FIFA World Cup 2026 Results & Discussion Thread [R]

The Ballon d'Or has steadily lost its credibility since 2009/10 and has gradually become little more than a popularity contest. The criteria seem to change every single year, depending on who people want to win.

One of the biggest problems is the excessive importance given to international tournaments. That immediately puts players from smaller national teams at a huge disadvantage, no matter how dominant they are at club level, Haaland in 2022/23 being the perfect example. It also creates a system where a player can be underwhelming for an entire club season, play six or seven great matches in the summer, and suddenly become the Ballon d'Or winner.

2009/10, Wesley Sneijder
Sneijder should have won after leading Inter to a historic treble and the Netherlands to the World Cup final. He won the World Cup Silver Ball and finished with the Bronze Boot, only missing out on the Silver Boot because Thomas Müller had more assists. If you still think he did not deserve it, then Iniesta would have been a far more logical winner than Messi after scoring the World Cup winning goal and playing a key role in Barcelona's domestic double.

2011/12, Andrés Iniesta
If international tournaments are supposed to matter this much, then Iniesta should have won. Spain won Euro 2012, he was named Player of the Tournament, and he remained one of Barcelona's best players throughout the season. Instead, the criteria suddenly shifted once again.

2012/13, Franck Ribéry
Ribéry should have won after leading Bayern to the treble and being one of the best players in the world all season. Instead, FIFA extended the voting deadline after Ronaldo's play off hat trick against Sweden. Changing the voting rules in the middle of the process was one of the most embarrassing decisions in the history of the award.

2018/19, Virgil van Dijk
Van Dijk was robbed. He completely transformed Liverpool's defence, was arguably their best player, helped eliminate Barcelona on the way to winning the Champions League, and finished the season as the UEFA Men's Player of the Year. His impact went far beyond goals and assists.

2019/20, Robert Lewandowski
Canceling the award was ridiculous. Lewandowski produced one of the greatest individual seasons ever by a striker, led Bayern to the treble, and finished as top scorer in every competition. There wasn't even a close second that year. The excuse that COVID disrupted the season made no sense. If international tournaments played in the summer count, then the Champions League being completed in the summer should not suddenly invalidate the award.

2020/21, Robert Lewandowski
After being denied the award in 2019/20, Lewandowski should have won in 2020/21 as well. He broke Gerd Müller's long standing Bundesliga scoring record with 41 league goals despite missing several matches through injury, won the Bundesliga, and was once again among the best players in the world. Bayern were eliminated by PSG in the Champions League quarter finals while Lewandowski missed both legs through injury, making it impossible to judge him based on that tie. Instead, the award went to Messi, largely because of Argentina's Copa América triumph, even though Barcelona's only trophy that season was the Copa del Rey. Once again, a short international tournament outweighed an entire club season.

The inconsistency becomes even more obvious when looking at the 2024 Ballon d'Or. Lautaro Martínez won Serie A with Inter, was named Serie A MVP, won the Copa América with Argentina, and finished as the tournament's top scorer. Yet those achievements were suddenly not enough, despite very similar arguments being used to justify previous Ballon d'Or winners.

2022/23, Erling Haaland
There is not much left to say. Haaland led Manchester City to a historic treble, broke the Premier League scoring record, won both the Premier League Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season, becoming the first player ever to win both awards in the same season. He also won both the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year. If that is still not enough to win the Ballon d'Or, then nobody really knows what the criteria are.

As for the 2024 Ballon d'Or, there is no need to expand on it. Everyone already knows why it became one of the most controversial editions in recent memory.

The biggest problem is not that one player beats another. The real issue is that the criteria constantly change. One year club football matters most, the next year international tournaments become decisive. Sometimes statistics matter, sometimes they do not. Sometimes trophies are everything, sometimes they are ignored. An award cannot maintain its prestige when the standards change depending on who people want to win.

Finally, let's not forget that the Ballon d'Or is decided by 100 journalists, not by objective performance metrics. The 2024 voting exposed just how inconsistent many of those voters are. Some even left Vinícius Júnior completely off their ballots despite his season, something that is impossible to justify using any consistent footballing criteria. When football's most prestigious individual award depends on subjective narratives rather than consistent standards, it inevitably loses credibility.

 

Your opinion doesn't really interest me after the way you've repeatedly trashed the Real Madrid forum and, on top of that, came into the Real Madrid board to insult its fans.


It's also quite funny that you suddenly understand exactly what I wrote. Weren't you the one who said

Apparently, my posts suddenly became perfectly understandable once you wanted to reply to them.

Before addressing me, at least have the integrity to stand behind your own words and apologize for that behavior first. Until then, I have no interest in discussing football with you.