Fara Williams column: Why Lionesses star deserved to win Ballon d’Or over ‘special’ Aitana Bonmati and my tribute to Matt Beard

Former England international Fara Williams will be providing exclusive insight and analysis for TNT Sports for the 2025/26 campaign. In her latest column, she explains why Barcelona and Spain midfielder Aitana Bonmati was fortunate to pick up her third Ballon d’Or in a row. Williams also breaks down why Ousmane Dembele deserved to win the men’s award as well as paying a touching tribute to her former manager Matt Beard following his tragic death last week.

If I had a vote and Spain had beaten the Lionesses in the final, I would’ve gone with Caldentey.

She was also so impactful for Arsenal. She had to move position, adapted really well and had a massive impact on the club.

If she managed to get Spain over the line in the final, there would’ve been no argument that Caldentey would be the winner.

But, I felt that this would be the year to watch someone different pick up the award and, in terms of her impact with Arsenal and the Lionesses in the summer, I felt this was the year for Alessia Russo.

It’s not just her goals but her assists and what she contributes off the ball. She was so important to the success of club and country, especially winning trophies, and that’s why I felt it should’ve been her standing up on that podium.

The fact that England won the Euros and Arsenal won the Champions League, with Russo being a massive part of both of those teams’s success, means that there shouldn’t have been an argument as to who deserved to win the Ballon d’Or this year.

This doesn’t take anything away from Bonmati’s qualities. She’s just special. She can do everything.

She’s a very smart player because when you try to mark her out of a game, she finds different ways of staying in it.

It’s her footballing intelligence that makes her so exciting to watch and she just glides across the pitch. She just makes the game look so easy.

She’s a fan favourite, and it’s not just because of what she produces on the pitch. She’s very likeable off the pitch and carries herself really well.

But if we’re speaking about the impact over the whole year, I think Russo deserved to win it.

It’s great to finally see the goalkeepers in the women’s game getting recognised in the Ballon d’Or.

People need to remember that she was under immense pressure to perform given the unexpected international retirement from Mary Earps just before the tournament started.

She hadn’t been the No. 1 for the Lionesses before and she also had back-up goalkeepers without international experience.

Hannah would’ve known she needed to prove herself, especially coming after a goalkeeper like Mary, who had a massive impact not just on the pitch but off the pitch too, and she’s a fan favourite.

To deliver in the way she did, especially with those penalty shoot-out saves against Sweden and then against Spain in the final, was just incredible.

I’ve watched Hannah over the years and despite all of her ability, it didn’t work out for her at Aston Villa.

But I knew that her talent could never be questioned and it was all about how she could mature, grow and develop into the player that she is today. It’s such an incredible achievement.

Before, the Ballon d’Or was an award that English players thought was out of their reach, especially because Kelly Smith was the best player in the world at times and was overlooked.

But after seeing five English players finish in the top 10 this year, it shows that our players are more recognised now after winning trophies at club level and on the international stage, and they are considered as some of the best in the world.

It will probably become more of a conversation about who can become the first English player to win the Ballon d’Or, and I think that will be Lauren James.

She is an unbelievable player and has equal ability to Bonmati but the three-time Ballon d’Or winner is showing it more on a consistent basis due to Lauren’s recent injury record.

I’m sure that she will be a Ballon d’Or winner, if she lives up to the level that we all know she can reach.

Now it’s just about her coming back from injury and hopefully having a good season with Chelsea, but in the next few years, there’s no doubt that she can win the award.

But what I really admire about Dembele is his resilience. It didn’t work out for him at Barcelona after a big-money move, so he left to join PSG and helped them to win the club’s first ever Champions League title.

Last year, PSG became an aggressive counter-pressing team especially in the final third, and he had to learn that and be open-minded to improve as a player without the ball.

He has improved his goal and assist contributions which has led to team success so I think it’s very hard to argue that he didn’t deserve to win the award.

However, if Liverpool had won the Champions League as well as the Premier League last season, I think Mo Salah would’ve been on that train home from Paris with his first Ballon d’Or in his arms.

It didn’t help him that Liverpool were knocked out by PSG in the last-16 stage, with Dembele scoring at Anfield while Salah failed to have a real impact in those games.

However, Salah did equal the goal contribution record in the Premier League with double figures for goals and assists and he just gets better and better with age in a similar way to Cristiano Ronaldo.

Even with the pressure of other players joining Liverpool, he still manages to maintain his performances at the highest level and prove he’s the main man at the club.

He had an incredible season and if you’re solely basing the award on individual stats, Salah’s numbers are much better than Dembele’s.

But I’m personally looking at the development of the player and how much Dembele improved under Luis Enrique.

First and foremost, condolences go out to his wife, Debbie, and his two kids, Harry and Ellie. It’s just tragic especially as I got to know him on a deeper level.

Originally, he was just a coach to me and somebody who took a huge chance on me when he got the job at Liverpool.

Beforehand, I wasn’t enjoying my football at Everton, and I had lost my way a bit and he just showed great belief in me.

From the moment we met, he was like a big brother, we shared the same sense of humour, and he became more than a manager to me.

He was a great mentor in terms of helping me with my coaching and getting the best out of me as a player.

I was named in the PFA Team of the Year for two years in a row when I played under him at Liverpool and then he helped me win my first and second WSL titles.

Outside of football, we remained friends and had regular conversations where we laughed and he was a bigger-than-life character.

He cared so much about everybody and gave everyone his time. He was ‘Del Boy’, as we used to call him – from south east London, Millwall man.

The two things that I knew about Matt is that he absolutely idolised his family first and foremost, and he equally loved football.

Those were two things in life that really brought happiness to him. It’s tragic for the game because he was there right at the beginning when no-one else cared about women’s football.

He would go to work and then make sure he was available to train Chelsea Women at the time, and he made a lot of sacrifices to grow the game.

He was so passionate about doing that and when you look at the outpouring of messages for him, the biggest thing to take away is that everyone talks about how much he cared about people and football, and he did that from start to finish.