do you think that the bias is justified? There's a little bit of history here. I mean, the women's side just got this award just a few years ago. The men's have had it, I mean, since the 50s. And it's gone through different iterations, but the first time it was just European players that are playing in European-based leagues. And then they kind of opened it up and said, okay, it can be in different leagues, but it has to be European players. And then finally, they opened up to everyone. So I'm just kind of wondering if they're like fighting against kind of that history where it was European centric. I also understand, does accessibility to our games in the NBSL to Liga and Max? Like, do you think that impacts it?

16:35Do you think these journalists that are European-based are waking up in the early hours to watch NBSL after dark to watch how good some of these players are? I know. I mean, I want to think that that's yeah, like a lot to ask. Like, when I would go visit Kristian London, the games were literally on at 2 a.m. And yeah, like, I don't want to watch that 2 a.m. 3 a.m. 4 a.m. When we had to wake up in 2023 for the women's workup, like, it is really hard and to imagine doing that all year is crazy. I wonder if they have access to replays. Like, I wonder even how they have access to the games to begin with if there's always a global stream or if the... If it's geolocked. Prevent that. If it's geolocked. So maybe they truly don't have access, which is tough. I think that that's why leagues beyond just the NBSL from other parts of the world are also maybe not as easily accessible. So it's tough. It is still such a prestigious award. And so I always find myself kind of like fighting that, which is... It means so much to be on this list, even though we all kind of know

17:40that it's biased. There isn't an award that has surpassed it to mean more, to be more prestigious. So it is still really meaningful, especially in the football space. Another thing, and I know you mentioned that the Men's Award has just been around longer, but there's another discrepancy, and that's that 50 journalist vote on the Women's Awards, while 100 journalist vote on the Men's Awards. And then for the... There are a few other awards that come out with this list. There's an award for the Best Goalkeeper and Award for Young Talent, which we mentioned Milly-O-Hon as is dominated for. The Men have more nominees. So like if they put the two lists next to each other, the Men have 10 and the Women have five. Why? Why? Why? Like that's the easiest fix. Just have the same numbers. Equality. I like... I don't know why anybody would make a decision to give the Women half of the recognition as the Men. That is just a really weird choice to me. And I hope that they change it because one of the reasons we wanted to do this and talk about it in such detail is because Women's players around the world are getting less coverage, and these journalists have

18:43less access. And so we are talking about it, but we want better, and we want the award to be more accurate and more inclusive. And at the very least, equal in numbers to the Men's Award. It's just like such a bizarre and weird thing. Despite all of this, in addition to the list that we named the Player of the Year award, which is ultimately like the most prestigious thing that you can win, there's categories for Goalkeeper and Young Talent, plus Coach of the Year and Club of the Year. For Goalkeeper nominees, we have Ann Ketchchenberger, a place for Gotham and Germany. She obviously was a huge, played a huge hand in helping Gotham win the end of his little championship last season. She got 10 clean sheet last season. Part is part of one of the best defenses in the league. Then we have Catacoe who plays for Barcelona, Hannah Hampton who plays for Chelsea. She won this award last year, Lorraine who Becky mentioned earlier, and then Yamashita who plays for Man City in Japan is one of those three Japanese players on this list. I mean, it's got to be Catacoe. She won the quadruple with Barcelona last year, just like Alexia Putez. She came up with some huge saves in

19:44the final, if you remember correctly. And then just in Liga F, she had 11 clean sheets and 18 saves for Barça. I know those stats don't go wow compared to Lorraine, but I feel like when it came to it and she needed to make big saves, she does. Yeah, I like that show. I think again, there is a little bit of a European bias in this award. I could see Catacoe winning it for sure. So we're not going to get all the way into the coaches and the clubs nominated just because that this is supposed to be a mini-sode. But we got going. But we got going. A lot of good stuff, but I did want to shout out Club America again who are nominated for Club of the Year. And with that, they become the first Mexican side and the first nominee from outside Europe and the USA in the women's club of the year category. Yes, huge congrats to Club America. I feel like that's a really cool accomplishment and hopefully is going to be part of more inclusivity, more global recognition in this award in the future. So congrats to them. I think that's everything we're going to go over today Becky. What a mini-sode that was. Do you have anything to close us out? Go Rose, Go Lily.

20:46Go Rose, Go Lily. Congratulations, everybody. Thanks for joining us. We've got lots more stuff coming out this week. So we'll see you again soon. Bye. You