The Ballon d’Or is an award given by UEFA and France Football magazine, while “The Best” is awarded by FIFA, the ethically challenged referee for the world’s most popular sport. While prestigious for degenerate, both awards are nothing more than tangible compliments from the writers and experts (confederation administrators, coaches, soccer team captains, fans, etc.) whose opinions and votes were collected. Today, both awards have become a selfish scoop beyond position, as no one embodies the toxic and political nature of both awards than the winners of the last decade. Soccer player comparisons across and within soccer leagues (for these awards) is a time-perfected guilty pleasure for fans. Like most sports awards, fans will always support their favorites, but unlike many others, it is difficult to statistically argue that one player is more valuable than another. The point is that teams are like machines. One part, important as it may be, cannot function properly without the other. That makes the award simply a measure of prolific goals, but as any coach will tell you, that’s probably not enough to lead to a successful soccer team. Football player comparisons are essentially what makes trading cards, sticker albums, and fantasy football so popular, but there should be no place for it in an official capacity. And how can we improve what we have today? The basic truth is that we cannot, unless the awards are suspended for the following reasons:
Soccer is a team sport – the debate about individual footballers 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 in which eleven men from two separate squads of players compete against each other for a trophy or, in modern times, for a paycheck at the end of it all. Every soccer team requires world-class (highly talented) goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and attackers to excel and win nationally. [EPL, Serie A etc.], continental [CAF, UEFA Champions League] and intercontinental [FIFA Club World Cup] trophies. No player or position is expendable or greater than 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 group of soccer players above their teammates because of their position on the field of play. Soccer matches are scored ‘First’, by the goals scored by the forwards, midfielders, defenders of a team and ‘Second’, by the (potential) opposition goals stopped by the defenders and the goalkeeper of that same team . No player really wins a game without help from anyone, except that he plays all positions simultaneously: he is in his penalty area defending and rejecting the opponents’ shots at the goal and at the same time running to score all kinds of goals in the area opponents penalty. Most FIFA and UEFA individual honorees perform brilliantly when their team’s playing style and passing suits them, giving them freedom like no other team. Most coaches live to include 11 players on the best team instead of having to include the best 11 players on a team. There is a reason why renowned managers around the world like Arsene Wenger and José Mourinho have dismissed and categorically criticized such individual awards in a team-based sport.
Biases towards attackers: FIFA and UEFA award winners (now and in the past) are (almost) always players who play close to the opponent’s goal, such as forwards and attacking midfielders, allowing them to score many goals while putting faith in your teammates (defenders and goalkeeper) to prevent the opposing team from scoring and winning the match. In soccer, it is widely known and accepted that attack wins games but defense wins titles and trophies. Very few defenders and goalkeepers are recognized for their performance on the field of play and the dirty work they do (so that their fellow attackers in the opponent’s goal can make the ball score). It’s pretty daunting that attackers are paid better than defenders and goalkeepers. Goalkeepers are often the least paid on a soccer 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 with those of outfield players, to the detriment of goalkeepers. Should a goal saved by a goalkeeper be treated the same as a goal scored by a forward? How much should quality defenders influence our judgment of a goalkeeper and how much should quality midfielders influence our judgment of a forward? There is no denying the fact that some players improve the overall quality and effectiveness of certain teams, but even in that case, such extraordinary players could not win anything for their respective teams if, for example, the goalkeeper spills every shot they hit. fires the opposition. The beauty of modern football is such that every player (except the goalkeeper) is minimally obliged to score goals at any time, in any way and when he or (to some extent) his coach pleases, which makes the prizes singles are awarded only to offensive players. he does a lot of damage to his teammates and to the sport.
There are no specific criteria for the awarding of prizes: There are no specific criteria for the awarding of individual awards to players by UEFA and FIFA in disputed football competitions. Most fans and administrators do not know which competitions: the national 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). – Player performances have the highest priority when compiling the nominees for individual FIFA and UEFA awards. Although most of the nominees and recipients of such awards play for football teams that are champions in their national 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 worthy players who won at least one of those mentioned. competitions.
Race individualistic and selfish footballers: in search of individual awards from FIFA, some players give up teamwork and effort, preferring to go 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 counts, and compete for prizes by shooting at goal rather than passing the ball to a higher-ranked teammate, taking each set. . -piece – free kicks, penalties, corner kicks – awarded in a game even when they have bad records taking said piece from set pieces. This creates instances where a player wins the Ballon d’Or or Player of the Year Award because he has the most goals in the football season, plus 5-6 man-of-the-match performances and some incredible ones. Highlight reels of the season as your team finishes that season with no trophies and second best in the competition finale.
In conclusion, if there are to be individual awards (for whatever strange reason), then they should be based on objective criteria such as the number of goals scored (best striker), number of saves (best goalkeeper) or number of tackles made (best defender) etc. Even that wouldn’t make a lot of 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. It is therefore incomprehensible why soccer’s governing body, FIFA, would award these awards that are destructive to the very nature of the sport that it is supposed to regulate. FIFA should not lend its name to a beauty pageant.