Jul
7
Ballon d’Or and FIFA Best Player to merge
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The two biggest individual awards in football – the Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball) and FIFA Best Player are about to become one, though it will still keep the name of the former. It is a practical change that has been coming for some time, as the last time the awards were given to two different players was in 2004, with one going to Ronaldinho, and the other to Shevchenko.
Although it keeps the French name, it’s still not clear how the award will be decided though. The first was decided by football journalists, while the FIFA one in a more complicated system involving the votes of managers and players from around the world. The latter is definitely more meaningful, however, as it is given by people who have actually played the game and know what its like to be a player.
A cynical side may suggest that the move is also done to make sure fewer players get the “Best Player of the World” curse that seems to befall a great number of the winners of this prize. It seems like as soon as you win one of these awards, you can never recapture the form that put you up there. Ronaldinho, Kaka, Ronaldo, and most recently Messi have all suffered the same fate. While they have enjoyed various success in club level, they all failed to reproduce this form at the international stage, with this world cup being the most prominent example. Ronaldo described himself as a “broken man” when Portugal went out to Spain, while Messi, who failed to score a single goal, was sobbing in the dressing room after the crushing defeat to Germany.