frederic38
Hall of Famer
the most prestigious individual award in football
let's post all the things related to this award (and other awards) in this thread
so far since 1956, 48 awards out of 56 have been won by a white player (in a few weeks that should be 49, since messi, iniesta, cristiano ronaldo or casillas are going to win the 2012 balon d'or)
most of the non-whites who won it are brazilians (ronaldinho, rivaldo, ronaldo), then there is the kabyle zidane in 1998
then there are the "dutchman" gullit (mixed race), eusebio (who was born in africa to a white portuguese father) and the only african to ever win it, weah
a few things i can say about the award:
i know nothing about football from gullit's era
i know nothing about eusebio either
zidane's ballon d'or in 1998 is a joke, it's because they had to give it to one of the players that won the world cup that year, and france had no offensive player that had an impact, they won with a lot of luck and they played really defensively
zidane did nothing in this tournament, nothing, except his 2 goals vs brazil in the final, but frank leboeuf could have scored these goals, they were just headers on corner kicks
he got a dumb red card in the group stages, so he was suspended for the 8th of finals match vs paraguay (1-0 after extra time)
he played against italy in quarter finals but the italians knew him perfectly and there was always 2 italians defending on him, so he didn't do anything (0-0 and france won in the penalty kicks)
in semi final he did nothing either, against croatia, and in final either
he was also non-existant in 2000 when france won the euro champs
zidane's best world cup was in 2006
he might be good enough to deserve the golden ball, but absolutely not in 1998
i also saw weah play in france, with marseille late in his career
i looked him up then because i know how bad the african players are and i wanted to know how he managed to win the ballon d'or
i was not really surprised to see that it was an obvious case of affirmative action
weah's ballon d'or was a combination of 2 things:
1)no clear favourite for the award
that year, there was no world cup, and no euro champs, no african cup of nations either
-in italy: ac milan reached the final of the champions league with an excellent paolo maldini, but they lost it and finished only 4th of the italian league
batistuta was the top scorer of the league but unfortunately his team (fiorentina) didn't have good enough results
-in germany: dortmund (with sammer) reached the semi final of the champions league, but they finished obly 6th of the german league
-in spain: real madrid won the league with zamorano being the top scorer and laudrup the best player, but they did nothing in champions league
-in premiere league: the big names weren't successful, and blackburn surprisingly won the league, with an incredible alan shearer (34 goals)
-ajax won the champions league, but it was with a very young team, and they don't give the ballon d'or to young players
litmanen was only 23 years old for example
2)the context
the amount of foreign players in europe was increasing, and there was a lot of talk about allowing more foreign players in european clubs
the very famous bosman ruling (which allowed the european clubs to have as many foreign players as they wanted) was adopted that year, just before they gave the award to weah...
as a consequence, the rule changed for the ballon d'or award that year, for the first time the award was for the best payer - of any nationality - in europe, while before it was for the best european player
it was obvious that they were going to give the award to a non-european player (because romario didn't won it for being brazilian, while he dominated european football the year before)
the best non-europeans were the chilean zamorano with real madrid, and the argentine batistuta for fiorentina
but they were not africans
let's have a look at weah's season that year:
weah played in the french league, for PSG
that year, he had the worst season in his career
he scored only 7 goals in the french league, his team mates ginola and rai scored much more than him and they were middlefielders, he scored 1 goal every 384 minutes, which is very very bad
he scored 7 goals in champions league, but 5 out of these 7 goals were scored in the group stages, 4 against spartak moscow and dynamo kiev
he didn't score in the second leg of the quarter finals, and he didn't score in the semi finals either
the ballon d'or is awarded at the half of the season, so we must also take into account his start of the season with his new club, ac milan: 6 goals in 14 matches in serie A, and 3 goals in 5 matches in champiosn league, agaisnt a bad polish club and a czech club
overall, his stats for this year (taking into account the start of the season with ac milan) are 1 goal every 275 minutes, which is pretty bad
he didn't win any major title either, since PSG didn't won the champions league, and nantes won the french league
so it's fair to say that, as expected, weah's ballon d'or was the least deserved in history, he only won it because he was african and so he became the first african to ever win the award (and the only one so far)
maybe ronaldo's second golden ball in 2002 was also undeserved, because he didn't dominate european football, and he was never the same player again after his big injury in 1999
