He's the best in the world. But you won't believe it.

You rarely read news about Caroline Graham Hansen. We know that he plays for Barcelona, ​​​​and he does well, but in Norway he is still remembered for his explosion against his own team in last year's World Cup.

He has never won an award like the Ballon d'Or, which is awarded to the world's best player.

However, Graham Hansen has now provided numbers for Barcelona that surpass Lionel Messi.

No one has wreaked so much havoc in the limelight without being seen.

Cheat code

Neither in Norway nor abroad does the public seem to understand what Graham Hansen achieved.

Martin Ødegaard scored 16 goals in 36 games for Arsenal this season. That's good for a midfielder who also works hard, and he deserves to be recognized as one of the best in the Premier League. But let's say he's given up a little more.

Let's say Ødegaard scores 51 goal points in 30 games. These are numbers taken from a video game, and with a cheat code like that, Arsenal can definitely win the league title.

Graham Hansen provides these figures. He is this cheat code.

Goal: 26
Goals scored: 25

And he's been doing it since September.

The highest in Europe

No player in Europe can come close to this productivity.

In the Spanish League, Graham Hansen scored 17 goals and 16 assists, the most in both categories.

He was involved in more than two goals per full league game he played, something even Messi couldn't do during his long career at Barcelona.

Who has the most goal points in the Champions League? Caroline Graham Hansen.

He has taken Barcelona to another cup final and is on his way to a fifth consecutive league title. On Thursday night, he was involved in two goals as Barcelona beat Brann in the Champions League quarter-finals. It's almost impossible to play better.

Now people are starting to talk about the Ballon d'Or.

This year huh?

Which brings us to one of football's greatest mysteries.

The Ballon d'Or is awarded by France Football magazine to the world's best player, and is based on votes from players, coaches and journalists. 10 days ago, the Goal website ranked the favorites for 2024, and Graham Hansen is the best.

On Wednesday, Catalan sports newspaper L'Esportiu published a front page with a picture of Graham Hansen and the following headline:

– This year, huh?

The title makes it seem as if Graham Hansen almost won the Ballon d'Or before. He has won the Norwegian Golden Ball, the prize for Norway's best player, four of the last five years. But this brings us to one of football's greatest mysteries:

Not only has he never won the international Ballon d'Or.

He has never been nominated.

Eight league titles in a row

It was France Football who was on the list of players who could receive votes, and Graham Hansen's name had never been there.

Not to mention last year, when they nominated 30 players.

It's okay if he hasn't won the Ballon d'Or. Graham Hansen has struggled with injuries and is often in the shadow of his teammates, who have won four of the five awards since the Ballon d'Or was first awarded to women: First Hegerberg (2018), and then Barcelona playmaker Alexia Putellas (2021 , 2022) and Aitana Bonmatí (2023).

But the fact that Graham Hansen didn't get a nomination is a scandal.

For five years, Graham Hansen continued to appear as the best team in the world. When he joined Barcelona in 2019, they had not won the league for four years. Now they are on course for a fifth consecutive, as well as a fourth consecutive Champions League final.

Previously, Graham Hansen won three consecutive league titles with Wolfsburg in Germany.

In short: The team that has Graham Hansen wins.

(Well, apart from Norway at that.)

He also hasn't received much praise in the FIFA Player of the Year awards. He finished in eighth place in 2020, and in the last two years he has not been nominated.

From a sporting point of view, it doesn't make sense.

The newspapers know

Those who follow Barcelona know how good Graham Hansen is.

Barcelona coach Jonatan Giráldez called him one of the best in the world. The press in Catalonia wrote about the figures he presented. The British newspaper The Guardian named the 100 best players in the world, and Graham Hansen was in the top eight for the fourth year in a row.

Now in January he is number seven.

– He is still overlooked when it comes to individual awards, the paper wrote this year.

In 2021, Graham Hansen was unstoppable as Barcelona won the treble. People were so confused that he was overlooked for the Ballon d'Or, he even took to Twitter to say he didn't care.

– For anyone wondering: It's going well, he wrote.

This week, Graham Hansen told The Guardian that he no longer cares about individual awards. They don't help the team anyway, he says, and that's true.

However, this does not make this case unfair.

It's hard to be Norwegian

The Norwegian national team undoubtedly ruined Graham Hansen's chances.

Every year there is EC and WC, he is weaker than his Spanish teammate. This championship is very important in women's football, as few people watch matches from the domestic league. It is only during major international tournaments that the world follows suit.

Graham Hansen also doesn't care about establishing himself as a brand. He does his job and then he goes home. On Instagram, he has 258,000 followers, Bonmatí has ​​1.6 million, and Putellas has 3.3 million.

Popularity should not determine when France Football makes the list.

But what other arguments could they raise?

Deserves better

Perhaps this joke is reason enough not to take the award seriously.

In the men's sector, Erling Braut Haaland was excluded from the FIFA awards in January. The prize does not include the 2022 World Cup, but the players gave an interview in which they said they chose the winner, Lionel Messi, “because he has won the World Cup”.

However, Graham Hansen and Gullballen are a special case, because it's not about votes. It is France Football that has not nominated him.

But they have to do that this year. Otherwise, they will make the Ballon d'Or a joke. Putellas has been battling injury, and not even Bonmatí's magic leaves Graham Hansen in the shadows.

This girl from Tåsen played so well that she couldn't be ignored any longer.

There is no certainty yet whether he will actually win the Ballon d'Or. Whatever Barcelona does in the Champions League, Bomnatí can win the Olympics in Paris, where Norway does not participate, and he has already won the Nations League with Spain.

But Graham Hansen should fare high – very high – when the votes are counted in October.

If only for the sake of justice.