Rio Ferdinand has questioned the inclusion of Chelsea midfielder Jorginho among the top contestants for the 2021 Ballon d'Or award.
The former England international stated that, while he understands that the Italian won two major trophies during the 2020/21 season, he does not see the midfielder as the best player either at Chelsea or with the Italian national team.
Ferdinand made his comments on BT Sport on Wednesday night while weighing in on the subject of who the next Ballon d'Or winner should be. Jorginho was the fifth man in a lineup including Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Mohamed Salah.
"Jorginho is what baffles me. He's not the best player at Chelsea and he's not the best name on the sheet with Italy either," Ferdinand stated.
"This is a very good player, don't get me wrong. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful. But I don't see how he gets on the list of those players that these guys have been playing at," the 42-year-old said.
The former Manchester United defender noted that Jorginho's midfield partner at Chelsea, N'Golo Kante is more deserving of the opportunity, because of Kante's crucial contributions to Chelsea in the knockout stages of their victorious 2020/21 UEFA Champions League season.
"If you look at Chelsea, in the run-in to winning the Champions League, I think Kante was Man of the Match in five out of six of the last games. So it baffles me.
"He's won two of the biggest trophies, I get that, I understand it. But when you put him up against four of the other players there, it doesn't make sense to me."
However, Ferdinand could not pick out a clear winner between the four players beyond stating that Robert Lewandowski should have been part of the line-up instead. The former United captain highlighted Lewandowski's 56 goals involvement in 38 games during the 2020/21 season as a good argument for the Polish striker's inclusion.