Hours before the Ballon d'Or ceremony in the French capital, Paris, one of the former winners of the award launched an attack on the organizers, and said that awarding Lionel Messi the Ballon d'Or today is not worthy and will damage the credibility of the award.
Most expectations indicate that Messi won the award for the seventh time in his history, to enhance his record, ahead of his Portuguese rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, who won the Ballon d'Or 5 times.
Hours before the official announcement of the winner, former French player Jean-Pierre Papin told the French newspaper Le Parisien that Messi did not play for a long time after winning the Copa America with Argentina.
"I don't understand, and we can add Cristiano Ronaldo also in this case. Since he won the Copa America, what did Messi do in Paris? He scored 1 goal in the league, 3 in the Champions League... I have nothing against Messi, he is one of the greatest players in the world." history, but he does not deserve to receive the award this year."
The former Marseille player, who won the Ballon d'Or in 1991, believes that Messi's victory will be a blow to the credibility of the award, and he said, "The choice of Messi in 2021 would reduce the value of the Ballon d'Or because it would mean that we no longer give the opportunity to outstanding players to win the award."
He believed that the basic condition for awarding the title is good performance over an entire season, a condition that only a few players will be able to do;
This gives the award its value and appreciation.
"If we give it to Messi this year, every child in the world can dream about it. And maybe it'll be less glamorous," Baban added.
He explained that the podium should be contested by players such as Lewandowski, Jorginho, Mbappe and Karim Benzema.