Lionel Messi won the Ballon d'Or in 2021.
He was recognized as the best player by the French magazine France Football, which organized a vote with the participation of sports journalists from different countries.
The Argentine footballer broke his own record and won the prize for the seventh time.
Predicting the winner of the most prestigious individual award this year was extremely difficult. One of the main favorites was the Pole Robert Lewandowski, who was striking with his top scorer records throughout the last season. Also, the trophy could go to midfielder Jorginho, who won Euro 2020 with the Italian national team and the Champions League with Chelsea. In 2021, the fans were also hearing from the Frenchman Karim Benzema and his compatriot N'Golo Kante.
Messi was not considered an obvious contender for the Ballon d'Or, however, before the announcement of the voting results, there were persistent rumors that the Paris Saint-Germain forward would still receive the award. In the end, he really bypassed Lewandowski on points scored. The Pole took second place, and Jorginho was the third. The Argentinean's victory caused a mixed reaction in the football world. For example, the winner of the "Golden Ball" in 1990, Lothar Matthäus, said that no one except Lewandowski deserved this award more.
“Honestly, after such a choice, I no longer understand this world, with all due respect to Lionel Messi and all the other wonderful nominees.
No one deserved a prize like Lewandowski.
France Football did not present an award last year and with how many titles Robert won against Bayern in 2020, he has been unmatched for the past two years.
Even if we take only 2021, it was the best, ”Matthäus told Sky Deutschland.
Messi himself paid tribute to Lewandowski.
In his speech after the awarding ceremony, he stated that the Pole also deserved a prize, but only at the end of last year, in which the best football player was not determined due to the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent cancellation of a number of tournaments.
“I would like to mention Robert Lewandowski, it was a great honor for me to compete with you. Everyone knows and we all agree that you were the winner last year. I think France Football should give you the Golden Ball 2020. You deserve it and you should keep it at home. I think Robert had a great year. Year after year he has been improving and demonstrating how great a striker he is and how he can score goals, ”Messi said from the stage.
Talk about whether the Argentine was rightly named the best footballer of the year will not subside for a long time. Messi really did not have the outgoing year as brightly as his best seasons at Barcelona, for which he was deservedly awarded the Ballon d'Or. If we take into account only 2021, then Messi scored 28 goals in the Catalans, scored four more times in PSG and nine times in the Argentine national team.
The main complaint that can be made against Messi is the lack of big victories at the club level. Last season, Barcelona finished in third place - the worst in the last 13 years in the Spanish championship, and also flew out of the Champions League already at the stage of 1/8 finals. At the same time, Messi himself did everything in his power to achieve success in Example. With 30 goals, most of which were scored in 2021, he became the best sniper in the championship. The only trophy that Messi won with Barcelona was the Spanish Cup. As part of PSG, the forward has not yet distinguished himself in anything significant, which is partly caused by the injuries that followed him.
In terms of club titles and his own performance, Messi was really noticeably inferior to Lewandowski. The Polish footballer, together with Bayern Munich, won the German championship and the club world championship. At the same time, Lewandowski distinguished himself in the Bundesliga 41 times and broke the seemingly eternal record of Gerd Müller in 1972. In 2021 alone, the Pole scored 24 goals, scored three hat-tricks and played only one match without a goal. In the new season, Lewandowski chalked up another 25 goals for Bayern, and also scored 11 times for the Polish national team, but did not help her successfully perform at Euro 2020 and qualify directly for the World Cup in Qatar.
Messi just had a great year with his national team. The 34-year-old Argentinian won the America's Cup and finally brought his national team the title, which was expected of him at home for a decade and a half. At the tournament, held in Brazil, Messi scored four goals, shared the title of top scorer and was recognized as the most valuable player. In total, the Argentine has issued nine goals for the national team, showing his best performance in nine years.
Previously, successes in the South American championship were not quoted in the Golden Ball, but, apparently, the journalists who voted for Messi made an exception for him. Here one might wonder why then Jorginho's successes were not celebrated. But he was thwarted by the role of central midfielder, who traditionally remain in the shadow of strikers, and his reputation was also influenced by penalties in matches against Switzerland, which questioned Italy's getting into the World Cup.
Lewandowski would have undoubtedly deserved the Ballon d'Or in 2020, when he also showed phenomenal striking qualities and helped Bayern to win the Champions League.
However, these achievements still remained in the past year, and France Football did not require them to be taken into account when voting.
Among the criteria there is a separate item regarding past merits, but if you evaluate the players only by it, then Messi would have bypassed any other nominee in any case.
At the same time, the magazine established a new award for the best striker and presented it to Lewandowski, which became a kind of compensation for the Polish striker.