Michael Olise’s Numbers Put Him in Ballon d’Or Reckoning

With Bayern Munich’s excellent campaign to date accompanied by a record-breaking welter of Harry Kane goals it has naturally put the 30-year-old striker firmly in the reckoning for this year’s Ballon d’Or award.

The England captain is among the favourites for the ultimate individual honour, and it’s always a revealing development when peers begin to speculate on the matter. “He might win,” said Bruno Fernandes in an interview this week.

Yet, though Kane would unquestionably be a worthy winner, the possibility of his attacking partner-in-crime at Bayern, Michael Olise, making a late charge for the prize should not be downplayed.

Like his fellow Englishman, Olise has been in sensational form for Die Roten all season, putting together the kind of numbers and performances that catch the eye far beyond the Bundesliga.

A smartly taken goal at St. Pauli last weekend made it 12 strikes in the league, matching his tally for 2024/25. A lofty 20 assists meanwhile equates to a goal involvement every 64.5 minutes this term as Bayern forge forward to claim a 35th league title.

In the Champions League it has been a similar tale of excellence, Olise resplendent in Bayern’s group stage games before scoring twice and assisting for good measure in Atalanta in the last 16. At the Bernabeu, as the German side pulled off an impressive first-leg victory, the winger caused Real Madrid’s back-line problems all evening, drifting in off his right flank to fire four attempts, two on target. Once again, he finished with an assist to his name.

Joining the European giants from Crystal Palace in July 2024 for a reported €60m good things were certainly expected from the winger, but perhaps not greatness, a conservative estimation based presumably on his career trajectory to that point. A ‘late bloomer’ Olise went from Reading to the Eagles and had yet to prove himself on the biggest stages.

That all changed, and quickly, on signing for Bayern, and when his opening campaign, and this one, are combined it becomes very clear that Michael Olise is now an established superstar. As the chart below illustrates, only two other players across Europe’s big five leagues have accrued more goal involvements since the start of 2024/25.