But we can never repeat it enough: rewarding individuality in a team sport is necessarily subjective. In absolute terms, the Spaniard Dani Carvajal, winner of the Champions League, La Liga and the Euro, also meets all the parameters to apply for the highest award. But he's a… full-back and it's therefore, inevitably, less glamorous. Less marketing and bankable.
“The best player in the world”: an XXL performance from Vinicius JR against Dortmund for a Golden Ball already assured?
Moreover, few defenders appear on the list of winners. To be honest, since 1956, there have only been three: Franz Beckenbauer, Matthias Sammer and Fabio Cannavaro. It's little, very little. It is not Bobby Moore, Paolo Maldini or Franco Baresi who will say the opposite.
Besides, goalkeepers are not better off in the eyes of history. To date, only the Soviet Lev Yashin – “the black spider” – has inherited the supreme title in 1963. Dino Zoff, Sepp Maier, Oliver Kahn, Gianluigi Buffon, Manuel Neuer or even Iker Casillas or Thibaut Courtois would certainly not have casts a shadow over the picture. But we must believe that, for the jurors, the game of hand is a game of villains! At the time of the vote, in any case, the defense is not allowed to speak…
Leo Messi gives his prediction for the Ballon d'Or: “He deserves it more than anyone”
