History suggests Golden Ball will be heading away from the World Cup young guns

David Brent knew that being in your 30s doesn't mean you're past your peak.

"We all wake up and we go oh, I ache, I'm not 18 any more, you know, I'm 30 you know... I'm in my 30s, I'm not, but so what, at least I've got my health" he explained in one of his many excruciating conversations in The Office.

Most professional footballers are almost written off once they hit their 30s these days and it's quite strange to see somebody not even middle-aged being casually described as a veteran.

But football seems to be for the young guns, or at least it normally is. The World Cup award for the Golden Ball - the best player of the tournament - seems to be one of the rare occasions when a more mature footballer is appreciated.

The Golden Ball was first introduced in 1982 in time for Paolo Rossi to win, followed four years later by Diego Maradona. Since then it is been awarded to Toto Schillaci, Romario, Brazilian Ronaldo, Oliver Kahn, Zinedine Zidane, Diego Forlan, Lionel Messi and Luka Modric.

Two things stand out. Firstly, only once since Maradona in 1986 has the Golden Ball winner also lifted the World Cup and that was Romario with Brazil 28 years ago.

The second is the age of the players. The last five of those - Kahn, Zidane, Forlan, Messi and then four years ago Modric - were all at least 30, which suggests it is almost becoming more of a lifetime achievement award rather than gong for the best player.

That was evident four years ago when Mbappe was not even in the top three for the Golden Ball despite being the best player in the tournament and by some distance. He won the young player equivalent and it felt almost as if he couldn't do both.

It's definitely worth keeping that in mind if you are looking to back someone who is aged 21 or under.

The recent trend would suggest the award will go to a player heading into the final few furlongs of his career, all of which brings up two fairly obvious candidates in 11-1 Messi and 33-1 Cristiano Ronaldo.

Messi has already said this will be his last World Cup and while you should never say never with Ronaldo, the Portuguese talisman will be 38 in February. He has said he intends to play at Euro 2024 and he might still hang around for the 2026 World Cup but realistically this should be his last opportunity to make an impact.

Both need to be on any shortlist and 12-1 Ballon d'Or winner Karim Benzema and 14-1 Kevin De Bruyne could have their backers, but at a similar price Neymar makes more sense.

Even though he has been acting like a teenager, Brazilian ace Neymar is 30 and fits the trends while 31-year-old Virgil van Dijk might also have his backers at 66-1 given Netherlands are fancied by many to have a decent tournament on their return to the World Cup.

There are only so many darts you can have but at the same odds of 66-1 it could pay to take a punt on Christian Eriksen.

The playmaker has a heart-warming back story given his near-death experience at Euro 2020 and Denmark were worthy semi-finalists in that competition.

As Brent said: "If you were to ask me to name three geniuses, I probably wouldn't say Einstein, Newton... you know. I'd go: Milligan, Cleese, Everett… Sessions.

Maybe he meant Messi, Ronaldo and Eriksen.

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