Topic: Is Ballon d’Or objective? (Read 753 times)

The truth is yes, but you have to be consistent, I think there were other players who deserved the Ballon d'Or apart from Vini, but the truth is that it would have been the last straw if it had been Messi, it was too much shamelessness, but to be honest I wouldn't have been surprised, the truth is I will never understand the criteria for choosing a Ballon d'Or.

I think that a player to win the Ballon d'Or for me is simple , the one who scores the most goals in the season and the most outstanding, the one who obviously wins the most or has gone the furthest in the league, but I think that the goals should weigh a lot, it's simple.

You cannot completely rule out bias when it comes to selection, especially when a voter takes personal liking to a contestant, they might vote based on emotions rather than skills. If the100 journalist will vote based on their discretion, then you can't expect all of them to like the obvious best player. So I believe that the criteria for selection might not be centered only on skills, it can include character and charisma, so the best skilled player might not gain all the journalist's favors. We'll have to accept what the journalists agrees on, they're the professionals, even though their choices might not be perfect.

Full transparency is quite a challenge for Ballon d'Or selection since it is done behind doors, especially with the manner in which this award has come under fire over its results and data, which most of the time are released after the winner has been announced and seemingly kept secret. Although they present lots of data to back their picks, many see disparities, as though there was some kind of manipulation.

Although Rondri's case is controversial, the award of Best Player in Asia or Ballon dor Asia has been associated with similar criticism. When Akram Afif was given the award, it came as a surprise because Son Heung-min had until then been acknowledged as the stronger player. Afif's win shattered Son's hegemony, and doubts began to emerge regarding how the winners were shortlisted. Most of them have forwarded the idea that the award might comprise something more than mere individual performance, maybe political influence or an effort to recognize different regions.

Recently a Finnish Journalist resigns for forgetting to vote for Vini Jr. He said it's his fault and deserves to quit the position. There is more to what happened to the Balon D'or result. Also two other Journalists Bruno Porzio of Elsavador and Sheefeni Nikodemus from Namibia didn't add Vini to their top ten list. So, the people in the voting panel can be unfair.

It's very possible. I remind you, the Ballon D'or is just a magazine award. The journalists can vote for the players they know. It likes when i vote for my friend because he is my friend. I don't take this award seriously. Journalists's objectivity can be biased by the personal relationship toward the player.

Though there's a transparent data for the organizers of the Balon D'or award to back their claim that anyone who wins the award actually deserves it, I have a strong feeling that some of this data that are released after few days of announcing the winner are been tampered. If it was as transparent as they do make us to believe, then why is the voting data not released immediately after the winner is announced.
The truth is that Vinicius Jr deserved it more than anyone else this year and that's why many people are now doubting the whole process of the award

I think it is a subject that should be questioned. Ballon D'or has lost its reputation. I agree that it is difficult to choose one among so many good players, but the Ballon d'Or was a place where a choice should be made that would be objective enough. Doesn't Rodri's selection explain everything? Actually, you know the truth. that's why you don't ask questions.

it's said that the proceedings are as fair as possible, but we all know that's not entirely true... From the moment they placed a limitation on the number of voters for the nomination, it became something that's totally based on their own discretion.

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come to think of it, kante's fine form in Chelsea is greater than any version of Rodri, so how did Rodri bag the trophy, but kante didn't?? Can y'all see the petty sentiments in this new-era ballon d'or selection/nomination??

Someone might say ngolo was competing against the two greatest players in the history of football, that's why he wasn't lucky with it... How about Lucas modric? Wasn't it in the same era that he won comfortable - even when his performances weren't as great as that of Ronaldo and messi?
Edit: It's just impossible to ignore this conversation....

That is the aim of it and that is what we are meant to believe about it even though some will still have some objection and still sense some imperfections in the whole process. The event will bring room for more competitiveness between players and will like to perform to their best in order to make their name written on that book of records in the history of football. So it’ll continue that way to chose the best athlete in football.


Even if this method is not the best and they want to try out many different ways, there will still be some challenges and questions like this will still arise whether this method is the best or not again. Journalists are humans also and they may have their own choice and how they like each players and can trigger them to vote for them even though they don’t deserve it. As long as this is the method they’re still adopting, it is still the best until they come with another one.

This is the very reason why it is not advisable to bet on competitions like this because it depends on the judges' points to each athlete. As you can't see how they are giving points to the contenders, you are like blind to what is happening behind.
It is better to watch how this competition unfolds and see how the judges selected their annual choice. But for the major criteria, it is stated that they are looking for the individual's performance (Aug-July of the previous European season), team success and player's behavior. Now, there may be some bias on how they give the points but I guess, those top 3 factors are of course major aspects considered.


All About the Ballon d'Or

Why the journalists need to do a deep investigation if they're also get bribed by FIFA?

There's no fearless journalist that want to do an investigation to FIFA, I think we will never know what's happening behind that, all we keep heard is rumor where FIFA is unfair, that's.

