Ballon d'Or 2025

Birdy

Birdy

Senior Member
Time to start this thread, with my yearly reminder:

Most notorious Ballon D'Or robs in recent history:
1999: Beckham robbed
2000: Zidane robbed
2003: Henry robbed
2004: Deco robbed
2006: Ronaldinho robbed
2010: Iniesta robbed
2013: Ribery robbed
2016: Suarez robbed
2018: Salah robbed
2020 and 2021: Lewandowski robbed
 
MonteCuler

MonteCuler

Well-known member
2025 is the most competitive one in a while

Yamal, Dembele, Raphinha

If any of these 3 wins realistically nobody can complain

But everybody will complain, so you can count 2025 will be regarded a robbery too lol
 
KingLeo10

KingLeo10

Senior Member
Birdy said:
Time to start this thread, with my yearly reminder:

Most notorious Ballon D'Or robs in recent history:
1999: Beckham robbed
2000: Zidane robbed
2003: Henry robbed
2004: Deco robbed
2006: Ronaldinho robbed
2010: Iniesta robbed
2013: Ribery robbed
2016: Suarez robbed
2018: Salah robbed
2020 and 2021: Lewandowski robbed
Click to expand...
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Is this your way of twerking for Dembele?
 
Don Juan Laporta Estruch

Don Juan Laporta Estruch

Basta yaaaaaaa, Cabron ! y Bona nit 🥂
In the old days, the Ballon Dor was about who was the best player over the course of the season, regardless of trophies won. A much better and fairer barometer as team trophies are won by TEAMS.

But then a little boy from Rosario came along and they realised super quick that if they gave it to the best player, Messi would win every year. And people would become bored with it and lose interest.

So they gave team trophies more weighting. That will hurt Barca again then, because if you look at who has had the best performances over the last 9 months, it's without question Lamine 'the mean machine' Yamal.
 
RedxMAK

RedxMAK

Well-known member
Birdy said:
Time to start this thread, with my yearly reminder:

Most notorious Ballon D'Or robs in recent history:
1999: Beckham robbed
2000: Zidane robbed
2003: Henry robbed
2004: Deco robbed
2006: Ronaldinho robbed
2010: Iniesta robbed
2013: Ribery robbed
2016: Suarez robbed
2018: Salah robbed
2020 and 2021: Lewandowski robbed
Click to expand...
How come you think Rivaldo robbed Beckham in 1999?
 
Maradona37

Maradona37

Well-known member
Always respect Birdy's opinion as he's a good poster, but disagree heavily that Beckham, Iniesta and Lewy (2021) were robbed. Rivaldo and Messi were sensational in 1999 and 2010 respectively, certainly Beckham and Iniesta weren't so amazing that you can call it a robbery. Beckham was excellent that season, but pretty poor in the CL Final and I am not even sure he was the best player overall in his own team (Keane, Cole and Yorke were all brilliant, especially the former who drove United on in so many games). Lewy deserved it in 2020 but I don't see why scoring a lot of goals in a one-team league should mean he wins the BD. Mess's stats outside goalscoring pissed all over Lewy's as they always do.
 
Maradona37

Maradona37

Well-known member
Don Juan Laporta Estruch said:
Can only think he is over weighting team trophies. Utd won the treble that year, so immediately has to be a player from Utd, is the thinking I guess.

We all know Beckham has never played a season better in his life than any of Rivaldo's when he was at Barca.
Click to expand...
Beckham was an excellent, world-class player, but Rivaldo was a comfortably better player and I agree he was better that season (and most if not all seasons he was at Barca).

If you go back and watch United's treble season, Beckham was great in many games, but it was actually Keane who drove them on a lot. I'd argue Beckham shouldn't even be second and is only that high because of his fame off the pitch and 'good looks'. Keane has a legitimate argument to be second to Rivaldo. Mario Basler, Andrei Shevchenko and Stefan Effenberg were all great that season too.

