In the voting for the 2019 Ballon d’Or, Liverpool‘s Virgil van Dijk lost out to Barcelona forward Lionel Messi by just seven votes. While defenders rarely win the award (Fabio Cannavaro, in 2006, remains the only player to have done so in the past 25 years) the voting told us what we already knew: that Van Dijk was best centre-back in world football at the time.
Van Dijk suffered an ACL injury against Everton the following year and, ever since, no player has put forward a watertight case to be considered the top performer in that position. But now a few new names have entered the debate from across Europe’s top leagues, one of which is Arsenal‘s William Saliba.
Despite being just 22 years old, in a position group famed for reaching its peak in the late 20s and requiring experience to perfect, Saliba’s performance levels since his breakthrough at Arsenal in the 2022-23 season suggest he deserves recognition.
But he was not included in the final 30-man list for year’s Ballon d’Or voting — beaten by Manchester City‘s Rúben Dias (30th) and Josko Gvardiol (25th), then Bayern Munich‘s Kim Min-Jae (22nd) — which was won by Messi again.
So is he the best centre-back in the world? And if not, who is?
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
A rapid rise
Saliba may be young, but he’s experienced for his age. After making the breakthrough as a teenager at Ligue 1 side Saint-Étienne in 2018, he moved to Arsenal for around €30 million a year later, returned to the French club on loan, and more loan spells at Nice and Marseille followed before he was handed a chance to shine at the Emirates last season.
To date he has played 168 times domestically and clocked up 118 full 90-minute matches at the top level — as well as 10 games for France since making his debut in March 2022 — which is essentially three Premier League seasons. Consider how abnormal that is. Centre-backs usually spend their early years earning their place at a lower level, yet Saliba was playing first-team football in Ligue 1 at 17.
With all that under his belt, it’s no wonder he stepped up so easily in the preseason campaign of summer 2022, wowing anyone who was keeping track of Arsenal’s friendlies. “Ridiculous” was a word used frequently to describe him, and those who didn’t know about him would soon find out. In Arsenal’s Premier League opener, a 2-0 win away to Crystal Palace, Saliba executed an immense slide tackle on Wilfried Zaha in the penalty box that saw jaws drop across north London.
By Christmas, the rest of the world had taken note: Arsenal were top of the league, and while signing left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko and striker Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City was clearly a key factor in that, so was the introduction of Saliba.
His incredible one-vs.-one and recovery defending became a weekly treat for fans, and it enabled Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to utilise a high defensive line and aggressive pressing strategy that swamped opponents. The Frenchman’s incredible calm and composure in dealing with passes played into the channels stood out. No matter the opponent, big or small, he would win the ball, calmly turn around and start dribbling the other way.
