The Ballon D’or: A Golden Award Packaged With a Socially Taxing Controversy
By Ronit Sahijawani
The Ballon D’or is a prestigious award, which is awarded every year to an outstanding Football player. In this system, numerous players that perform well during the previous season, are shortlisted for the nominee position. Afterwards, roughly 100 journalists from FIFA’s top 100 nations submit their votes for their top 5 picks, to avoid any bias as it is a fixed system. The results are then calculated, and the winner with the most points is announced at the annual Ballon D’or ceremony.
This year’s ceremony took place on Monday, the 30th of October, in Paris. From content creators to tennis stars, this year’s event had a jurassic guest list. In fact, the infamous Twitch streamer, IShowSpeed, attended his first ever global award ceremony. He made sure to make a memorable mark at the event, considering he attempted to convince Novak Djokovic that he was currently playing in the Serie A.
During this year’s event, the victorian from the women’s side was 25 year-old, Aitana Bonmatí playing in Barcelona, Spain. She secured her first Ballon D’or award, after ranking #1 for central midfielders and #1 for number of assists in the official world ranking.
On the men’s end, Lionel Messi had bagged his 8th Ballon D’or, extending his lead against the 5-time UEFA Champions League winner, Cristiano Ronaldo. However, viewers were certainly surprised by this result, considering he spent the majority of his season in MLS; in fact, he was the first player from the MLS to have received this award. Moreover, he undoubtedly had formidable competition, such as Erling Haaland who had shattered the record for most Premier League goals in one season; and Mbappe, who is the top scoring, and most valuable player in France’s Ligue 1.
15 year-old, Dean Man A Hing, a passionate Football player and fan, stated that without the support, management, and coordination of Manchester City, Haaland would be ‘useless’. He believes that majority of Halaand’s goals arsie through his positioning, rather than his individual skill.
Milo O’Neill, a star football player currently playing for Kitchee, observed that Messi’s Inter Miami barely finished top 6 while Haaland’s Man’ City won the treble (achieved when a team wins three major trophies in a single season) for only the second time in Football history.
The opinions between the rightful Ballon D’or winner are certainly mixed.
Coincidentally, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a vast controversy between this award. Back in the 21/22 season, the world-renowned forward received his 7th Ballon D’or, while Lewandowski won more trophies and scored 23 more goals for club and country in comparison to Messi’s performance. Nonetheless, the Argentanien tried to play it cool as he recognized the Polish striker in his speech. Lots of fans, whether supporters of Bayern Munich or not, voiced their thoughts towards this matter. They were stunned by the fact that Lewandowski won nearly every title he possibly could’ve and stayed consistent for the last 18 months, but was still not viewed as FIFA’s best men’s player.
All in all, the award has been handed out and cannot be revoked. In your opinion, who really deserves this year’s Ballon D’or?