Declan Rice: Premier League Champion and Ballon d'Or Aspirant

Declan Rice has just helped drag a Premier League title back to Arsenal after a 22-year exile. He has become the heartbeat of Mikel Arteta’s midfield, a £105 million signing who has justified every brutal, scrutinised penny. So the question was always coming: is this the start of a Ballon d’Or journey?

Some are already looking ahead to 2026 and wondering if Rice can crash the Golden Ball conversation. If he drives England to glory on North American soil this summer, after six empty decades for the Three Lions, the noise around his name will only grow louder. A domestic title with Arsenal. A potential global crown with England. That is the kind of platform that usually catapults a player into the Ballon d’Or frame.

Not everyone is buying it yet.

Fowler’s verdict: praise with a ceiling

Robbie Fowler, a man who knows what it means to carry the expectations of a football-obsessed nation, isn’t ready to anoint Rice as one of the game’s absolute elite.

“I like Declan Rice,” the former England striker said, speaking exclusively to GOAL courtesy of BetMGM. And he does. The respect is clear. But so is the line he draws.

When Rice’s name gets floated alongside Steven Gerrard’s, Fowler doesn’t hesitate.

“I think when we talk about Declan Rice and how good he is, you compare him, obviously, to the likes of Stevie G. If I'm being honest, I don't think he's Steven's level. That's not me being all Liverpool.”

That’s the crux of it. Rice has grown, improved, expanded his game since leaving West Ham. Arsenal have given him a bigger stage and he has filled it with authority.

“I think Declan Rice, since he's gone to Arsenal, he has become a more complete player. But I don't think he's the level that Steven Gerrard is just yet. Look, Steven Gerrard never won the Ballon d'Or.”

That last line lands heavily. If Gerrard, a Champions League-winning captain and a generational midfielder, couldn’t climb all the way to the Golden Ball, what does that say about the mountain Rice is being asked to scale?

Arsenal’s engine, still revving up

Rice has been almost ever-present since walking through the doors at Emirates Stadium in 2023. He arrived as a West Ham academy product with a record-breaking fee attached and the burden of being “the final piece” in Arteta’s intricate jigsaw.

He has not shrunk from it.

Arsenal’s title, their first in over two decades, owes plenty to the control and drive Rice brings in the middle of the pitch. He has given them balance. He has given them bite. He has given them a platform to play the ambitious, suffocating football Arteta demands.

Yet when the 2025 Ballon d’Or votes were counted, Rice’s name appeared far from the podium. Twenty-seventh. Respectable, yes. Era-defining, no. At that point he had no major silverware with Arsenal, and his performances were judged without the sheen of a league winner’s medal.

Now the medal is there. The narrative has shifted. He even came agonisingly close to a historic double, only for Champions League heartache to cut across Arsenal’s season just as they were threatening to dominate on two fronts.

This is where Fowler’s nuance comes in.

“It is what it is in terms of his performances. He's been great for Arsenal and he's obviously gone up a notch. But I think he needs to go up another notch, if I'm being genuine in terms of his performances.”

The tone is not dismissive. It’s demanding. Fowler is setting the bar where the Ballon d’Or lives: among players who bend seasons, tournaments, eras to their will.

“It does sound like I'm having a little bit of a go, but I'm not. I think Declan Rice is a fantastic player, but I don't think he's on the realms of the Ballon d'Or list just yet.”

England’s hopes and a higher ceiling

For England, Rice is more than a midfielder. He is the anchor that allows their flair players to roam, the constant presence in front of the back four, the one who knits chaos into structure. If Gareth Southgate’s side are to finally end 60 years of waiting for a major trophy, Rice will be in the thick of it.

The stakes this summer are obvious. Help England conquer the world on North American soil and his reputation changes overnight. A Premier League title with Arsenal already in his pocket. A global crown with the Three Lions on top of that. Those are the ingredients that push a player from “excellent” into the orbit of the Golden Ball.

Rice himself would be the first to admit he is not yet at Gerrard’s level. The Kingston upon Thames native has never hidden from comparisons or pressure. He knows the ladder he is climbing, and he knows the rungs still above him.

The intention, though, is unmistakable. He wants to reach that tier where his name sits comfortably alongside the great English midfielders of the modern era, where his seasons are measured not just in consistency, but in defining moments and decisive trophies.

He has already become a title-winning cornerstone at one of England’s biggest clubs. He has already broken transfer records and reshaped a team’s identity from its engine room. The Ballon d’Or? That might still be some distance away.

But if Rice keeps stepping up those notches Fowler talks about, if he turns near-misses into medals and promise into dominance, the conversation will return. And next time, it may not be dismissed so quickly.