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Wood Double Beats Leicester, Lifts Forest into Premier League Top 5

Soccer Football - Premier League - Leicester City v Nottingham Forest - King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain - October 25, 2024 Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their third goal. REUTERS/Molly Darlington
Soccer Football - Premier League - Leicester City v Nottingham Forest - King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain - October 25, 2024 Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their third goal. REUTERS/Molly Darlington
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Wood Double Beats Leicester, Lifts Forest into Premier League Top 5

Soccer Football - Premier League - Leicester City v Nottingham Forest - King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain - October 25, 2024 Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their third goal. REUTERS/Molly Darlington
Soccer Football - Premier League - Leicester City v Nottingham Forest - King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain - October 25, 2024 Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates scoring their third goal. REUTERS/Molly Darlington

When Chris Wood scores Nottingham Forest don’t lose.
The big New Zealander proved it again on Friday as he scored twice in a 3-1 win over Midlands rival Leicester in the English Premier League.
Wood’s second-half double was his sixth and seventh goals in nine games. On each occasion, Forest has won or drawn, The Associated Press reported.
“It’s all down to the team," a modest Wood said. "They supply me with a lot of chances. I’m not one who’s going to beat four players and stick one in the top corner. I rely on the service of my teammates and they just keep delivering for me.”
Friday's win came just five days after Wood scored for Forest to beat Crystal Palace 1-0, and sent Nuno Espirito Santos’ buoyant team from eighth place to fifth.
Leicester was 14th.
Ryan Yates put Forest ahead with a lovely strike after 16 minutes. The Leicester defense failed to clear its lines and the scuffed clearance fell to the feet of Yates, who drove a low shot into the bottom corner from 25 meters out.
Leicester talisman Jamie Vardy equalized seven minutes later when he stole in between defenders to touch in a Harry Winks cross.
A superb save from Mads Hermansen stopped Nicolás Dominguez from giving Forest the lead again two minutes later but the visitor was not to be denied as it took control of the game after the interval.
With 47 minutes gone, Wood had his back to goal and six defenders within a meter or two but they never got near as he turned and struck an unstoppable shot into the corner of the net.
His third came on the hour mark when defender Wout Faes’ weak header fell perfectly for him to nod over stranded keeper Hermansen.
Leicester boss Steve Cooper is still admired at Forest, the club he coached back into the Premier league after a 23-year absence in 2022. But he was scathing of his side's errors on Friday.
“It’s self-inflicted," he said. "We all have to take responsibility for how the game panned out.
"We made some poor mistakes for the goals. Conceding so early on in the second half was not a good thing but there was still a lot of time for the game to settle again. The third goal was just a real killer. We just lost any sort of rhythm that we had in the first half. It’s on us, and a setback after winning a few games coming into this.”

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Move over Messi and Ronaldo. A New Generation of Soccer Stars Is Lining up to Win the Ballon d'Or

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior looks on during the UEFA Champions League soccer match between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, in Madrid, Spain, 22 October 2024. (EPA)
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior looks on during the UEFA Champions League soccer match between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, in Madrid, Spain, 22 October 2024. (EPA)
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Move over Messi and Ronaldo. A New Generation of Soccer Stars Is Lining up to Win the Ballon d'Or

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior looks on during the UEFA Champions League soccer match between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, in Madrid, Spain, 22 October 2024. (EPA)
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior looks on during the UEFA Champions League soccer match between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, in Madrid, Spain, 22 October 2024. (EPA)

No Lionel Messi. No Cristiano Ronaldo.

When the Ballon d'Or is presented at a gala ceremony in Paris on Monday, it will feel like the start of a new era in football. There is also a sense of void now that one of sport's most engrossing rivalries is likely over.

"It's interesting that as it starts to come to an end, we are sort of saying, what's the next equivalent rivalry going to be," soccer author Jonathan Wilson told The Associated Press. "As if that kind of rivalry was a natural state. But there's never been a rivalry like that before."

Messi and Ronaldo won football's most prestigious individual award a combined 13 times over a 16-year period of unprecedented dominance. Neither has been nominated this year.

Instead, Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior is the favorite to be crowned the world's best player and become the first winner born this century.

He underlined his credentials this week with a stunning Champions League hat-trick against Borussia Dortmund.

"Vinicius had an incredible season where he was a key player... he proved he's the best player in the world," Madrid teammate Lucas Vazquez said.

But rather than Vinicius spearheading a new era of dominance, it seems likely the award will revert to a time before Messi and Ronaldo when multiple winners were relatively rare.

France great Zinedine Zidane, for instance, only won it once. The same goes for Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Luis Figo and George Best. Originally limited to European players, it was never won by Pele or Diego Maradona.

Before Messi, the last player to win back-to-back awards was Dutch striker Marco van Basten in 1988 and '89.

Messi won a record-extending eighth Ballon d'Or last year after leading Argentina to triumph at the World Cup in 2022. Wilson, who wrote about the history of Argentinian football in his book "Angels With Dirty Faces," sees no obvious successor to the Barcelona great, now at Inter Miami.

"Messi's been phenomenal for 17, 18 years," he said. "It's not a pure tallying process, but in terms of greatness over a protracted period, Messi is the greatest there has ever been by quite some margin.

"I don't think there's anybody in the world now who has anything remotely close to that talent."

Such was the dominance of Messi and Ronaldo, not only would Vinicius Junior become the first winner born this century, but there has never even been a recipient born in the '90s.

Vinicius Junior, whose goals helped Madrid to a record-extending 15th European Cup last season, is part of a new generation of stars that are flourishing as Messi and Ronaldo reach the final stages of their careers.

Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham and Lamine Yamal make up a field of contenders who could challenge for years to come.

Manchester City midfielder Rodri is second favorite to win this year and would become the first player born in the '90s to take the award.

Mbappe, who has long-been seen as the heir to Messi and Ronaldo as the world's best player, was born in 1998, meaning it's likely there will eventually be a winner from that decade even if Rodri misses out.

The only other winners since Ronaldo won his first Ballon d'Or in 2008 were Luka Modric in 2018 and Karim Benzema in 2022. Both were born in the 1980s.

The award was cancelled in 2020, when Robert Lewandowski was widely regarded the best player that year. He was also born in the '80s.

Neymar, born in 1992, came third on two occasions.

The Ballon d'Or was created by France Football magazine and has been awarded since 1956. It is voted for by journalists from the top 100 countries in the FIFA rankings.

Each journalist, one per country, selects 10 players in ranked order, with points attributed to each position. The winner is the player who receives the most points.

The dominance of Messi and Ronaldo in the age of social media has heightened the profile of the award.

Players talk of their dream to win it in a manner they may have spoken about the Champions League and World Cup in the past.

The potential to win it is used during transfer negotiations, with clauses added to contracts stipulating a buying club will pay extra costs if a player goes on to be crowned the best player in the world.

While Vinicius appears to be in pole position this year, Mbappe vs. Haaland has the potential to develop into a new rivalry for the award — particularly given they are strikers for Madrid and Manchester City, respectively, the two best teams in Europe in recent years.

"That whole idea of rivalries and sort of head-to-head, one-v-ones is just such a big part of football now," soccer author Matt Oldfield told The Associated Press. "People want to be able to simplify it to one-v-one, and I think the Mbappe-Haaland debate will be the leading one."

Oldfield writes children's books about football and on visits to schools he gauges the popularity of players among young fans.

His latest series is called "The Football GOAT (greatest of all time)."

The first book in the series centered around Messi and Ronaldo. The next is about Mbappe and Haaland: "We're kind of moving beyond Messi and Ronaldo now," he said.