Football Special Feature: Ballon d’Or – Who shall it be? Analysis of nominations and criteria (Part 1)
After the Ballon d’Or list of nominees was revealed on 26th of October, 2010 a lot of speculation has surfaced as to why English players were left out of the nominations altogether and also as to why a lot of Spanish players have been selected
in the shortlist. It has been a wonderful foot balling year for Spain thus far; one of Spain’s most prominent clubs Barcelona reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League whilst the Spanish national team triumphed above all others to win the FIFA 2010
World Cup in South Africa.
Admittedly, the Iberians were out of this world during the tournament in South Africa but do all of the nominees warrant their place on the list that was released by FIFA just yesterday. Also let us now forget that this is the first time in history of football
that Ballon d’Or, the French magazine’s award for European player of the year is being combined with FIFA’s World Player of the Year accolade. Therefore, a lot of changes have taken place in the selection and short listing criteria for the award itself. Previously,
the award has been seen as an “individual” award; recognition of a footballer’s immense ability and talent as a sportsman and how that talent helps his team to greater successes and heights.
However, this season it seems that the nominees have been made almost exclusively from the Spanish national team or the German national team. If that hasn’t been so, the rest of the nominees have all come from teams who have performed admirably in the FIFA
2010 World Cup. Yes, the World Cup is indeed a massive competition which takes place only once every four years. But players come to the World Cup after a much more tumultuous and arguably tougher league season, so shouldn’t their performance during the club
football season hold more importance?
Out of the twenty three total nominees that have been short listed for the prestigious award, twelve played in the 2010 FIFA World Cup for either Germany or Spain, two of the semi-finalists of FIFA’s most respected tournament in South Africa. It certainly
raises another question; FIFA’s selection policy seems a bit skewed because surely it cannot be that half of the world’s top most footballers come from either Spain or Germany?
Surely, these players proved to be “themselves” due to the fact that they were playing alongside a superior group of athletes. Some might say that Spain and Germany actually consist of the best players in the world and that is what has made them into the
teams that they are today or as they were in the FIFA 2010 World Cup. That claim in itself holds some water.
For example, with all due respect to the likes of Miroslav Klose, the striker did quite well in the FIFA 2010 World Cup but he just scored three goals in club season football with his team, Bayern Munich. What about players from England, Italy and France;
athletes who were just not included because their teams did not do well in South Africa?
Not only that, FIFA’s inflationary selection policy seems to only take into account the FIFA 2010 World Cup and UEFA Champions League. What about Diego Milito, Lucio and Gerard Pique? Milito was pivotal to Inter Milan’s charge for the 2009-2010 season whereas
Lucio and Pique were the main men in defence for Inter Milan and Barcelona respectively.
Despite all of these things, one should take into account the criteria given out by Ballon d’Or; the criterion which dictates certain factors which will be considered significantly come the final decision. The first one is total individual and team honours
collected during the year in question, the second one is a player’s class which is inclusive of his talent and fair play abilities, thirdly his career in an overall perspective and finally the footballer’s personality and charisma.
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