We’re now less than a week away from the Ballon d’Or ceremony in London, and Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane has a very realistic shot at winning this year’s honor. There have been reports circulating on social mediasuggesting the England skipper has already been told he’s the winner, but everything is still speculative at best. For what it’s worth, everything seems to be pointing toward Kane duking it out with Barcelona and Spain’s Lamine Yamal to get the nod at the London Palladium.

In Bayern’s 2–2 Champions League draw with Arsenal on Wednesday night at the Allianz Arena, Kane again showed why he’s a contender for the Ballon d’Or. Heset up Alphonso Davies with a surgical pass for Bayern’s first goal of the night and calmly converted a penalty in the second half for Bayern’s second. He was incredibly effective at dropping deeper and spraying long passes across the pitch—something he’s been doing to great effect at Bayern. A quickly taken goal kick from the striker in the first half very nearly set up a goal for Serge Gnabry, but David Raya made an excellent save to deny what would’ve been a sensational goal. It started with Kane’s quick thinking and presence of mind to ping a forty-yard pass to Davies, though Ismaël Saibari’s one-touch layoff was perhaps just ever so slightly too far behind Gnabry for him to make more lethal contact.

Kane is coming off a season where he scored 73 goals between club and country, and he’s already tallied 10 goals and 7 assists for Bayern so far this season, having also scored in all 4 of England’s UEFA Nations League matches during the most recent international break. All things considered, this is the first time since Michael Owen in 2001 that an English player has a real shot at winning the Ballon d’Or, and the first time since Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in 1981 that a Bayern player has a chance of winning it (following Robert Lewandowski’s snub in 2020).

While doing punditry work for TNT Sports, Liverpool and England legend Steven Gerrard offered his take on Kane’s likelihood of winning the Ballon d’Or, saying that, for him, there’s really no argument against Kane taking home the award.

“I just think Harry’s ticked every single box. Mr. Reliable, Mr. Consistent. Absolute goal machine. I just don’t think there’s an argument against it [him winning the Ballon d’Or], and I wish him all the best come that ceremony on Monday. I think it’s now or never for him,” Gerrard stressed.