Male and female players from Spain and from Spanish clubs, especially FC Barcelona, dominated Monday’s Ballon d’Or awards ceremony, Spanish media note with pride.
The Madrid daily AS, writing of the “dominance” of homegrown soccer, says the anniversary edition should be remembered by Spaniards for a long time, even though the best player was named as Bayern Munich’s English striker Harry Kane. In the paper’s view, that decision is debatable.
“Today Spain and Barcelona took a great deal,” AS summed up. The sports daily from the Spanish capital expressed surprise that no Spanish player was named player of the year, even though Spain is this year’s world champion.
According to the dailies Sport and Mundo Deportivo, one of the best honors at Monday’s Ballon d’Or gala was the award for the best women’s team, which went to FC Barcelona, where Polish striker Ewa Pajor plays. The Polish player lost the women’s race to her former Barça teammate Alexia Putellas.
Mundo Deportivo recalls that among the awards important to Barcelona at this year’s ceremony were also the titles for young talents: player Lamine Yamal and female player Vicky Lopez. Both play for the “Pride of Catalonia.”
The best coach and goalkeeper in this year’s voting were also Spaniards: Luis de la Fuente and Unai Simon.
Journalists at the SER radio network and Radio Marca note that the Ballon d’Or votes always stir up strong emotions because they are not based on “objective criteria.” They regret that of the world champion squad, only Yamal made the top three best players.
Wondering why none of the Spaniards, this year’s world champions, made the top two players, they say the criteria for the award are “unclear and always stir up emotions.”
“If we are supposed to award the Ballon d’Or according to the criterion of winning the most important soccer trophies in a single season, then why didn’t Fabian Ruiz win it this time? After all, he won the World Cup with Spain and the Champions League with PSG, didn’t he?” Radio Marca journalists ask rhetorically.
The station notes that for several decades the Ballon d’Or did not go to players from outside Europe. The change, it recalled, came only in the mid-1990s.
Monday’s ceremony was moved from Paris to London to mark the 70th anniversary of the first Ballon d’Or award. The winner at that time, in 1956, was Englishman Stanley Matthews.
The Paris magazine France Football began awarding the Ballon d’Or in 1956. From 2010 to 2015, the French publication and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) jointly honored one player with the FIFA Ballon d’Or. Since 2016, the votes for the world’s best players have again been run separately.
Marcin Zatyka (PAP)