That's true many people will think like you, it's because they're Madridistas.

But, at least I'm happy the winner wasn't Messi anymore.

For me, the Ballon d'Or has lost all credibility  How is it possible that they gave the Ballon d'Or to a Rodri instead of a Vinicius? We already have enough with those Ballon d'Ors that everyone gave to Messi. Now with this act, I think they went too far Well, I don't know. It's my opinion and I think that many people think like me. It's the most rational thing to do.

We cannot question their judgement. They are no fools, they would do what is right even if the system can be manipulated if we watch closely. But i think it is best for other journalist to do a deep investigation and spill out the truth to the general public. The reason is because we as fans can never know how the judgement is done. Also, even if we are suspecting one or two sentiment our voice cannot be heard.

Hahaha, it seems I just hit Messi's fan on his injury, who cares about the sentiment you are talking about? I see things the way they are even if my preferred person doesn't deserve it. Why call C. Ronaldo to this? He was even far from the choice then. I thought this insane comparison had been buried already, who is now sentimental? Stop bringing up the past biases, I do not do that. I mentioned Messi because he is a person of interest in an example, so what? Perhaps you must force me to give multiple examples. And if you must know (for your injury to be better hit) Messi did not deserve the last two Ballon D'or received, that's a fact, it's daylight robbery.

I think the people who choose the best players for the Ballon d'Or are definitely qualified people. Actually choosing the best player for the Ballon d'Or is not a very easy task. Those who vote must review the various aspects of the players and vote for the right candidate. We may passionately think this player deserves the Ballon d'Or, but not passionately for them. I don't want to question the Ballon d'Or, I think it is given to deserving players.

I do not fully understand how the people are evaluating one player to be made one of the candidates for the winner of the ballon d'Or whether by having a reason or not in expressing the assessment, if there is transparent data in my assessment, in my opinion it is legitimate, Like what the view given to one of the players, so that we can find a reason why he won it, this looks more fair despite using the same way as a greeting to evaluate the winner of the Ballon d'Or.

Well, first of all, no one knows why they made that decision, which is the best for them. There may be others who do not agree with that decision, and there are others who mostly support that decision, but it's still like that in the field of sports, especially in football.

Then the selection of the best players. I also think that it is not easy for those who decide on that matter, unless there is an under the table that they want to be the best players,
you know what I mean.

You mentioning Messi is a clear indication that you are biased and you are letting your emotions have the better control over you. Why didn't you mentioned the one Christiano Ronaldo won ahead of Frank Ribery? Nothing is widely condemned it is just you and your likes that are making it up. You guys should learn to be happy for others when they are winning everything must not be centered within your favourites. The only time I saw deserving players were robbed, where those times that CR7 won the Ballon d'Or, yet the world did not fall, neither did anybody suggest that Ballon d'Or should be scrapped. Can you ever explain how CR7 won the Ballon d'Or without winning a single trophy? Nobody is scrapping anything because of few losers who thinks they deserve what they don't. Cr7, Modric and Benzema won, Ballon d'Or is credible. Messi and others won Ballon d'Or is not credible and should be scrapped. What a world 😂😂

This ballon d’or has lost its worth ever since lewadoski was rubbed off the ballon d’or in 2020, with the said reason that Covid was the reason. and was then given to Messi 2021 I stopped eating that award.
But I’m glad it was given to rodri since the past years has been either a player from either Barcelona or Real Madrid. So this time it should be someone else.

I bet a great percentage of them are from Europe and they Favour their European players the more, especially those who are of European origin, the discrimination is always felt most times but is brushed off by the media and everything reverts to normal until they do it again and the cycle goes on. I think there should be an even distribution of the journalists who presents their lists across all continents to give every continent equal participation in the selection process. Where there's no equity, some people feel cheated and that is what is happening currently around the selection process of the winner of the prestigious award.

The Ballon d'Or is one of the oldest and most prestigious individual awards in world football, awarded annually by France Football Magazine to the best player in the world in that calendar year. The voting mechanism still uses the same method every year, if you want to make it more objective, it might take a brilliant idea to change the voting method.
Journalists were appointed as a jury consisting of 100 people, FIFA and the Ballon d'Or organizers gave them a list of 30 players who had been categorized as nominees. The Ballon D'or voting is often considered controversial, but that is the mechanism for determining the winner.

I don't think the decision can be questioned, sometimes we want to see a different result, but the decision is made by competent people, so I wouldn't make a big topic of discussion out of it. In the recent season when City won the Premier League, the Champions League and the Cup there were many expectations that Haaland should get the highest award, but it didn't happen, maybe the reason was that his national team is weak, I'm sure that many factors are taken into account when making decisions.

So what, we should award it based on the color of the skin?
Then where is the outrage about no Asian winning it, what about the middle east, what about north America?
If Mbappe had won would that have been counted as black or as french and western?


Real Madrid had 4 players entered in the Ballon d'Or last year, Ramos was not one of them, and saying that someone has issues with Real after they've won the title with 3 different players in the last decade it's just tinfoil conspiracy territory.



