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The Ballon d’Or doesn’t capture football’s wonder – Michael Olise is proof | Zito Madu

An empty football stadium and its pitch
File photograph: An empty football stadium and its pitch. Ben Wiens / Unsplash. Illustrative context, not a photograph of this reported event.
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France’s always-cool winger has crowds hanging on his every move – adulation that means more than any title could When I was younger, I wanted to be the captain on my football team because back then, I assumed that the armband was given to the best player. It was a goal of mine for so long that, even as my youth teams won tournaments and trophies, and I won top scorer and best player awards, I still felt unsatisfied because someone else always had the armband.

Whenever I saw another teammate sprinting around with the armband on, I took it as an indictment. I had forgotten this childish way of thinking until France v Belgium in the Uefa Nations League last week. Ousmane Dembélé, who was wearing the armband for France, was particularly active. Had it not been for the wastefulness of his teammates, he would have had several assists during his time on the field.

Read the original report at The Guardian.

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1 source from 1 organisation: 1 newspaper or magazine.

  1. 1The GuardianThe Guardian · theguardian.comNewspaper or magazine

Source headline and summary supplied via NewsData.io. First collected by NewsJaws on 2026-10-13. This is an automated news brief, not original NewsJaws reporting. Dates reflect the source publication. Feed delays may apply.

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