There was a time, not so long ago, when the Ballon d’Or captured everyone’s attention. It swallowed up all the rest of sports news and spread over several pages, whether digital or paper. In France, the tradition continues, perhaps in the spirit of the cockade, because we do not forget that this trophy was created in our country and that the ceremony still takes place in the City of Light. Tuesday, November 30, however, the 7th heaven reached by Lionel Messi did not arouse the usual emotion among our foreign neighbors.
The Ballon d’Or, undoubtedly, has lost its luster in recent years. The “leaks” which now accompany each edition and which ensure that everyone already knows the winner before high mass, certainly contribute to the erosion of the precious metal. But that’s probably not all.
As the BBC points out in its digital edition, only Luka Modric in 2018, managed to stop the unchallenged reign of the Messi-Ronaldo duo. Between 2008 and 2021 (the 2020 edition did not take place due to the pandemic), the two-headed hydra of world football swallowed the 12 Ballons d’Or. Sometimes on their own name and to the detriment of the criteria supposed to designate the winner (prize list, collective influence, etc.).
This decline in interest from foreign media can also be explained by disappointed love affairs. Take Portugal for example. Cristiano Ronaldo, awarded five times with a Golden Ball, far from the blow, the daily A Bola prefers to devote its front page to the scandal of the match stopped between Belenenses and Benfica sammedi and to “the absence of culprits”, than to the new coronation of the Argentinian. In Spain, for years, the two Argentinian-Portuguese gems have been pampered. These last parties under other skies, the Iberian press, like the daily As, assumed pro Real, made its front page on the two winners, but regrets in its columns that Karim Benzema does not leave without any trophy while Marca evokes “the lost glamor of CR7”.
Many media, including Americans like ESPN, are indeed bouncing off the controversy around the statements of France Football editor-in-chief Pascal Ferre, who told the New York Times that Ronaldo’s only goal was to end his career with more. of Ballons d’Or than Messi. Allegations denied by the Portuguese who accuses the French of advertising his name to promote his publication. The Daily Express, in England, also devotes a headline to its front page more focused on the new Manchester United coach, Ralf Rangnick and his alleged ability to convince Paul Pogba to stay.
In Italy, orphan country of CR7 since the latter dropped the Old Lady, the all-powerful Gazzetta Dello Sport is making headlines on the start of the scandal that is splashing Juventus, precisely, suspected of illegal transfers. The daily with the pink pages, in its article devoted to the Ballon d’Or, nevertheless welcomes the fine group shot of the Italians who won the Euro and slips a small tackle in passing to Neymar, 16th, and qualified as a “flop”.
Finally, if we are looking for a hint of bias and editorialization, it is on the side of Germany that we must turn. Where all the press confines itself to listing the seven coronations of King Leo, the daily Bild dares to rebel.
“Why not give it to Pele? It was good too …” ironically the headline newspaper. And to continue his attack in good standing against the Argentinian from PSG: “There isn’t a player who has been better than Lionel Messi this year … There are a lot!” If Bild does not dispute that the neo Parisien “remain in absolute terms the best player in the world”, he also recalls his chaotic end of the season with Barça: “He rebelled, divided the Catalan club and threatened to sue him”
Why such a rant when other countries are much more neutral in their comments? The reason is in two words: Robert Lewandowski. If he is not German, the Pole plays for Bayern Munich. The Polish newspaper Sport displays it on its cover with his wife, with the title of a very simple and partisan: “Leo, no, Lewy“.
As for Bild, the choice of the serial-goalscorer is claimed: “Lewandowski has had an incredible Bundesliga season with 41 goals and this year he has already scored 25 times in 20 games” recalls the journalist who concludes: “In my ranking, Lewandowski would have been ahead of Messi, just like Salah, Jorginho, Mbappé, Benzema, De Bruyne, Haaland, Kanté, Neymar and many others …”
We may not agree with Bild, but at least we can welcome this courageous stand. If the Balloon is gold, silence is not always.