Declan Rice: The Future of English Football and Ballon d’Or Aspirations
Declan Rice is driving English football’s new era. Golden Ball talk, though? Robbie Fowler is not ready to go there yet.
The Arsenal midfielder has just powered Mikel Arteta’s side to a historic Premier League title, ending a 22-year wait in north London and confirming his status as the heartbeat of a team finally over the line. He cost £105 million in 2023, a then British record, and has played like it. Relentless, robust, relentlessly available. Arsenal put him in the engine room and the whole machine shifted up a gear.
That kind of impact always drags a player into the Ballon d’Or conversation. Especially when the same player is central to England’s hopes of ending six decades of hurt on the international stage.
Rice has become one of the last pieces in Arsenal’s trophy-winning puzzle. The logic is simple: if he can now carry that influence onto North American soil with the Three Lions and lift a global crown, his name will climb rapidly up the Golden Ball shortlist. A domestic title with Arsenal, a World Cup or continental triumph with England, leadership qualities that scream “future captain” – it is the kind of portfolio that voters notice.
There is a catch. His own generation grew up watching another English midfielder dominate games and European nights. That shadow still looms large.
Fowler’s verdict: Rice still short of Gerrard’s level
Robbie Fowler knows what true world-class looks like. He watched it from close quarters at Liverpool. So when the former England striker is asked if Rice can become a perennial Ballon d’Or contender, his answer carries weight.
“I like Declan Rice,” Fowler told GOAL, speaking courtesy of BetMGM. The praise came first, but the comparison followed quickly. When the conversation turns to greatness, it inevitably drifts towards Steven Gerrard.
Fowler did not dress it up. He said Rice is not yet at Gerrard’s level, stressing that this is not tribal bias but a football judgement. Since moving to Arsenal, Rice has become a more complete player, Fowler acknowledged, but the bar Gerrard set remains brutally high. Even Gerrard, who dragged Liverpool to a Champions League title and finished third in the 2005 Ballon d’Or voting, never actually won the award.
That is the context. If Gerrard at his peak could not land the Golden Ball, what does Rice still need to add?
Fowler’s answer is simple: another gear. Rice has already gone “up a notch” at Arsenal. To live in Ballon d’Or territory, Fowler believes he must go up one more. Not a swipe, he insisted, but a reality check. A fantastic player, yes. A defining one, not quite yet.
From 27th on the list to the top of the world?
The numbers back up the sense that Rice’s rise is still in motion, not complete. In the 2025 Ballon d’Or vote, he finished 27th. Respectable, but nowhere near the podium. At that point he had not yet lifted major silverware with Arsenal, and individual observers around the world judged him accordingly.
That has changed. A Premier League medal now hangs around his neck. He came agonisingly close to a famous double, pushing Arsenal towards a piece of history that slipped from their grasp only at the final hurdle. Those experiences harden a player. They also sharpen the narrative around them.
Now the spotlight shifts again. This time to England, to a country that has not tasted major tournament glory since 1966 and is desperate for a new talisman to carry them over the line. Rice is not the showman in this side. He is the anchor, the organiser, the player who allows others to dance. But awards panels increasingly understand the value of that role.
England will hope he becomes their lucky charm on North American soil. If he returns with a global title, the conversation around his Ballon d’Or credentials will sound very different.
Chasing Gerrard’s shadow
Rice himself is under no illusions. The Kingston upon Thames native has never claimed to sit alongside Gerrard in the game’s hierarchy. At this stage of his career, he knows he is still climbing.
What defines him, though, is his appetite for that climb. He has never shied away from a challenge – not when he left West Ham, not when he walked into a dressing room built to win titles, not when he took on the responsibility of patrolling midfield for club and country.
That is why the idea of a future Golden Ball does not feel outlandish, just premature. If he keeps stacking titles, if he marries Arsenal’s domestic success with a defining international triumph, the gap between him and the legends he is measured against will narrow.
For now, Rice stands where many great midfielders once did: on the edge of the elite, looking up. The question is no longer whether he belongs in the conversation. It is how quickly he can turn potential into the kind of dominance that forces the football world to call him the best on the planet.
