Did the Ballon d'Or expose the Premier League's superstar problem?

Emma Paton (0:01)

THE ATHLETIC FC Last night, Harry Kane bagged his first Ballon d'Or, but there was only one current Premier League player in the top 10 So is England's top flight lacking star power? And does it matter? Welcome to The Athletic FC Podcast.

Well, hello, everyone. I'm Emma Paton. I'm your host today. We've got one half of our regular Tuesday Club back senior football writer, James Horncastle. I've missed you the last couple of weeks.

James Horncastle (0:35)

I've missed you as well.

Emma Paton (0:36)

I know you've been in Rome, you've been in coma, you've been all over the place, but you're back.

James Horncastle (0:39)

I know. We're doing a relay. David on Safari now.

Emma Paton (0:42)

Yeah, yeah. Hopefully he'll be back next week. But we've got some brilliant substitutes. So that's great. Back for more after last week. Football analyst, JJ Bull. Welcome back.

JJ Bull (0:52)

Hello.

Emma Paton (0:53)

Hello. And in the flesh, this is brilliant, isn't it? Our German football correspondent, Seb Stafford-Bloor.

JJ Bull (0:59)

Hi, Emma.

Emma Paton (1:00)

It's good to see you in real life. Yeah, it's fun, right? Yeah.

James, we've got to start with you, fresh off the red carpet, straight into the studio. Thank you for coming in today, gracing us with your presence. Talk to us about the ceremony last night.

James Horncastle (1:13)

It's the first Ballon d'Or ceremony I've ever been to because they don't usually come to London, Emma. They're usually in Paris, where France Football, the founder of this award, is based. I think this just goes to show how big this award is becoming. It's not enough for a magazine to welcome, let's say, Emma Paton, Ballon d'Or feminine winner of the year to their offices, France Football's offices in Paris to just hand you the award. They have to make it feel like the Oscars. There was all of that part around Oxford Circus, which as we know is one of the busiest parts of London. It was closed off and then there were just kids between 12 and 16 jumping on building containers in order to look over the barriers to see some of their favorite players.

Performances, it did feel a little bit much, to be honest. I know that part of London, Leicester Square has film premieres all the time. It did feel really tight and like you were really up against the people you see on screen were really up close.

I know the awards ceremony itself, it was late, fashionably late. I don't know if anyone saw Lamine Yamal's outfit.

JJ Bull (2:36)

Chanel, yeah.

James Horncastle (2:37)

Chanel, was it Chanel?

JJ Bull (2:38)

Yeah, it was, yeah.

James Horncastle (2:40)

I'm glad you should have been on the carpet saying, what are you wearing? He looked cool, he looked really cool.

Seb Stafford-Bloor (2:45)

Elise looked cool as well.

Emma Paton (2:46)

I think Elise was the best dress.

Seb Stafford-Bloor (2:47)

Yeah.

James Horncastle (2:48)

Dembele also got some very cool props. I mean, those French boys, they do it anyway, just when they show up for their national team. Which again, it made it feel to me like this is not really anything that we don't see on outside of a Champions League night where these guys get off the bus and walk down the tunnel and have cameras follow them all the way and they sign some water graphs.

It was not really different from that. But the award ceremony itself was absurd, fun.

Emma Paton (3:21)

Very cool to be there.

James Horncastle (3:23)

It was very cool to be there.

I did feel, I'm privileged to do what I do, but that was one of the things that I've not done. So to like take that off was quite good.

Emma Paton (3:34)

Did you walk the red carpet?

James Horncastle (3:36)

I didn't, no. No, like unfortunately, we were, so the event was held at the Palladium Theatre, one of London's most famous theatres, and there's an adjoining hotel, the Courthouse Hotel. We were sort of bunkered down in there, and then we got kind of shuttled into a back entrance, so no one could see you.

And we were then only sort of, and then we were put in the rafters, sort of as high away from the stage as possible. But at the end, it was really nice because we had to leave with a load of kids who had been brought in by France Football and UEFA to be there. So there's a load of gaggling school children, and then a load of gaggling journalists, who were essentially school children, still school children chatting and gossiping amongst themselves. And then we went backstage by the time everyone had cleared out to do these final press conferences with the two Ballon d'Or winners, Alexia Potellas and Harry Kane, which was quite special when everyone had cleared out and people were loading out. And Kane was, I think, still in disbelief. There was this great moment where he was checking his hair in the reflection of the Ballon d'Or. He was like, wow, you've made it now.