The first thing FIFA should do is to return the Ballon d’Or to its former glory, representing a value only available in the men whose hearts lie in their teams.
In the list of 59 candidates nominated for the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or by the Italian magazine, Gazzetta dello Sport, and the two Spanish magazines, Marca and Mundo Deportivo, the name David Ospina was mentioned, but not Gianluigi Buffon. Similarly, we could find in the list such names as Massimo Luongo and Shinju Okazaki, but neither David Silva nor Xabi Alonso, who are, if you didn’t know, much more famous and arguably the souls of their respective teams. This was strange, and raised a question: how does one win the Ballon d’Or?
We should go back to 1956, when the European Ballon d’Or was made an official prize. It’s “father” was the legendary journalist Gabriel Hanot, head editor of the France Football magazine, and the founder of the C1 Cup. In 1991, the FIFA’s “Best Player of the Year” title was awarded for the first time ever. Along with the European Ballon d’Or, it was the most prestigious personal achievement a footballer could dream of. Since 1991, there have been 12 players awarded the European Ballon d’Or and proclaimed FIFA’s “Best Player of the Year” in the same year, and there were five such occurrences in the from 2005 to 2009 (the players awarded in those years were: Ronaldinho - 2005, Fabio Cannavaro - 2006, Kaka - 2007, Cristiano Ronaldo - 2008 and Lionel Messi - 2009). This led to a mutual agreement between FIFA and the managers of the France Football to merge the European Ballon d’Or and FIFA’s title of “Best Player of the Year” into one prize, and they named it FIFA’s Ballon d’Or.
This merged prize has sparked countless debates since its inception. In the 2009-2010 season, Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan scored a historic hat-trick (winning the Scudetto, the Cup Italy, and the Champion’s League) under the leadership of Wesley Sneijder, who, in the following World Cup, scored five goals and led the Dutch national team into the 2010 World Cup Grand Finals. Sneijder, however, lost the FIFA Ballor d’Or to Lionel Messi, the player who failed spectacularly, never scoring a single goal, in the 2010 World Cup. Messi himself lost to Sneijder in several encounters before the World Cup. Messi’s fans could find no argument to defend Messi’s title, except for one thing: from October to December of 2009, three months before the title was announced, Messi scored many goals, while Sneijder’s Inter Milan failed to perform after the departure of Mourinho. That difference should not have had such impact. However, the FIFA Ballon d’Or is a title awarded for a player’s performance in a whole season, not just three months, and three championship victories and five goals in a World Cup are clearly more valuable than three months’ worth of good plays. In the end, Sneijder won more votes from journalists than Messi did, but Messi came back with votes from team captains and national team coaches. Sneijder could have won the European Ballor d’Or if the prize had not been merged, but he fell victim to an arguably biased voting system. He was not the final victim. Three years later, Franck Ribery lost the FIFA Ballon d’Or to Cristiano Ronaldo, despite having as many journalist votes as Ronaldo and Messi combined, simply because he was not voted for by team captains and coaches, who apparently favored the more popular names.
The merged prized created more than debates; it made it unfair for players like Ribery and Sneijder, who, if awarded the European Ballon d’Or they rightfully deserved, would have made themselves known in the history of football instead of paving the road to fame for Messi and Ronaldo. Ribery and Sneijder were direct victims of the “Messi and Ronaldo syndrome” and there have been more indirect victims of this “syndrome”: 2012’s Andrea Pirlo for example, who became the soul of Juventus and carried the Old Lady out of the Calciopoli slaughterhouse and into the Scudetto spotlight. With Pirlo’s help, Juventus became the first team to participate in a Euro Cup Grand Finals without any international-level star in its roster. Another example is Buffon, the captain who led Juventus to the Champion’s League Grand Finals, whose skills and influence were recognized by Barcelona’s then-Honorary Chairman Johan Cruyff, who famously said, “Buffon deserves Ballon D’Or more than Messi.” Buffon, in the end, didn’t even make it to the candidate list.
The Ballon d’Or used to “think” highly of the champions of the World Cup and the Euro Cup, but that was no more. In the years 2010 and 2012, the team contributions of Xavi, Iniesta and Iker Cassillas were overshadowed by the skillful plays of Messi. In 2014, Toni Kroos played a huge part in the victories of Germany in the World Cup; his contribution to the German team rivaled that of “The Last Libero” Matthias Sammer in 1996, when the Euro Cup was held high by the Germans and Sammer won the Ballon d’Or. Toni, however, didn’t even make it to the top three candidates of the list. Speaking of the top three, Manuel Neuer made it to the 3rd place, but that was it. Everyone knew he couldn’t win. Nowadays, even winning the world’s biggest championship means nothing in Zurich, because the FIFA Ballon d’Or has long since become the prize of a mass media war, whose spotlights can only shine on Ronaldo and Messi, and no one else.
The FIFA Ballon d’Or is, in my opinion, a battle between team-oriented players, whose efforts might not be obvious but are crucial to helping their teams win major championships, and self-oriented players, who have superb individual skills but don’t necessarily play on a successful team. Throughout the last five years, Messi and Ronaldo have been dominating the board with their solo plays. I find this unfair, as football is, after all, a team game, and Messi and Ronaldo alone don’t stand a chance against team-oriented players in an average match. The true reason behind their dominance, I think, is that they are the “darling” of the media; their beautiful solo plays give the media plenty of material to entertain readers with, and their “empire”, built by FIFA itself, turns them into invulnerable warriors on a battlefield that is no longer about football. All of the other players I mentioned above thus became the pawns, paving the way for Messi, Ronaldo, FIFA, and the media.
Messi and Ronaldo are champions of the football world in their own rights, and between them is arguably the biggest rivalry in the history of football. Step a few steps upwards and look at the bigger picture, however, and you will see that they are nothing compared to the glory of great teams and the bursting feelings every citizen of a country feels when their national team wins a World Cup or a Euro Cup. Football is the game where winning and losing is determined by the brilliance of the coaches, the silent contribution of tactician-captains, the astounding instinct of goalkeepers, and the countless tide-turning saves of backline defenders. The FIFA Ballon d’Or should represent all those beautiful moments, not just the here and there goals of Messi and Ronaldo.
The prestigious golden ball fell victim to FIFA and its devils, namely money, media spotlight, and personal gains, and became the playing field of the fat-bellied men behind the curtain. Even so, in the heart of true football lovers, there are always Ballon d’Ors dedicated to true legends such as Buffon, Pirlo, Casillas, Ribery and Neuer. We all want FIFA to change for the better, and the first thing FIFA should do, in my opinion, is to return the Ballon d’Or to its former glory, representing a value only available in the men whose hearts lie in their teams.
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