Feeling deflated: Soccer fans not happy with Ballon d’Or cancellation
Cancellation of Ballon D’Or for 2020 means that Messi may lose out on a chance to win the prestigious award for the seventh time.
Social media has already reacted with dismay to the news that there is no Ballon D’Or winner for 2020. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious individual soccer awards.
The French news magazine France Football, which organises the Ballon D’Or, released a statement on Monday 20 July. Firstly it announced it will not hand out this prestigious individual award this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
France Football said there was no “equity” needed to hand out the honorary title in 2020, partly because of “accounting and preparation”.
“All the award seekers will not be in the same boat,” the statement said. It also noted that some players had had a shorter season.
“Therefore, how can we establish a fair comparison? To avoid overly convoluted calculations and projections, we chose the least of the bad options.”
Fans react to Ballon D’Or cancellation
Soccer fans took to social media streets to voice their opinions about the effects of the Ballon D’Or cancellation this year.
Many tweeted that it was unfair to favourites Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, as they did not perform well this year.
On the other hand, Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandoski and Manchester City’s Kevin De-Bruyne were on form.
Many fans believe that Messi would have won, had the season been longer.
Nonetheless, contenders for this year’s awards feature several major soccer names.
Lionel Messi
Real Madrid may have won the La Liga title but that didn’t stop Messi from making history as usual. Messi is La Liga’s top goal scorer for a record seventh time, having scored 25 goals in the 2019/2020 season.
Messi also is the first player to score more than 20 goals and 20 assists in a single season. Not only this, he also made his 43rd appearance in an El Clasico match in 2020. Plus he is the first player in the history of Spanish football to reach 500 wins.
Messi finished this season on 25 goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Juventus was up against Lazio on Monday 20 July with Juventus striker Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice to help his team win 2-1.
The two goals made him become the first player in history to score more than 50 goals in Serie A, La Liga and the Premier League.
Ronaldo is also No 2 on the race for the European Golden Shoe alongside Ciro Immobile and is four goals behind Robert Lewandoski.
Kevin De Bruyne
The Manchester City forward was directly involved in 29 Premier League goals this season and had a good season.
Robert Lewandoski
The 2019/2020 is undoubtedly Lewandoski’s best season ever in his football career. Lewandoski played 43 matches this season and scored 51 goals across all competitions making him the top scorer in every competition he’s played in, including the Champions League.
In fact, he scored 34 goals in 31 appearances which made him the top scorer in Bundesliga for his team.
And there are other names: players expected to be contenders for the prestigious award included Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah, Karim Benzema and Kyllian Mbappé.
Messi, however, is the record breaking winner of the Ballon D’Or as he has won it six times.