but he won the world cup that year, and when there's a world cup the winner is always amongst the team that won it
but it's easier to win a world cup when you're brazilian
at his top, ronaldo lost the world cup, in 1998
he had an horrible final vs france (maybe because of health problems)
but ronaldo was used to underperforming in the most important matches: with internazionale he was very bad in some decisive matches for the scudetto, against lazio and juventus for example
as a consequence, he never won any major title while at his best (before his huge injury)
ronaldo's legend has been inflated by the ones that make videos about him on youtube
amazing player, but he didn't accomplish as much as most people say
personally, i used to like rivaldo better than him
another unfair thing that i noticed happened in 2010:
the best player of the 2010 world cup was diego forlan, but he didn't win it because with his club he did well, but he won the europa league which is not rated by the ones who award the ballon d'or
in club football, the player of the year was undoubtlessly diego milito, who won everything with internazionale : champions league (goals in semi-finals, and the 2 goals of the final) italian serie A (22 goals, including the one that officially gave the title to internazionale), and the italian cup (he scored the only goal of the final)
messi won the award, i'm OK with it, but milito wasn't even in the list of the potential winners!
here's the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_Ballon_d'Or
the african etoo is in the list and finishes 12th, while he was second choice to diego milito at internazionale that season! (with mourinho as a coach)
recently, the rules changed, and players from non-european leagues can win the ballon d'or, but all the winners were playing in europe, ofcourse
they also no longer take into consideration the accomplishments of the team, but the individual performance, which means that they no longer have to give the award automtically to a player from a team that did well in champions league or in a world cup
with this rule, zidane wouldn't have won the ballon d'or in 1998
let's post all the things related to this award (and other awards) in this thread
so far since 1956, 48 awards out of 56 have been won by a white player (in a few weeks that should be 49, since messi, iniesta, cristiano ronaldo or casillas are going to win the 2012 balon d'or)
most of the non-whites who won it are brazilians (ronaldinho, rivaldo, ronaldo), then there is the kabyle zidane in 1998
then there are the "dutchman" gullit (mixed race), eusebio (who was born in africa to a white portuguese father) and the only african to ever win it, weah
a few things i can say about the award:
i know nothing about football from gullit's era
i know nothing about eusebio either
zidane's ballon d'or in 1998 is a joke, it's because they had to give it to one of the players that won the world cup that year, and france had no offensive player that had an impact, they won with a lot of luck and they played really defensively
zidane did nothing in this tournament, nothing, except his 2 goals vs brazil in the final, but frank leboeuf could have scored these goals, they were just headers on corner kicks
he got a dumb red card in the group stages, so he was suspended for the 8th of finals match vs paraguay (1-0 after extra time)
he played against italy in quarter finals but the italians knew him perfectly and there was always 2 italians defending on him, so he didn't do anything (0-0 and france won in the penalty kicks)
in semi final he did nothing either, against croatia, and in final either
he was also non-existant in 2000 when france won the euro champs
zidane's best world cup was in 2006
he might be good enough to deserve the golden ball, but absolutely not in 1998
i also saw weah play in france, with marseille late in his career
i looked him up then because i know how bad the african players are and i wanted to know how he managed to win the ballon d'or
i was not really surprised to see that it was an obvious case of affirmative action
weah's ballon d'or was a combination of 2 things:
1)no clear favourite for the award
that year, there was no world cup, and no euro champs, no african cup of nations either
-in italy: ac milan reached the final of the champions league with an excellent paolo maldini, but they lost it and finished only 4th of the italian league
batistuta was the top scorer of the league but unfortunately his team (fiorentina) didn't have good enough results
-in germany: dortmund (with sammer) reached the semi final of the champions league, but they finished obly 6th of the german league
-in spain: real madrid won the league with zamorano being the top scorer and laudrup the best player, but they did nothing in champions league
-in premiere league: the big names weren't successful, and blackburn surprisingly won the league, with an incredible alan shearer (34 goals)
-ajax won the champions league, but it was with a very young team, and they don't give the ballon d'or to young players
litmanen was only 23 years old for example
2)the context
the amount of foreign players in europe was increasing, and there was a lot of talk about allowing more foreign players in european clubs
the very famous bosman ruling (which allowed the european clubs to have as many foreign players as they wanted) was adopted that year, just before they gave the award to weah...
