Tag: Cristiano Ronaldo

Lionel Messi winning the Ballon D'or for a record sixth time has led to lots of reactions and controversy particularly for some Nigerian fans who described his winning it as another scam.

An ardent football fan in a public transport in Lagos, Nigeria received the news with shock and asked "So, Messi Won the Ballon D'or Again" ?

For him there was no basis on why the Barcelona forward should win it in this particular edition going by the fact that he was not the most outstanding among the last three players.

"Van Dijk won the UEFA Champions League in the season in review, so why was he not given the Ballon D'or ? he started.

" Ronaldo helped his country win the UEFA Nations League while Messi won a bronze medal at the last Copa America amidst a red card". So what was the justification for Lionel Messi winning it ? He asked looking round in the bus.

But in all fairness, lots of fans hardly take time to understand that the voting matters so much for any player to emerge as winner of the Ballon D'or.

Each country has representatives who votes, but what exactly do representatives from those countries have in mind when they come voting ?

Its quite a little bit difficult to know what they have in mind, but one interesting thing about this last voting was that it was marred with interesting bizarre voting.

A country like Sri Lanka who has no player contesting came up with a vote that looked a bit mind-blowing. Lionel Messi, Van Dijk, Cristiano Ronaldo and a few others who finished fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh in over all ranking did not get a vote from them, so what were they thinking when they voted ?

In a country like Guatemala, Van Dijk, Allison Becker, Firmino and Salah made an impressive appearance on the list of votes, probably sending a message that Liverpool has a good fan base in the country. Interestingly, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were also missing on the list of the players voted for.

While some Liverpool fans had argued after the result was announced that Messi was overrated , little did they look critically at the fact that what made Messi defeat Van Dijk was just six votes and a better work in a country like Guatemal would have made the difference.

But if it is also true that Liverpool had a good fan base in Guatemala, how were they able to manage their votes considering the fact that Van Dijk was the most preferred ? How then did Allison finish top ahead of a player who was considered as the most preferred for the award in the midst of fans that believes strongly in Liverpool as a brand ?

Coming to Africa where Lionel Messi won most of the votes, was it that Africa does not have an outstanding player who had achieved more than the trio of Lionel Messi, Van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo ?

A critical look at the names that finished top seven clearly shows that Algerian Riyad Mahrez was conspicuously missing. The Manchester City forward won a record-breaking domestic treble with Manchester City in they year in review and also played a key role to help his country win the African Cup of Nations after 29 years, was that not also enough for African's to throw their votes around him ?

It may interest readers to know that despite the accomplishments made by Riyard Mahrez in the year in review he struggled to get votes in Africa. Only Algeria, Tunisia,Kenya and Morocco voted for him and his best results in these countries was finishing third position.

Finally, if Mahrez who won more trophies than the trio of Messi, Van Dijk and Ronaldo could not emerge as number in his country Algeria, this confirms that those who votes probably look out for some other factors rather than the trophies won by the player in the year in review.