5 Legend Players Who Have Slammed The Ballon D’or Over The Years
The Ballon d’Or is a European football award present since 1956. This football award temporarily merged with FIFA between 2010 and 2015. It was also known as FIFA Ballon d’Or. Eventually, this agreement between these two parties ended in 2016. However, any player in any custom soccer uniform, who received the joint FIFA Ballon d’Or was the winner of both organizations.
It is the most prestigious individual award in the football world. This award has gained much popularity in recent years. However, it has an association with some controversies as well. In other words, this Ballon d’Or award was not always a prestigious individual award. Besides this, a long time before 2010 to 2015, FIFA (international governing body) has been awarding players with the title “World Player of the Year” since 1991. Since Ballon d’Or establish in 1956, the French news magazine, France Football, started awarding Ballon d’Or to the best individual player. The best award in the football world is the FIFA World Player of the Year. The voting of players and coaches chooses the winner of this award. However, for the Ballon d’Or the votes of journalists and all national team coaches and captains matter. This award depends on the individual player’s performance, fair play, and team performance.
So, in this article, we will discuss who are the 5 legends that slammed the Ballon d’Or. Let’s have a look.
Below we mentioned the 5 football legends who spoke against Ballon d’Or over years. Let’s discuss them.
#5 – Johan Cruyff
Johan Cryuff is a Barcelona and Dutch legend and is one of the greatest players in football history. He, dressed in his custom soccer uniform, won 3 Ballon d’Or awards in 1971,1973, and 1974 in just four years. Irrespective of the fact that he won these awards many times, he slammed Ballon d’Or in 2014; when Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or award for the second time. As Cruyff did not challenge Ronaldo’s excellence and abilities. However, he states that Toni Kroos may be a more deserving winner. In his many interviews, he says that this award is not prestigious to me anymore as everyone supports his own player.
#4 – Philipp Lahm
After Ronaldo, in 2016 it was Lionel Messi that face criticism. A German football legend Philipp Lahm criticized this award. He declares Ballon d’Or a popularity contest for stickers. He also labeled it as a ‘World’s Most Visible Players”. He also stated that the win of Italy legend, Fabio Cannavaro is the only true defender who won Ballon d’Or. He wrote, “the Ballon d’Or is just popularity competition for the attackers”.
#3 – Luis Figo
In a very controversial situation, this legendary player won the Ballon d’Or award in 2000. Many supporters wanted that this award to go to Zinedine Zidane, who was leading France in 2000; also named the best player of that tournament. However, Figo remains in the headlines after his amazing club season. And there was one of the most controversial transfers in football history – his transfer from Barcelona to Real Madrid. Many years later, Figo suggests to France Football that it was a wrong decision. He states that Francesco Totti of AS Roma should win the Ballon d’Or award. He also states that Luka Modric’s win in 2018 was not right. He also suggests that Sergio Ramos was a more deserving player for the Ballon d’Or title.
#2 – Arsene Wenger
Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s legendary manager has openly disapproved of the Ballon d’Or award. He stated in 2015, that he is completely against the Ballon d’Or. Many years later, he won the Ballon d’Or and France Football. The former manager suggested that Ballon d’Or was not the objective. He blamed Ballon d’Or for getting into the heads of players.
#1 – Franck Ribery
The most brutal criticism for Ballon d’Or comes from Bayern Munich and France winger. This criticism come in 2013 when Ribery was third, behind Lionel Messi and winner Cristian Ronaldo in the race of Ballon d’Or. Ribery and Bayern Munich incredibly won the match which shows that winger on his side. He was ultimately the best player of the best team when he made 34-goal contributions in Bavarian’s season.
If that’s enough, he also won UEFA’s 2012-13 beating both Ronaldo and Messi. However, he did not win this award that year. In 2013, the Ballon d’Or awards is the most controversial of all time. He again lashed out in 2014 when Ranaldo won Ballon d’Or ahead of Messi.
What Is The Importance Of The Ballon D’or In The Football World?
The Ballon d’Or, the European “Footballer of the Year” award, is one of the most prestigious awards in the football world. Ballon d’Or is the only award decided by 96 journalists. This award depends on individual players’ performance who performed to the highest standards in the past years. Journalist votes for the best players based on their performance. However, this award faces some criticism as some legends thought that it favors some specific players.
Until 1995, this award was only confined to European league players. Now the Ballon d’Or is for the international player as well. In 2010, France Football magazine and FIFA decided to merge both these awards and present one award “FIFA Ballon d’Or”. This partnership ended in 2016. This is the time when the Ballon d’Or gained popularity across the world. The Ballon d’Or is under critical debate in the football community as this award creating controversies since the 90s. Many football legends have slammed Ballon d’Or for ignoring defenders, keepers, and midfielders. This award is also under criticism because of prioritizing trophies and team brilliance over the individual performance of the players.
Conclusion
Ballon d’Or is the most prestigious individual award in football. It has huge popularity around the world. In the past, Ballon d’Or also merged with FIFA for some time period; now they both are again separate awards. Many legends in the football world are against Ballon d’Or. However, it is under criticism since the beginning for favoring some players in a specific custom soccer uniform.