That year had four really strong teams - Man United, Bayern, Juventus and Dynamo Kyiv - in the semi finals of the CL. Those teams were peppered with high quality players and there were a lot of candidates. But I think Rivaldo was definitely a deserving winner. Certainly Beckham wasn't significantly better or anything, so no robbery happening.
 
Birdy

Birdy

Senior Member
Don Juan Laporta Estruch said:
In the old days, the Ballon Dor was about who was the best player over the course of the season, regardless of trophies won. A much better and fairer barometer as team trophies are won by TEAMS.

But then a little boy from Rosario came along and they realised super quick that if they gave it to the best player, Messi would win every year. And people would become bored with it and lose interest.

So they gave team trophies more weighting. That will hurt Barca again then, because if you look at who has had the best performances over the last 9 months, it's without question Lamine 'the mean machine' Yamal.
Click to expand...

No, it always the same ambiguity: best player on the one hand, most valuable player for a team that won most important trophies on the other hand.

If you see the list the last 60 years, the pendulum would always swing closer to one or the other side between years
 
Birdy

Birdy

Senior Member
Maradona37 said:
Always respect Birdy's opinion as he's a good poster, but disagree heavily that Beckham, Iniesta and Lewy (2021) were robbed. Rivaldo and Messi were sensational in 1999 and 2010 respectively, certainly Beckham and Iniesta weren't so amazing that you can call it a robbery. Beckham was excellent that season, but pretty poor in the CL Final and I am not even sure he was the best player overall in his own team (Keane, Cole and Yorke were all brilliant, especially the former who drove United on in so many games). Lewy deserved it in 2020 but I don't see why scoring a lot of goals in a one-team league should mean he wins the BD. Mess's stats outside goalscoring pissed all over Lewy's as they always do.
Click to expand...

- Beckham and Giggs were the best players of that UTD team. The ones that stood out

- Messi was the best player in the world in 2010, sure. But Iniesta was top3 player in the world, won the same as Messi on club level, and scored the goal that gave his NT the World Cup.

- Messi in 2021 did nothing important on club level. They gave it to him for the Copa America, which is lame to do, as it not an important NT trophy as is the WC or the Euro
 
Maradona37

Maradona37

Well-known member
Birdy said:
- Beckham and Giggs were the best players of that UTD team. The ones that stood out

- Messi was the best player in the world in 2010, sure. But Iniesta was top3 player in the world, won the same as Messi on club level, and scored the goal that gave his NT the World Cup.

- Messi in 2021 did nothing important on club level. They gave it to him for the Copa America, which is lame to do, as it not an important NT trophy as is the WC or the Euro
Click to expand...
Actually I remember watching that season the whole way through, and the general consensus was that Keane and Beckham outperformed Giggs and Scholes across the whole season in that midfield (though most agreed Giggs and Scholes were very good too). I believe you are seriously under-crediting Keane and the effect he had on those other United players, as well as his leadership qualities. I don't like Keane by the way - he's a knob - but he was a great player and in that season particularly was a real force of nature.

I can't disagree that Iniesta was excellent in 2010 and of course he has a compelling case with being better than Messi in the World Cup and scoring the winner in the final. But I still believe Messi was better across the season. But if you put a lot of weight on big moments, then sure Iniesta has a real good case.

Fair point, but other than the Bundesliga, what did Robert do? He won the German title, as he and Bayern always did. He didn't do much in the CL or anywhere else. It was a rather weak year but I think Messi still deserved it overall (mainly for the fact that his all-round game is always vastly superior to Robert's). I also would disagree about the Copa America - it's not as prestigious as the Euros now, but it is still older than both the World Cup and the Euros and a big, important tournament to win. It's not the Nations League.

I agree with you that Cristiano Ronaldo won three he didn't deserve to by the way (Ribery, Suarez, Salah). He did deserve it in 2008 and 2014 though (despite being woeful in the Brazilian World Cup).

Overall, I am not that bothered - it doesn't affect my life and I have very little regard for individual awards in football anyway. Just a friendly debate there :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Home of Barca Fans

Top