There has never been so much discussion and division in views on the winner and the runner-up of the Ballon D’Or, this year than ever before, with a house largely divided or rather largely inclined towards the person who missed it and came second.
The Ballon D’Or ( French for Golden Ball ) is an annual football award given to the best performing player in Europe amongst all Football Leagues. The award presented by the French news magazine France Football is one of the oldest and prestigious individual awards for Football players and the fact is that the Roll of Honour @ the Ballon D’Or boasts of the legends of the game both past and present. So what transpired this year which has led to so much of discussion on Ballon D’Or, is the question to be asked.
This year’s winner of the Ballon D’Or has been the unmatched legend of the game and my favourite football player Lionel Messi and ever so surprisingly this is what has divided the general opinion of the choice of winner this year. Lionel Messi beat Robert Lewandowski to the award and surged to his 7th Ballon D’Or the highest by any player in the History of the award. Several critics of the game felt that this year and even for the previous year ( the award was not given in 2020 due to the pandemic) Robert Lewandowski thoroughly deserved the award and should have got it.
However, being an ardent follower of Football across the world, I too tried to look into the matter and understand the reasons for so much debate.
Lionel Messi undoubtedly has dominated world Football like no one else, but Robert Lewandowski has not been far behind and particularly for the past 4-5 years, the Polish forward has been in scintillating form in the Bundesliga( the German Football League ). His contribution would be very difficult to match by any player. After joining Bayern Munich Football Club in the season of 2014-15, Lewandowski has helped the club win the Bundesliga every year till the last season 20-21. 7 titles in 7 years. It is truly an unmatched feat.
His goal scoring too has been absolutely prolific and he is the second highest goal scorer of all times in Bundesliga History behind only the Great Gerd Muller. He has won the Player of the Bundesliga award a record 5 times and has been the quickest to 100 goals in the history of the League. In the 20-21 season too, Lewandowski scored a record breaking 41 goals for Bayern Munich. For his country Poland too, Lewandowski is the all time highest goal scorer. So with such consistency and performance, missing the Ballon D’Or this year came as a huge surprise for many.
In my assessment, Lionel Messi did not have a great 20-21 season at Barcelona, however winning the Copa America for Argentina, his first major title for his country in all these years, probably tilted the scales in his favour and he surged past Lewandowsky. Also sometimes, the distinguished people voting for the winner do get swayed a bit by a player’s larger than life reputation, which this time might have helped Messi to the title. In my opinion it was sheer bad luck for Lewandowsky. There is no guarantee that he may win the award for the ongoing 21-22 season as some strong contenders like Mo Salah of Liverpool in particular, have already launched a strong challenge for the trophy. However, Robert Lewandowsky, is a great player and arguably one of the finest Centre Forwards in the game ever and without doubt is the best in Football today.
What a near miss it was . However it has to be said that with a Ballon D’Or or not, the Legend of Lewandowsky will be heard whenever the History of Football is spoken. And yes, not to take anything away from Messi, we too need to find the next Messi or the next Cristiano Ronaldo so that the Game progresses and people have the next set of Heroes to cheer.