India, Sept. 19 -- Ballon d'Or conversations have well and truly started with just over a month to go before football's biggest individual award is handed out. The nominees are out, and players have already started making their case for why they should win. That has been one of the more interesting parts of this year's race, with the campaigning becoming much more direct even before the ceremony.

The usual humility has taken a bit of a back seat, with Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal both openly backing themselves for the award. But unlike much of the last decade, there is no clear-cut favourite this time. We had a two-way or three-way battle for much of that period, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominating the conversation and g...