The Ballon D’o is a joke !
No one cares about the Ballon D’or !

Yet you keep reading and arguing. This is every year when the winner isnt 100% clear, a bunch of people crying and complaining that the person they dislike won and the person they like didnt. Hit those tear lubricated downvote buttons, smash them if you wish, the facts remain - it’s the biggest individual award in the biggest sport in the world. It is the most looked up thing to see who was the best player of a given year. And players DO care about it. That’s why Ronaldo said he dreams of having many ballon dors, that’s why they talk about it in interviews, that’s why Ribery was fuming. Because the players themselves that this award CELEBRATES, care. You can be as hurt as you want by that fact. Yes, 20 years ago they didnt care, now they do, if you dont - just dont watch it.

Anyone out of the top 5 could have won, and the fans of the other 4 would be screaming their lungs out. Currently, because Messi won, the fans of another individual, who happens to have the biggest fanbase in the world are also smashing keyboards around the world. Weirdly enough, their idol is only elevated by being a part of the era that started 15 years ago and ended yesterday. Who deserved it ? Depending on what you value anyone out of the top 5 did. Rodri was snubbed the most. He was the most consistent player throughout the season, he showed up to no end on BOTH international and club level. Was the best player Spain had, won MOTM in both semi final and final in NL winning them the trophy, won the most important individual award besides WC POTT, which was CL POTT, dominating the final entirely and scoring the only goal.

Some people claim Haaland deserved it more. As I said he did, every one of the top 5 did. However, he was nowhere to be seen in ANY semi final and final game. Literally where titles are decided. There’s a reason why Messi’s odds after the CL final decreased despite City winning, since Haaland was yet again not on the field. That doesnt diminish him as a player, but when you disappear in every.single.game. where your team needs you, it diminishes your chances to win the trophy. Especially your teammate who did the scoring for you in the final, winning it, wins POTT which is the award that evaluates contribution to winning, in the biggest club tournament. It isnt goals. KDB was also spectacular but didnt play the final, he should have been top 3 too.

And I keep hearing … but but goals? Yes Haaland won the goals award but that isnt the stat that defines contribution to winning in football. And Ballon D’or celebrates just that. You can score a ton of goals yet the people who supplied you with them to be more influential than you, since you might as well be changed with another attacker that will do the same thing, as it was shown many times the last season for City. Take Haaland out of the city squad, what happens? Well we saw what happened, Mahrez hatricks, Plamer, Avarez bracing, about the same domination. They score MORE goals without him last season, but they are funelled through him now. Take KDB out? They do struggle a bit more. Take Messi out of Argentina? They get grouped and go back home.

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Why dont you look at the stats made to evaluate contribution to winning for the teams?
Man of the Match, created by actual football experts - Messi has the most
Total rating for the season, created by algorithms and AI with deeper insight into the game - Messi has by far the highest, in every single big rating platform out there, KDB 2nd on SC

Haaland isnt even in the top 15 in either of those. Let me repeat that, is not in the TOP *15*. So you will dismiss the things that directly evaluate contribution to winning, BOTH by football experts who decide and unbiased computer algorithms, since you know they just like Messi and KDB? Both things, EXPERTS, actual people, and algorithms agree on who is most useful to their team, but that’s just a coincidence, right? Ignore it, look at goals instead.

Add on top of that the overwhelming majority of coaches and players saying Messi deserved the Ballon D’or. So you have 3 players, Mbappe Haaland Messi, with about the same G/A for the season, Messi is clearly the more complete player in terms of skill because of his playmaking too, and you have the journalists that this award is decided by, coaches, players and stats that measure contribution to winning, both those by people AND mathematical algorithms, all of those, literally every possible part of the puzzle saying that Messi should win it by the majority. But you think you disagreeing, as a random nobody same as me and everyone else here, matters because you see something that none of those things took into account, humans and algorithms alike?

Rodri being 5th as the person who won them the CL and being POTT was ridiculous, almost as ridiculous as the salty trolls claiming Messi did not deserve it, he did just as much as Rodri did. And every time there’s a close fight, the judges have to make a decision, and every time someone is crying about it being a robbery. It wasn’t. It was a close call, but the person who won the biggest trophy in sports, willing his team to win, and showing up every.single.time. he was needed, doing the best WC campaign since '86 edged it for that reason. And when there are 5 people from the same super team, which goes to show you that really it isnt just 1 person there who deserves the praise as you try to make it out to be, the votes are spread out which puts them in a disadvantage.

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There isn’t a round table of dudes with masks deciding who wins, they are well known 100 journalists that vote, and this year the majority of football players and coaches seemed to agree on who that was. From Deschamp to Rodri to Bellingham, the people who should have said someone else even. The goddamn stats too. But the keyboard warriors disagree, so we must care.