Declan Rice reacts to growing Ballon d'Or conversations at Arsenal

Arsenal superstar Declan Rice feels elated to be part of the Ballon d'Or conversations this season, although he clearly mentions that his priority will always be team success.

Rice has been by far the best player for this Arsenal side this season. In fact, ever since he joined the club, he has been one of the most consistent players on this team, and he has always performed at a very high level.

There have been moments where he has made mistakes, but that is the case with literally every single player in world football and there is no doubt that Rice will make these mistakes in the future as well.

Rice has generally been top-notch and flawless for Arsenal. The mistakes he has made have been too rare for people to be talking about them as much as they have. Even including those mistakes, Rice has still had a really good season.

He has been included in some of the conversations regarding the Ballon d'Or that will be awarded later this year, presumably in October.

Declan Rice reacts to growing Ballon d'Or conversations at Arsenal

On that, Rice only had good things to say. He replied: “It’s unreal, obviously. You want to be involved in them conversations. I think they’re the right ones to be involved in.

"Obviously, I appreciate the fans for saying that. It’s such a long way away because I need to keep playing well. I need to keep maintaining this level. But also, you see the recent Ballon d’Or winners, what they’ve won during their season.

“Hopefully we can have a successful season and I can be involved in them conversations. That would be amazing. If not, that’s not something that I’m setting my eye on. I really want the team to do well first.

“We’re lucky enough, like I said, to be in every competition still at this stage of the season. There are so many big teams who’ve been knocked out already. So we put ourselves in a really strong position to go forward and put ourselves in the best way.”

Those things are often controlled by the media narrative and the fans' discussions online, but for a player it is good to be in those conversations because that means you are doing something well.

Rice will undoubtedly continue to have a really good season for club and country, especially because of how much more responsibility he has compared to before.

Now, he is seeing the ball more, progressing the ball more, and his defensive numbers have also been very good and very high. He is assuming more and more leadership, which is always good, because if there is one thing Arsenal have lacked at times, it is leaders.

It remains to be seen whether Rice is still in that conversation later on, because for him to be a high-ranked nominee or a contender, he would have to win trophies.

As Rice said, these awards, as good as they are and as much pride as they bring to the player, are secondary. Team success is always more important and Rice would rather win the treble and not win the Ballon d'Or than the other way around.

It remains to be seen what happens, but it does seem to be a very good year so far for Rice.