Ballon D’or
The Ballon D’or is one of the oldest and most prestigious individual awards in soccer presented annually by French news magazine French Football. Every year, it is awarded to the “world’s best player of the year.” There are also several sub-awards given to the best forward, the best goalkeeper (Trophée Yachine), best women’s player of the year, and the best player under the age of 21 (Trophée Kopa).
This year’s winners are as follows…
Trophée Kopa: Pedri (FC Barcelona, Spain)
Trophée Yachine: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain, Argentina)
2021 Women’s Ballon d’Or: Alexia Putellas (FC Barcelona, Spain)
2021 Ballon d’Or: Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain, Argentina)
With this year’s win, Lionel Messi now has a total of 7 Ballon D’ors, making him the winner of the most Ballon D’ors in history. The most nominated player, Cristiano Ronaldo, has won the second most with a total of 5 Ballon D’ors.
If you’re reading this article, you have probably heard of Lionel Messi before. If not, you live under a rock. Anyways, Lionel Messi is considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time, right up next to Pelé, Cryuff, and Maradona. Messi made his debut with the Spanish football club FC Barcelona at the age of 17, making him the third youngest player to ever play for the club. He also scored his first league goal at the age of 17, making him the youngest to ever score in a La Liga game for FC Barcelona. Messi spent his entire career here at Barcelona until this year when he made the move to play for France’s Paris Saint-Germain. On an international level, Messi plays for Argentina. With his country, he is both the highest appearance maker and their all time-leading goal scorer.
At the age of 22, Messi won his first Ballon d’Or. This was followed by another, and another, and another; four consecutive Ballon d’Ors. His next win came in 2015, then 2019, and then 2021.
There is no doubt that Messi is a talented player. As seen above, he is highly decorated and deserves his spot on the list of greatest players of all time. But, did he really deserve the 2021 Ballon D’or Win?
Below is the list of the top 5 Ballon D’or winners
- Lionel Messi
- Robert Lewandowski
- Jorginho
- Karim Benzema
- N’golo Kanté
And here are the stats for the top 3 players for 2021
- Lionel Messi – 1 goal 3 assists for club league, 5 goals for champions league
- Robert Lewandowski – 16 goals 1 assist for club league, 9 goals for champions league
- Jorginho – 2 goals 1 assist for club league, 2 goals for champions league (important to note that he is a midfielder)
As seen in the stats above Robert Lewandowski has performed better in the 2021/2022 season. Both Messi and Lewandowski are forwards, and Lewandowski has more goals in both his club league (Bundesliga) and in Champions League. On top of this, Bundesliga is higher rated than Ligue 1. An interesting thing to note is that the club Messi moved to this year is a french club and the Ballon d’Or is an award given by a French organization. Coincidence? I think not. Yes, Messi is one of the best of his generation. Yes he has the stats. But based on game performance and qualifications, Robert Lewandowski should have won.
