‘Marketing and fashion’ – Barcelona press speak of ‘injustice’, and ‘ridiculous’ Ballon d’Or voting system

Lionel Messi finished fifth in the Ballon d’Or which has unsurprisingly shocked many football fans.

Whilst there will be endless arguments about who should finish top, that the Barcelona player came after four other players is a step further.

And, they’re not happy in the Catalan sport media.

This has become something of a tradition, any time Cristiano Ronaldo has beaten his great rival to an individual award, there’s been outrage and indignation. 

In October 2017, when Ronaldo won ‘The Best’, Mundo Deportivo went with a headline saying ‘THE BEST OR NOT THE BEST’ and brought Shakespeare into proceedings.

‘It would be spectacular to ask William Shakespeare who is The Best, whether Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. That is the question. If we ask the soccer family of the world who is the best, simply ‘The Best’, surely Lionel Messi would always win, until he retires, even a little later.’

Sport stropped: ‘Cristiano won The Best yesterday. And in December he will surely win the Ballon d’Or. And thus, the greatest injustice in the history of football will be consummated.’

Tuesday’s edition of Sport speaks of an ‘injustice’ towards Messi and labels the Ballon d’Or voting system ‘ridiculous’.

The Catalan newspaper says that Luka Modric winning the award ‘shows that in voting the criteria of marketing and fashion are imposed, and also that the voters do not even consider the award regulations themselves.’

Sport believe that France Football have got the voting system all wrong, explaining the magazine only take into account ‘individual performance during the year’, whereas the idea of the award is to also include ‘player’s class (talent and ‘fair play’)’ and his whole sports career.

Another Sport column alleges that, earlier in the year, France Football conducted a social media poll to ask followers who they thought should win the Ballon d”or, and that when the answer was Messi, they deleted all record of it: ‘One more indication that Leo was not going to be the protagonist of the awards, since the correspondents of the magazine opted for other options while the direction of the publication chose to silence the voice of the fans.’

A third Sport column says: ‘These awards are, first and foremost, marketing. And one of the laws of marketing is to run away from the repetitive, avoid the tiredness of the public.’