BALLON d’Or . . . Ballon D’oh! more like.
In English it means Golden Ball and I reckon they have dropped one.
Ousmane Dembele held off competition from Lamine Yamal to win this year’s Ballon d’or[/caption]
Despite decades of European domination, the Premier League has been rewarded with just THREE — for Rodri last year, Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Owen.
This sounds more like balls to me.
Since the Prem’s inception in 1992-93, English teams have won the Champions League on seven occasions and been runners-up nine times.
But a trophy that was first given to the legendary Sir Stanley Matthews in 1956 basically gets passed around Europe, with Prem players getting very little of a look-in.
I looked at the voting for 2023 and could hardly believe my eyes as Erling Haaland, who scored more goals that season than Sir Keir Starmer has had Cabinet reshuffles, could only finish in second place.
Lionel Messi got the nod, even though he spent some of that season playing in the American pre-retirement league for Inter Miami.
That has got to be some sort of joke.
The Prem has been blessed with many other great players, Dennis Bergkamp, Eric Cantona, Alan Shearer, David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Virgil van Dijk, Kevin De Bruyne and all of them got into the top three for the Ballon d’Or but never won.
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Unfathomably, only seven footballers in 69 years have won the Golden Ball while playing in our top-flight — Sir Stanley, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Owen, Ronaldo and Rodri.
Kevin Keegan won his two while at Hamburg.
Why have Prem players been consistently snubbed? I hear you ask.
Is it because the trophy is organised and awarded by the French. Sacre bleu! This all sounds like ‘un grand stitch-up’.
The trophy is decided by French journalists from two leading media outlets, agreeing on a 30-strong list of players.
Then 100 reporters from Fifa’s top 100-ranked nations actually vote on the winner.
For the women’s prize, it is 50 journalists from Fifa’s top 50 countries.
Although the final 30-player shortlist is decided by French reporters, the actual voting is global.
Ballon d’Or winners from English football
Sir Stanley Matthews – Blackpool, 1956
Denis Law – Manchester United, 1964
Bobby Charlton – Manchester United, 1966
George Best – Manchester United, 1968
Michael Owen – Liverpool, 2001
Cristiano Ronaldo – Manchester United, 2008
Rodri – Manchester City, 2024
But why the discrepancy, as the Prem is almost universally regarded as the world’s elite domestic league?
I’m convinced English clubs have been shunned.
The Scots are also still scratching their heads over the decision, made in 1967, when Celtic’s Lisbon Lions won the lot north of the border as well as the European Cup.
So a Celtic player must have won it that year, right? Well, no.
It went to one Florian Albert, playing for Hungary’s Ferencvaros.
While we are on the subject of Scotland, how did Kenny Dalglish not win it? He lifted ten league titles and three European Cups, scored the winner in the 1978 final but no Ballon d’Or.
Which gets me on to this year’s award, won by Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele, with Lamine Yamal second and Vitinha in third.
The only Prem stars in the top ten were Mo Salah in fourth and Cole Palmer eighth, while ninth-placed Gianluigi Donnarumma has joined Manchester City from PSG.
Arsenal won their first Women’s Champions League and so you would assume a Gunner took the Ballon d’Or Feminin.
Not a bit of it as Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati grabbed her third successive gong.
So the girls are getting snubbed, too.
The Ballon d’Or, it’s fools gold.
A young Ronaldo also won the Ballon D’or[/caption]
