It's over -- sort of, for a little while, at least.
The Champions League final wrapped up on June 1, and then the Euros kicked off less than two weeks later. And then the Copa América began less than a week after the Euros. It's been close-to-nonstop soccer since last August.
There's still more to come at the Olympics, which start next Friday, but there's at least a tiny break at the top of the men's game. (Women's soccer at the Olympics is a senior event, but it's mostly under-23 players in the men's competition.) Most of Europe's Big Five leagues won't start their next seasons for another month.
So, what the heck are we supposed to do now? Speculate about transfers, obviously. But also: we can take a look back. The soccer world still really hasn't developed any kind of satisfying award system to help mark the passage of time and create a kind of historical record for who the best players were in a given season. All we really have is one trophy, the Ballon d'Or, and that won't be handed out until late October.
However, changes made a couple of years ago now limit the performance period for the award to the previous season -- rather than the entire calendar year, as it was in the past. Argentina beating Colombia early in the morning of Monday, July 15, in Miami put a period on all of the 2024 Ballon d'Or arguments. So, with all of the games in the books: Who is going to win soccer's most prestigious individual award? And who should win it?