Count Ballon d’Or is one of those great ancient institutions that is extremely popular. There are several reasons for it, too.
There’s history: The Ballon d’Or dates back to 1956, which means it predates the European Championships, yellow and red cards, substitutions, color TVs, remotes and of course, FIFA (video games) ). It is a fact that the top players are really interested in winning: clubs organize campaigns on behalf of their star players, the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo (despite having have five of these at home) was upset when it was canceled (like last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, while Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski’s facade lit up like a child’s when he heard his footsteps. reindeer on the roof knowing that he is among the favorites.
– FC 100 in 2021: Messi, Lewandowski among the number 1
– Messi to Lewandowski: You deserve the Ballon d’Or 2020
And then there’s the fact that it’s the natural fodder for endless discussions, both on social media and the bar-room type: if sports were a type lingua franca, then this is equivalent to talking about the weather, a natural conversation that begins when you don’t know what to say.
That’s why Barcelona’s Lionel Messi wins His seventh Ballon d’Or ahead of Chelsea’s Lewandowski and Jorginho was, for many, a big deal. Especially since – after Messi or his negative to yang, Ronaldo, has won 11 of the previous 12 – this looks like the year someone else could take the crown.
I say celebrate it for what it is: some kind global popularity contest/ water cool moment. And that’s good. Kindness knows that we could all use more shared experiences of the kind that don’t involve spike proteins. But please don’t confuse it with what it’s not – some sort of equivalent of an MVP award in US sports. In some ways, it’s akin to the Heisman Trophy of college football – prominent players who play in flashy positions at big schools with large fan bases playing in big Bowl games tend to win. – although there are two important turning points.
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The first is simply the jury. In an effort to make this award as comprehensive and comprehensive as possible, France Football (the magazine that awards the Ballon d’Or) will send votes to 180 journalists from 180 different countries. (Why not 211, since there are 211 member countries of FIFA? That’s one of the mysteries of the Ballon d’Or.)
Some might compare it to MVP or Heisman voters: those who embrace the grit of everyday sport and take part in multiple games. Many do not, simply because they are scattered all over the world and directly cover elite football which, in this day and age, is an expensive luxury for most news organisations.
As a result, some players definitely have an advantage. Players for famous teams. Those who play for teams that win competitions get high honors. The players play in the positions of strikers and attacking midfielders and therefore often create highlight packs. And those with good PR/social media teams. You know how both the AL and NL MVPs of this year’s Major League Baseball, Shohei Otani and Bryce Harper, didn’t make the knockouts? Well, it’s more likely that Lil Nas X reveals that he is in fact Q than something similar happening in football.
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Lionel Messi speaks after winning the record-long seventh Men’s Ballon d’Or.
Another reason is criteria. Representative of the United States on the jury, editor Paul Kennedy of Soccer America explain on Twitter that there are three guiding principles:
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1. Individual and team performance for calendar year 2021 (well, January 1 to October 24);
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2. Player’s talent and sportsmanship;
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3. Player’s overall career.
(Note also that even though it says “calendar year,” in reality all votes must come by October 24, so it’s really just under 10 months. Voters adhere to the criteria. solstice and whatever happens in November and December each year is completely irrelevant – consider it one of the quirks that make the Ballon d’Or so endearing.)
Personal performance makes sense and is a pretty standard bonus. Based entirely on that and looking at the top three, you could put Lewandowski (who scored 45 goals in 35 games for Bayern in the allotted period and broke the scoring record in a Bundesliga season that spanned almost half a century) ahead of Messi (31 goals out of 36) and Jorginho (much less, but, hey, he’s not a striker). However, put the “team performance” part of it in there, and you’re essentially giving the players an advantage over very good national team players.
Take the top three and you note that all three have won silver cups to varying degrees – Messi won the Copa del Rey with Barcelona and the Copa America with Argentina, Lewandowski won the Bundesliga with Bayern, Jorginho won it. Champions League with Chelsea and Euro with Italy. And since Messi and Jorginho have also won with their national teams, that is arguably a mark in their favor. Never mind that Lewandowski is Polish, which makes it a lot harder to win with your country.
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Don Hutchison and Jan Age Fjortoft believe Robert Lewandowski should have won the Ballon d’Or.
But it’s the next two criteria where things get really odd. Talent and sportsmanship?
I can live with sportsmanship – none of the top three are cartoon villains anyway – but talent? Really? Not only is it supremely subjective, but it also means that what you were born with (talent) is more important than what you do with it (application). And by that criterion, defenders and midfielders really don’t have to pray much. Not to mention it goes against the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), but again, France is known for being a proudly secular nation.
And then there’s the final criterion: the player’s overall career. Basically, this means that if you live in the age of Messi and Ronaldo and your name isn’t Messi or Ronaldo, you probably don’t need to bother with this category, because you won’t come close to the one in two.
Lewandowski is 33 years old and one of the greatest goalscorers in history, with a top 453 goals. Messi has scored less than 50% of the goals (676). Lewandowski won the Champions League; Messi has four. Lewandowski has no Ballons d’Or; Messi had six before the vote. How can Lewandowski (or anyone other than Ronaldo, who is equal in number to Messi) catch up?
But maybe that’s the point of the Ballon d’Or. It’s by no means scientific – the criteria are silly and possibly overlooked. Voters range from those with access and knowledge and experience to those with screens thousands of miles away who will only see these players in 2D.
It is meant to honor the sport’s elite performers. The players we admire, the stars we admire, the people who have done things we couldn’t, but once wished we could (and often still do). If you understand that, the discussions about whether Lewandowski or Jorginho or Karim Benzema or Ronaldo deserves more than Messi will be much less intense.
