The Ballon D'OR

The Ultimate crown for a player??

For the longest time, the Ballon D’or was recognized as the most prestigious individual honour that can be bestowed upon a player. In today’s times, the award seems to divide opinion with some reducing it to a mere journalist-voted award. But how did we get here? Has the award lost credibility over time? Well, let’s find out.

The award was conceived in 1956 by the French magazine France Football. Its purpose was to award the best player across the whole season annually. Only football journalists could vote for the winner. Up until 1995, it was exclusively awarded to players from Europe, before the change to include players from all nationalities who had been active in Europe. In 2007, the award became a worldwide honour, and all footballers from all around the world were eligible. National team captains and coaches were also granted the chance to cast a vote. This decision was then reverted in 2016.

The Ballon D’Or (Picture courtesy of Getty Images)

One of the factors that have led to the award’s decreased popularity is the constant change in the criteria to award the winner. In some years, individual brilliance throughout the whole season was the key decider. A good example was the stellar campaign that Lionel Messi had in 2012. In other years, team success at club level was the deciding factor for the Ballon D’or winner; Rodri in 2024. In the year 2018, they awarded Luka Modric for his performances during Croatia’s amazing 2018 World Cup run in Russia. These differences in the key decider for awarding the Ballon D’or have led to disgruntled players, clubs, and fanbases who feel as if certain players get snubbed for the prize.

In 2024, there was probably the biggest outrage on social media over the winner. The race for the award was tighter than it had been for a while, with many fans feeling like the winner should have been Vinicius Jr. In fact, he himself felt as though he was snubbed for the award, and made sure to let his feelings known on his social media pages. While I do think Vini Jr. and his fans were entitled to feel that way about the way things went, it would be disingenuous of them to outright say that Rodri was not a deserving winner. His 2023-24 campaign was one for the history books. He was the backbone of the Manchester City and Spanish teams that had major success in that season. His goal contribution numbers were outrageous, given that he plays as a defensive midfielder (9 goals, 13 assists). I also think the ‘‘forwards bias’’ clouded most people’s judgement, seeing as only attacking players had won the award for most of its existence.

My personal thoughts on the award are that it doesn’t really matter who wins it. For one, it’s voted on by journalists. Human beings can’t escape having bias even when they try to be as objective as they could. Second, football is a team sport, and the winners of the Ballon d'Or get immense help from their teammates to deliver their award-winning performances. I also think that the award doesn’t reward so many deserving players for their brilliance. I mean to think that players like Maradona, Iniesta, Xavi, Suarez, Neymar, and Busquets have never won the Ballon d'Or in their careers is crazy. This doesn’t define their careers at all, as they will go down as legends of the game.