Declan Rice: Arsenal's Title-Winning Midfielder Eyeing Ballon d'Or Glory

Declan Rice has just powered Arsenal to a first Premier League title in 22 years, anchored their midfield like he was born for it, and dragged a club of vast expectations into a new era. Talk of the Ballon d’Or was always going to follow.

Some see 2026 as his moment. A Golden Ball charge off the back of domestic glory in north London and a World Cup tilt with England in North America feels like a natural next step for a player who has become the heartbeat of Mikel Arteta’s side. Rice, signed from West Ham in 2023 for a then British record £105 million, has barely missed a beat since. He has been the constant in Arsenal’s surge, the final piece in a title-winning puzzle that had tormented the club for two decades.

That kind of influence usually drags a player into the individual awards conversation. Win a global crown with the Three Lions, end 60 years of international frustration, and the narrative writes itself: the £105m midfielder who conquered England with Arsenal and then the world with his country. Ballon d’Or voters love that sort of storyline.

Not everyone is convinced the timing is right.

Robbie Fowler, a former England striker and Liverpool icon, hears the Rice hype but refuses to get carried away. The comparison that keeps coming back is the one Rice will never escape: Steven Gerrard. The standard-bearer. The benchmark.

“I like Declan Rice,” Fowler said, speaking to GOAL courtesy of BetMGM. Then came the measuring stick. When the conversation turns to greatness in an England midfield shirt, it inevitably runs through Gerrard, the man who finished third in the 2005 Ballon d’Or. For Fowler, Rice is not yet walking in that company.

He sees improvement, no question. Since joining Arsenal, Rice has rounded out his game, added layers to his passing, his positioning, his authority. He looks like a more complete player than the one who left West Ham. But Gerrard’s level? Not yet. And that matters when the debate shifts from “top midfielder” to “best player on the planet”.

There’s another cold fact on the table. In the 2025 Ballon d’Or vote, Rice finished 27th. Respectable, but nowhere near the podium. That ranking came at the end of a season in which he failed to get his hands on major silverware with Arsenal. The performances were admired globally, just not enough to catapult him into the elite bracket of candidates.

This year changed that part of the equation. Rice now has a Premier League title on his CV and came agonisingly close to a historic double, driving Arsenal towards a season that would have echoed through the club’s history. He has moved from “excellent signing” to “era-defining figure” at the Emirates.

The question is whether that leap at club level, even with a domestic crown secured, instantly translates into Ballon d’Or territory. Fowler doesn’t think so. To him, Rice still needs to “go up another notch” in his performances before he belongs on that shortlist. It is not a dismissal, more a demand. A challenge to hit the heights where every big game bends around you.

Rice himself would probably agree with some of that. The Kingston upon Thames native has never pretended to be Gerrard. He knows where he stands in the pantheon for now. But he also knows where he wants to be. He carries himself like a future England captain, a player who sees the climb rather than the ceiling.

Now comes the international test. Arsenal’s title is banked; the Champions League heartache still stings. The stage shifts to North America, to a summer where England will again chase the trophy that has eluded them since 1966. If Rice can turn his club authority into global dominance, if he can be the anchor and the catalyst in an England side that finally goes all the way, the Ballon d’Or conversation changes overnight.

He is not Gerrard yet. He is not Ballon d’Or material yet. But he is close enough to see it, close enough to chase it, and nowhere near the type to turn away from that climb. The next two years will decide whether Declan Rice remains a cornerstone of great teams or becomes something even rarer: the kind of midfielder the world votes for.