Declan Rice: From Arsenal Star to Ballon d’Or Contender
Declan Rice has already dragged one sleeping giant back to the summit. Now people are wondering if he can climb to the very top himself.
The Arsenal midfielder’s role in ending a 22-year wait for the Premier League title has inevitably pushed his name into the Ballon d’Or conversation. You don’t dominate a season in the engine room of a champion, at a club as scrutinised as Arsenal, without someone asking the question: just how high is his ceiling?
The £105m cornerstone
When Arsenal paid a then British record £105 million to prise Rice from West Ham in 2023, it felt like a statement of intent. It has since looked like smart business.
Rice has barely missed a beat or a minute. Installed at the heart of Mikel Arteta’s side, he has become the metronome and the muscle, the player who knits together an intricate, title-winning structure. For a team that had already taken strides under Arteta, he was the piece that made the whole picture sharper.
Now he carries that authority into an England shirt.
A nation that has gone 60 years without a major trophy is pinning a significant portion of its hope on a midfielder who seems to grow with every pressure point. If he can turn domestic dominance into a global crown with the Three Lions on North American soil this summer, the Ballon d’Or debate will get louder. A World Cup or major international title changes everything; it always has.
Rice, widely tipped as a future England captain, knows that. So do the voters.
Fowler’s verdict: not Gerrard level… yet
Not everyone is ready to anoint him.
Robbie Fowler, never one to tiptoe around an opinion, believes Rice still has serious ground to make up before anyone talks about him as the best player on the planet.
Asked by GOAL, via BetMGM, whether Rice can become a regular Ballon d’Or contender, the former England and Liverpool striker drew the most demanding comparison possible for an English midfielder: Steven Gerrard.
“I like Declan Rice,” Fowler said, before setting the bar. He pointed straight at Gerrard, the ex-England captain and Liverpool icon who finished third in the 2005 Ballon d’Or voting, and made it clear where he feels the gap lies.
Fowler’s view is blunt. Rice has become a more complete player at Arsenal, he’s gone “up a notch”, but he is not at Gerrard’s level and not yet in what Fowler would call Ballon d’Or territory. Gerrard, as he noted, never actually won the award himself.
The message is simple: Rice has been excellent, but the climb to true elite status is steeper still.
From 27th place to the elite?
The numbers back up the idea that Rice is still at the beginning of his Ballon d’Or journey, not the end.
In the 2025 Ballon d’Or vote, he finished 27th. Respectable, but a long way from the podium. At that point, he did not have a major trophy with Arsenal to his name, and his season ended in Champions League final disappointment. The individual recognition came without the weight of silverware behind it.
That has changed.
Rice now has a Premier League winner’s medal and came agonisingly close to a historic double with Arsenal. He was not a passenger in that run; he was central to it. Performances across a full campaign, in high-stakes matches, have started to harden his reputation among observers around the world.
The next phase belongs to England.
Chasing Gerrard, chasing history
Rice, by all accounts, is grounded enough to know he is not yet in Gerrard’s bracket. That honesty is part of what endears him to team-mates and coaches. But acceptance is not the same as resignation.
He wants that level. He wants that responsibility. He has never been the type to shy away from a challenge, whether it was leaving West Ham, shouldering a record fee, or stepping into a title race.
Now comes the biggest stage of all. If he can turn domestic dominance into international glory, if he can anchor England to a trophy that has eluded generations, the conversation around his name will change overnight.
Ballon d’Or winner? Not yet.
Future Ballon d’Or winner? With his trajectory, his temperament and the weight of club and country on his shoulders, that question is only going to get louder.
