Russo tipped for Ballon d´Or by Asante after Euro 2025 triumph - Soccer News

[ad_1] Alessia Russo is a contender for this 12 months’s Ballon d’Or Feminin after serving to Arsenal and England to main ultimate wins, believes former Gunners defender Anita Asante.

Russo cancelled out a header from Arsenal team-mate Mariona Caldentey with considered one of her personal as England drew 1-1 with Spain within the Euro 2025 ultimate on Sunday, with the Lionesses then rising 3-1 victors from a penalty shoot-out.

England turned simply the second nation to retain the Ladies’s Euros crown, after Germany did so in 1989 and 1991 and once more at six straight editions from 1995 to 2013.

Russo, in the meantime, took her tally at main tournaments (World Cup/Euros) to 9 objectives, with solely Ellen White (10) ever scoring extra for England.

Two months earlier, Russo began as Arsenal beat Barcelona 1-0 within the Champions League ultimate, ending the Gunners’ 18-year look forward to a second European crown.

And Asante, who was a part of the Arsenal crew that received the since-renamed UEFA Ladies’s Cup in 2007 and received 71 senior caps for England, believes she may take Aitana Bonmati’s crown because the world’s finest participant.

“Completely, she’s in that dialog,” Asante informed Stats Carry out. “Alessia Russo continues to be a younger participant.

“It doesn’t really feel prefer it due to how a lot she’s skilled already in her profession, however she’s such a pivotal participant for England.

“She is the focus. We focus quite a bit on strikers and their outputs, scoring objectives, assists, issues like that.

“Russo does all of that, however she additionally works so onerous off the ball, and I believe the modern-day striker, you can't have these luxurious strikers any extra, the strikers that I grew up watching within the 90s, within the early 2000s… they not often exist.

“A lot of the best way the trendy recreation is, gamers face a lot stress with the ball and also you want forwards that may set off a press, that enable the crew to win the ball increased up the pitch and be simpler and in addition preserve power.

“Russo does all of that and to have been in a World Cup ultimate, received a Euros, the Champions League, then received the Euros once more, it’s unimaginable.

“She needs to be in that dialog as a result of she’s doing it on the stage that everybody pays probably the most consideration to, actually on the elite stage.”

Russo was not the one Arsenal participant to play a distinguished function in England’s triumph, with Leah Williamson lifting the trophy as captain for a second time, having missed the 2023 World Cup resulting from harm.

Asante added: “It goes with out saying, Leah Williamson has been tremendously necessary.

“With the departures of Millie Vibrant and Mary Earps, no Frank Kirby, we wanted a giant determine, somebody with presence, somebody who’s so level-headed.

“She’s a very clever participant. I believe she has good emotional intelligence as properly and recognises the wants of her crew in the proper second. I believe her being accessible for this event was like gaining a brand new participant, which gave the crew a brand new sense of life.

“She’s a relaxing presence and I believe while you’ve performed a event like England have, underneath various stress all through a variety of matches, you want these gamers that remind everybody it’s simply one other recreation of soccer and don’t get sucked into enjoying with panic.”

Chloe Kelly and Alessia Russo are recognised for his or her excellent Euro marketing campaign

Our two Gunners have been named within the @weuro2025 Workforce of the Match

— Arsenal Ladies (@ArsenalWFC) July 29, 2025

One other Arsenal star – Chloe Kelly – scored the successful penalty in Sunday’s shoot-out, and Asante believes the Gunners’ European success labored to England’s benefit.

“Yeah, I do assume there's a hyperlink to that,” she stated. “Once you win a Champions League ultimate in opposition to probably the greatest, if not the perfect crew in girls’s soccer…

“That was a monumental step, but it surely was additionally a shift of their perception, psychologically, which you could beat the perfect.

“They might take that into the Euros while you’re enjoying a Spanish crew which can be the world champions. They've quite a few gamers that play for Barcelona of their nationwide crew.

“These are gamers they might have confronted already. Data shared is an issue halved, and I believe while you’ve received Arsenal gamers on the pitch who've been there, skilled it, know what it takes, it positively impacted the general perception system of the squad.”