Since the FIFA World Player of the Year merged with France Football’s Ballon d’Or ahead of the 2010 calendar year to become the FIFA Ballon d’Or, there has been a two man struggle for victory over the award. It should come as no surprise that this year was no different as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were two of the three finalists for the award. Messi’s Barcelona teammate Neymar rounds out the finalists, meaning there is a 67% chance that the award will have a repeat winner for the sixth straight year.
Unlike American sports where writers cringe at voting for the same guy over and over, world football pundits and award presenters have no problem giving the award to the best player regardless if it is the same player again and again. LeBron James and Tom Brady should be in the running for their sport’s respective MVP’s each year. They don’t win as often though because that is considered boring. Looking at the last few FIFA Ballon d’Or shortlists, rewarding excellence trumps being “boring.”
This a spoiled generation as we have been witness to transcendent players in the sport at the same time. A player of Messi and Ronaldo’s ilk is supposed to come around once in a generation. Having both playing at such a high level concurrently would force American voters into a “Well, he’ll win it next year” mentality. Instead the structure of the FIFA Ballon d’Or forces both players to try to best the other instead of just settling for winning it next year. That duel between the duo for individual supremacy will be further intensified with the so-called next big thing Neymar making the competition a three way dance.
Many people want to expand the field that are nominated as finalists. There are many a player throughout the world that deserve recognition for their accomplishments. But wouldn’t expanding the invitation pool cheapen the award? Every award and event will have their snubs. From All-Star Games to the NCAA Tournament, there will always be somebody with an argument as to why they were deserving of inclusion. The biggest shouters from the outside for this year’s Ballon d’Or are yet another Barcelona man in Luis Suarez as well as Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski. They are undoubtedly worthy of adulation and accolades, but neither are yet in the stratosphere as the men who will be on that stage on January 11th, 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland.
For all the shortcomings that FIFA has shown over the past months, scandal after scandal further sullying the already soiled name of football’s governing body, the Ballon d’Or is one thing they actually don’t mess up. Limiting it to just the game’s preeminent three players of the year gives the award a distinction that few other individual awards possess. There is always talk of expansion in world football, from the Euros to the World Cup itself. Keep the shortlist short. It won’t provide any surprises but it will also serve its purpose.