The Ballon d’Or changes its rules

‘France Football’ changes the Ballon d’Or rules to try to put a stop to the controversy. The prestigious award given annually by the French magazine will from now on be aligned with the football season and will focus on individual merits, reducing the considerable weight that collective awards had when it came to designating the best footballer on the planet.

The next Ballon d’Or award ceremony will be held in September or October of this year and will assess the performance offered by the candidates throughout the 2021-2022 academic year, instead of focusing on what happened from January, as it had been happening Until now. A decision whose objective is to make the arguments that lead the jury to select the best player in the world more understandable, as announced this Friday by the magazine that has granted the appreciated recognition since 1956.

The new regulation advanced this Friday also develops another crucial change that consists of putting the individual performances of the candidates in the foreground, reducing the attention that until now was given to the trophies won by the candidates in their clubs and national teams. This aspect had been one of the main focuses of the controversy, since critics of the criteria followed to date argued that since it was an individual recognition, it should not be subject to the performance of the club to which the candidates belonged.

incessant polemics

Recent is still the controversy generated in the last edition, which enthroned Leo Messi for the seventh time as the best player on the planet, above other candidates such as the Polish Robert Lewandowski or the French Karim Benzema. “It’s about avoiding ambiguities, being clear and consistent: the Ballon d’Or is an individual distinction, based on individual performances,” said Pascal Ferré, editor-in-chief of ‘France Football’ when announcing the new features introduced.

Since 2008, the Ballon d’Or had been a private preserve for Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who shared the awards granted since that year with the only exception of the prize awarded to Luka Modric in 2018, which rewarded the midfielder’s exceptional campaign by leading the Croatian team to the runner-up position in the World Cup in Russia and being a fundamental figure in the thirteenth Champions League won by Real Madrid. The purpose of ‘France Football’ is that the Ballon d’Or stops taking into account the entire career of the player in question and exclusively values ​​his performance in the current season, which would open the range.