The Ballon d’Or is an award given by UEFA and France Football magazine, while “The Best” is awarded by FIFA, the most ethically challenged referee in the world’s most popular sport. As prestigious as it is degenerate, both awards are nothing more than tangible praise from the writers and experts (confederation administrators, coaches, football team captains, fans, etc.) whose opinions and votes were collected. Today, both awards have become an egotistical first beyond the post, as no one embodies the toxic and political nature of both awards more than the recipients of the last decade. Soccer player comparisons between and within soccer leagues (for these awards) is a guilty pleasure for fans. Like most sports awards, fans will always root for their favourites, but unlike many others, it’s hard to make a statistical argument that one player is more valuable than another. The point is that teams are like machines. One part, important though it may be, cannot function properly without the other. That makes the award simply a measure of prolific goal scoring, but as any manager will tell you, that’s probably not enough to lead a successful football team. Comparisons between football players are essentially what makes trading cards, trading card albums, and fantasy football so popular, but there should be no place for them in an official capacity. And how can we improve what we currently have? The basic truth is that we cannot, unless the prizes are suspended due to the following reasons:
Soccer is a team sport: Debating individual soccer players among soccer fans is fun, but in a team sport with so many leagues, such individuality is impossible to measure accurately. Soccer (as we all know) is a team sport where eleven men from two separate squads of players compete against each other for a trophy or, in modern times, to get a paycheck at the end of it all. All soccer teams require world-class goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and attackers (with supreme talent) to excel and win at the national level. [EPL, Serie A etc.]continental [CAF, UEFA Champions League] and intercontinental [FIFA Club World Cup] trophies No player or position is expendable or superior to the other as all must work in unison to achieve a common goal. Most of the great attackers of today (and of yesteryear) would probably be terrible defenders and goalkeepers and most of the great defenders and goalkeepers could be terrible attackers and midfielders in the game. It feels wrong to constantly elevate a particular set of soccer players over their teammates because of their position on the field of play. Football games are held ‘first’, for goals scored by a team’s forwards, midfielders, defenders, and ‘second’, for (potential) opposition goals saved by the opposition’s defenders and goalkeeper. that same team. No player really wins a game single-handedly, except that he plays in all positions simultaneously, being in his penalty area defending and deflecting opponents’ shots on goal and at the same time running to score all kinds of goals in the box. rival penalty. Most FIFA and UEFA individual winners perform brilliantly when their team’s style of play and passing suits them, giving them freedom like no other team could. Most coaches strive to fit 11 players on the best team instead of having to fit the best 11 players on a team. There is a reason why such individual awards in a team-based sport have been scorned and roundly criticized by world-renowned coaches like Arsene Wenger and José Mourinho.
Bias towards attacking: FIFA and UEFA award winners (currently and in the past) are (almost) always players who play close to the opponent’s goal, as forwards and attacking midfielders, which allows them to score many goals while they rely on their teammates (defenders and goalkeeper) to prevent the opposing team from scoring and win the game. In football it is widely known and accepted that the attack wins matches but the defense wins titles and trophies. Very few defenders and goalkeepers are recognized for their performance on the pitch and the dirty work they do (so their attacking teammates in the opposing goal can get the ball to score). It is quite discouraging that attackers are much better paid than defenders and goalkeepers. Goalkeepers are often the lowest paid on a football team, even with the alarming level of scrutiny directed at them, which begs the question of why anyone would choose to be a goalkeeper. No one has really found a way to compare the value of goalkeepers to outfield players, to the detriment of goalkeepers. Should a goal saved by a goalkeeper be treated as a goal scored by a striker? How much should quality defenders influence our judgment of a goalkeeper and how much should quality midfielders influence our judgment of a striker? There is no denying the fact that some players improve the overall quality and effectiveness of certain teams, but even then, such extraordinary players could not gain anything for their respective teams if, for example, the goalkeeper spills every shot he gets. does the opposition. The beauty of modern football is such that each player (except the goalkeeper) is minimally obliged to score goals at any time, in any way and whenever he or (to some extent) his coach pleases, which makes the fact that individual awards are given only to offensive players does a lot of damage to their teammates and the sport.
There are no specific criteria in the award ceremony: There are no specific criteria in the delivery of individual awards to players by UEFA and FIFA in the football competitions played. Most fans and administrators don’t know which competitions: the domestic league (EPL, La Liga, Serie A), the continental leagues (UEFA Champions League, as all individual FIFA winners are based in Europe) or the international tournament (The FIFA World Cup) – The performances of the players have the highest priority when compiling the nominees for the FIFA and UEFA individual awards. Although most of the nominees and winners of such awards play for football teams that are champions in their domestic leagues or champions in the UEFA Champions League or champions in the World Cup (in a world cup year) with their countries, some winners of such awards play for clubs and countries that were not champions in national, continental and international tournaments. Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or in 2010/2011 (because he scored 91 goals in one year) without winning the Spanish League or the Champions League with Barcelona or the World Cup with Argentina, beating other players in service who won at least one of the aforementioned competitions
Breeds individualistic and egotistical footballers: In the pursuit of individual FIFA awards, some players give up team work and effort and prefer to play alone on the field of play, to show off (as the fans would say), to the detriment of the team. These players don’t care if the team is winning or losing a game, as long as they score goals, increase their goal tally and compete for prizes by shooting on goal instead of passing the ball to a better positioned teammate, taking each set. -piece – free kicks, penalty kicks, corner kicks – awarded in a game even when they have poor records taking such a set piece. This creates instances where a player wins the Ballon d’Or or the player of the year award because he has the most goals in the football season plus 5 or 6 man of the match performances and some impressive ones. highlight season reels as your team finishes that season with no trophies and second place in the competition finals.
In conclusion, if there are to be individual awards (for whatever strange reason), they should be based on objective criteria such as number of goals scored (best striker), number of saves (best goalkeeper) or number of tackles made (best defender) etc. Even that wouldn’t make much sense because, again, scoring a goal is a team effort. No player can score a goal without the help of his teammates. And yes, even solo goals require team efforts. So it becomes unfathomable why football’s governing body, FIFA, would hand out these awards that are destructive to the very nature of the sport it is supposed to regulate. FIFA shouldn’t lend its name to a beauty pageant.
