Ballon d'Or or Ballon d’Bore?

‘Team of the Year’ should be the centrepiece of the event

LONDON: ‘There is no “I” in team’; ‘a team is more than just a sum of its parts’ — both phrases are always associated with football.

Yet the prestigious Ballon d’Or — the annual award to crown the world’s best footballer — is belittling the value of defenders in the modern game.

Ballon d'Or or Ballon d'Bore? Do you think Ballon d'Or honours defenders, goalies equally?

— Tribune Sports (@ETribuneSports) November 1, 2016

In January, earlier this year, Bayern Munich captain and Germany’s world-cup winning defender Philipp Lahm wrote in his column for Goal magazine that the Ballon D’or has become ‘a vote for the world’s best striker’ as opposed to the world’s ‘best player’.

#MCFCB The top action from @FCBarcelona v @ManCity as it happened on Radio Barça pic.twitter.com/Uh6ubGBQpt

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) October 31, 2016

Looking at the nominees for this year’s award, Lahm’s statement holds more than a hint of truth. Of the 30 players shortlisted, 20 can be considered ‘attacking’ players — certainly, they are players who place an emphasis on creating or scoring goals.

The obvious candidates this year are once again Argentinian Lionel Messi and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, although Atletico Madrid striker Antoine Griezmann is an outside bet.

This leaves just 10 defensive players — one-third of the total — who have been shortlisted this year.

But the chance of a defender or a goalkeeper winning the accolade is downright non-existent. Fabio Cannavaro was the last out-and-out defender to win the award in 2006 — the same year he captained Italy to the World Cup.

8⃣🎩⚽@Cristiano has scored hat-tricks in each of his eight seasons at Real Madrid!

👉 https://t.co/T1KhOe6stJ 🎥#HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/DwkzjczDo9

— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) October 30, 2016

Since then, the top 3 have almost exclusively been attacking players, except for Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in 2014 who finished a distant third place to Ronaldo and Messi — again, the same year that he won the World Cup with Germany.

This isn’t to belittle the achievements of either Ronaldo or Messi who are without doubt two of the greatest players to ever grace the game.

Indeed, the problem arguably lies with the new ‘image’ of football — much of what we see on social media such as Facebook and Twitter for example are pictures and videos of goals as opposed to stoic slide tackles or outstanding saves.

https://twitter.com/zideline/status/790304845177782272

To the vast majority, goals are the most exciting part of football; clean sheets are just as important in terms of the team succeeding, but in terms of visual stimulation goals trump everything.

Therefore, it is perhaps less surprising that Messi and Ronaldo have dominated the Ballon d’Or in recent years — we love goals and they score lots of them. Those who are privileged to vote (national coaches and captains plus selected journalists) can see the impact that the astronomical number of goals scored by both players has had on the public and therefore cast their ballot accordingly.

Yet what will happen when Messi and Ronaldo retire? Will the monopoly of strikers continue on the shortlist?

Ronaldo's Superb Skill Vs Osasuna Earlier Today 🔥

How Many Goals Will He Score Thi... (Vine by @FutbolFazeHD) https://t.co/FRg2ynHywn

— Logan Langdon (@langdon_logan) October 29, 2016

History suggests yes. Before the Messi/Ronaldo era of dominance, there had only been three triumphant defenders since the award began in 1959.

So how do we change it? Do we even need the award? I would argue that the ‘Team of the Year’ should be the centrepiece event, with the removal of the Ballon d’Or required to reinstate parity between attackers and defenders. Certainly, there is no need to single out a player as being ‘better than the rest’?

After all, there is no ‘I’ in any ‘team’.