It’s confusing if it’s an individual award or if the teams that win major trophies would determine the winner. No consistency. Not sure what vague parameters they consider and then never live by it. And always end up being more of a glamour award.
The worst part is every football team has 11 players and not just the goal scorers. Except the ones whose stats become obvious because of trophies or penalties, the others are not in contention at all to win this. Well, aren’t those football players at the end? What would a keeper for example have to do to win it?
Lamine Yamal’s father claiming ‘something strange has happened’ as his son didn’t win
Speaking via video call, Nasraoui stopped short of saying his son had been “robbed” of the award but insisted he had been harmed by the outcome. “It’s not theft, but moral damage to a human being,” he argued. For him, “Lamine Yamal is by far the best player in the world.” He stressed that his opinion was not simply a father’s bias but an objective view: “It’s not just because he’s my son – he really is the best player in the world.”
If Dembele is the best footballer on the planet, seemingly for the reason that he spearheads the attack for the team that won the Champion’s League, then Mo Salah should have got it in 2019.
Dembele is a really good player, but PSG is all about the system, and you could drop any one of a dozen players into that role he plays, surrounded by brilliant players and expected to finish chances, and they would similarly thrive.
It’s all pointless. It’s a team sport and awarding individual prizes makes absolutely no sense. 99% of goals are scored because more than one player does something brilliant.
The focus on the individual is bringing an element of politics into football, as players increasing think of their careers in terms of what can this team and this game do for me, rather than the other way around. We’ve heard stories of the lobbying and PR that goes on about the award and how players are employing teams of people to position themselves properly to win the award - similar to what it takes to win an Oscar.
But more than that, by fetishizing the individual over the team FIFA actively harms the game. I coach u11s and the biggest issue I have is with individualism. Getting kids to think of themselves as a team rather than an individual is increasingly difficult in an era where most kids consume football through the lens of their favourite player rather than their favourite team.
I agree. In my totally unbiased view, he has been the best and most consistent player since Messi and Ronaldo went into semi-retirement. Dembele has just one good season under his belt. But hey, we know that the Ballon d’Or favours French clubs (when it is not Barca or Real) and players whenever possible, and also generally ignores the PL.
No big deal, and I truly hope that Salah and the other lads aren’t disappointed by it. They shouldn’t even have bothered to go there.
It’s frustrating. Dembele was a worthy winner. But over the years Salah has been short changed. I don’t think he will ever win it now.
Part of me is gutted for Mo. Another part of me is old school, and wants to say this isn’t the be all end all. It is a team sport. Let’s see what Champions LFC do this season. Mo is assured a place in our affections as he has been brilliant.
What’s so stupid about these is that these ‘fails’ don’t translate to on the pitch skills. The best keepy uppy dudes wouldn’t even make it in the division, let alone the clubs in question.
Couldn’t care less about the Ballon D’or. Remember when a Liverpool player last won it (lil Mickey). We weren’t even challenging for the league, nor in the CL, let alone winning either.
The Owen one was the one that showed how much of this is about vibes. It was a year with a couple of memorable moments but far from a stand out year for him
Yes, vibes certainly and a degree of being the flavour of the month, perhaps. I don’t have his numbers to hand from 20+ years ago but I just had this feeling of him being somewhere around his peak at that point in his career. It was mostly downhill after he left, of course.
It’s difficult to piece together because it’s a calendar year award so took the second half of the 00-01 treble season and the first part of the following one. Neither of those seasons was remarkable from a pure goal scoring perspective - he was no better than 5th top scorer in either season, but it was a period that included the Arsenal cup final and the Germany qualifier, games relatively close together in a football perspective that made his accomplishments more visible and highly covered .
