Every year, the prestigious football trophy, the Ballon d'Or, is awarded to the footballer who is voted to have been in his best form and played the best professional football in the previous season. The award ceremony for the Ballon d'Or in Paris this week, though, was not without controversy.
That the trophy places an individual footballer's achievements above all others is a delicious paradox in a sport where success on the pitch is almost wholly determined by the comparative strengths of teams facing each other.
Unlike basketball, for example, where the strongest player on the court determines the outcome, it is the whole lineup in football that typically prevails in a match.
Despite this, the awarding of the Ballon d’Or has taken on outsized importance as global television audiences choose increasingly to follow star players rather than clubs as distinguished as Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona. There is a burning need to find consensus on who is "the guy" (or woman) at the pinnacle of the game.
This year’s award for the men’s game went to Rodri of Manchester City, making him the club’s first ever recipient and the first Spanish footballer to win it since Luis Suarez in 1960. He is also the first performing in the Premier League to top the voting for the Ballon d’Or since Cristiano Ronaldo did in 2008. Since then, it has been dominated by Ronaldo’s greatest rival Lionel Messi, who can win it no matter which club he plays for. For nearly two decades Messi has been "the guy".
Other winners during the era of Ronaldo-Messi to claim the Ballon d’Or have been exclusively chosen from Real Madrid’s ranks. So, Rodri’s win represents a break with the past.
The prestige of being the home of the most recognised and best player of a season not only fuels Real’s trophy hunting but it adds to its brand value and boosts commercial revenue from both broadcasting matches and sponsorships.
The mere thought of having lost out to Manchester City – the club they fear the most in terms of overtaking their hegemony – was presumably too much to bear for Real. Before the ceremony could take place, the reigning European and Spanish champions had already chosen not to allow their players or coach to attend.
This meant that the men from their ranks – Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham and Dani Carvajal – who came second, third and fourth in the vote, respectively, did not show up. Their Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti was unable to pick up his own award. And in keeping with the paradox of it all, Real were not present to accept their club of the year gong, either.
An unidentified source was quoted by several media outlets as saying “it is obvious that the Uefa Ballon d’Or does not respect Real Madrid. And Real Madrid is not where it is not respected”.
If it all sounds churlish then you’d do well to remember we are in a post-truth and post-fact age. Personal feelings and beliefs determine both. Insist the outcome was not fair and you will be secure in the knowledge that your supporters will back you to the hilt, no matter what.
Note how, for example, with a fractious White House race reaching culminating next week, fears are growing of a drawn out race and a convoluted process to get the results. No matter whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris takes more of the vote, we may or may not experience a smooth procedure for deciding who becomes the next president of the world’s largest economy.
AP reported both Republicans and Democrats are preparing for a potentially lengthy battle over the results once they come in. “Dozens of lawsuits that could set the stage for challenges after the votes are counted are already playing out in courts across the country”. The New York Times said more than 187 election-related lawsuits have been filed representing “an extraordinary inundation of litigation before the election”.
With such uncertainty comes danger and it is important to not lose sight of the bigger picture, whether in football or politics. The greater the frequency with which institutions come under attack, the less able they will be to properly serve the people they are supposed to.
As the late, great English football coach Bobby Robson once wrote, “Love the game beyond the prize, because without the game, there is no prize”.
Ultimately, the question comes down to this: how do you respond to not getting what you want in a way that doesn’t destroy the whole ball game but asserts your legitimate concerns?
Yet it doesn’t have to be so complicated. Rodri’s boss at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola perhaps made the most pertinent point.
“In the end, opinion is free. That’s what happens when people are allowed to vote. We have to accept the result, it’s simple. Sometimes you like it, sometimes you don’t like it, but it doesn’t matter.”
Whether or not you’re "the guy", you must be willing to take a loss and move on.