as a consequence, the rule changed for the ballon d'or award that year, for the first time the award was for the best payer - of any nationality - in europe, while before it was for the best european player
it was obvious that they were going to give the award to a non-european player (because romario didn't won it for being brazilian, while he dominated european football the year before)
the best non-europeans were the chilean zamorano with real madrid, and the argentine batistuta for fiorentina
but they were not africans
let's have a look at weah's season that year:
weah played in the french league, for PSG
that year, he had the worst season in his career
he scored only 7 goals in the french league, his team mates ginola and rai scored much more than him and they were middlefielders, he scored 1 goal every 384 minutes, which is very very bad
he scored 7 goals in champions league, but 5 out of these 7 goals were scored in the group stages, 4 against spartak moscow and dynamo kiev
he didn't score in the second leg of the quarter finals, and he didn't score in the semi finals either
the ballon d'or is awarded at the half of the season, so we must also take into account his start of the season with his new club, ac milan: 6 goals in 14 matches in serie A, and 3 goals in 5 matches in champiosn league, agaisnt a bad polish club and a czech club
overall, his stats for this year (taking into account the start of the season with ac milan) are 1 goal every 275 minutes, which is pretty bad
he didn't win any major title either, since PSG didn't won the champions league, and nantes won the french league
so it's fair to say that, as expected, weah's ballon d'or was the least deserved in history, he only won it because he was african and so he became the first african to ever win the award (and the only one so far)
maybe ronaldo's second golden ball in 2002 was also undeserved, because he didn't dominate european football, and he was never the same player again after his big injury in 1999
but he won the world cup that year, and when there's a world cup the winner is always amongst the team that won it
but it's easier to win a world cup when you're brazilian
at his top, ronaldo lost the world cup, in 1998
he had an horrible final vs france (maybe because of health problems)
but ronaldo was used to underperforming in the most important matches: with internazionale he was very bad in some decisive matches for the scudetto, against lazio and juventus for example
as a consequence, he never won any major title while at his best (before his huge injury)
ronaldo's legend has been inflated by the ones that make videos about him on youtube
amazing player, but he didn't accomplish as much as most people say
personally, i used to like rivaldo better than him
another unfair thing that i noticed happened in 2010:
the best player of the 2010 world cup was diego forlan, but he didn't win it because with his club he did well, but he won the europa league which is not rated by the ones who award the ballon d'or
in club football, the player of the year was undoubtlessly diego milito, who won everything with internazionale : champions league (goals in semi-finals, and the 2 goals of the final) italian serie A (22 goals, including the one that officially gave the title to internazionale), and the italian cup (he scored the only goal of the final)
messi won the award, i'm OK with it, but milito wasn't even in the list of the potential winners!
here's the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_Ballon_d'Or
the african etoo is in the list and finishes 12th, while he was second choice to diego milito at internazionale that season! (with mourinho as a coach)
recently, the rules changed, and players from non-european leagues can win the ballon d'or, but all the winners were playing in europe, ofcourse
they also no longer take into consideration the accomplishments of the team, but the individual performance, which means that they no longer have to give the award automtically to a player from a team that did well in champions league or in a world cup
with this rule, zidane wouldn't have won the ballon d'or in 1998