Fair play is still a criteria for the points and he lacks that more than results

We can't know it and chances are that we will never do. It is not definitely objective, like most of the decisions made by humans, which is not necessarily bad. It would only be bad if it responded to shady interests that manipulated the vote, but we have no way of knowing if that is so.

BTW, I'm really excited by the decision to choose Rodri, a Spanish player. Our players, and he in particular, deserve it. But, again, I'm not being objective, as a Spaniard that I am

If the award is given based on the quality of the player and his performance, Vinicius Junior was far better than the winner Rodri. Most newspapers globally reported that the Brazilian was the favourite to win the award. His shortfall might be his character on the pitch. He has not been able to calmly interact with players and officials. He has been a target of racist attacks but sometimes he reacts extremely.

But I think the voting for the award can be expanded to give equal representation. Since FIFA has a membership of about 211 national associations, maybe a sports journalist from each country should vote.   

Between Brazilians had high expectations for Vini Jr to bring back their declining football success and they've not been impressed ever since Rodri got the award. I noticed that the nation have not been winning Balon D'or for a while, but it's not up to 20 years since Kaka's last win in 2007.

However they still play good football, their only barrier is the ever increasing emergence of stars in different countries and the efforts they also put in the pitch. Awardees are given equal rights to win depending on the performances in their name, not just about nativity.

This just shows the complete decline that Brazilian football is in, the last best player in the world was Kaká almost 20 years ago. I think the award given to Rodri was fair, Vinicius is not yet a complete player and responding to the OP, I think it is very difficult for 100 people to think the same way, there may even be some prejudice but specific cases that may not even interfere in the final result. There are 100 people voting... if Rodri won it was because he deserved it.

The journalists are humans who can as well have personal Interests based on their own views of the players performance that is why these journalists can not be in 100% same views.

Perhaps they gives their remarks based on individual views meaning if we have to put them in considerations then it is assumed their choice of deserved candidates per player could be biased since out ofthe100 journalists would vote on different players.

Making it Short, they are not perfect as some users here has said so some would work based on strict facts to whom they believe that deserves it while some would compromised the reality fact.

There is no doubt that Vinicius Jr. has performed brilliantly for Real Madrid but he has been a victim of racism several times in Europe which is why he has protested so much against racism which may be the reason behind him not winning the Ballon d'Or. Since everything a player considers when it comes to scoring a ball dur, one aspect he may have always held back is his inability to control his temper. Vinicius Jr. is often seen getting into arguments with opposing players though there must be reasons behind it. But as a quality player, he must not be treated aggressively. He may have come very close to winning the Ballon d'Or this season and he may be realizing his mistakes in not winning the Ballon d'Or so he must be careful going forward.

To be nominated for the Ballon d'Or does require skill. But to win, it must be through voting. So, no matter how great and great his achievements are, if only a few people vote, he will not win. That's the bad thing about the voting system.

It's about voting. There are too many Real Madrid candidates in the top 10. Their votes are divided. Meanwhile, Rodri has never lost every time he is on the field. The impact of his presence on the field is greater.

I also read that France Football Editor-in-Chief Vincent Garcia emphasized that the reason the Brazilian striker did not win was because the jury was divided in choosing the best from Real Madrid. Some chose Carvajal and Bellingham who also shone last season. So, it's natural that Vini did not get the Ballon D'Or and the winner was Rodri who did not have many representatives from Man City so his votes were not divided. Imo

Vinicius was leading the vote results since few months ago so that's why some of media has been speculate that Vinicius will be the winner of this year but since October seems Vinicius and Real Madrid know his final position for voting count on second place so that's why Real Madrid has decide not to send their representatives because the winner is not Vinicius but Rodri

If we talking about Ballon d'Or winners lists indeed it was dominated by attacking players and i don't know sure what is the criteria why Ballon d'Or dominated by the players on that position and before Rodri the last midfielder who can win this award is Luca Modric on 2018 and Rodri also became the first Manchester City player to win the Ballon d'Or and he also became the second Spanish player to win the award after Luis Suarez on 1960

There's nothing about his character,  it has to do with the fact that he merits the award. Got me thinking that even if they decided not to give Vini, what about Dani Cavarjal? He won it all last season,  yes? The champions league competition,  scored during the finals,  won la liga, won the European championship with spain,  say no more man. I feel like they be having underground issues with Real Madrid all because they be wanting these super league speculated to begin soon. I love Rodri,  he was effective for Manchester City, won trophies but I feel like  Vinicius deserves it more. Hopefully Vini gets motivated with this p.

Anything that is widely condemned should be deemed faulty most times, the criticism of this Ballon d'Or's winner is too loud this time and it is disgraceful, to say the least. This is why some people do not appreciate some titles anymore because the holders may not deserve it, so what is the point? The present jury guys are the most unpredictable I've ever known since I've been following football. This is not about people's sentiment but what is obvious in the sight of the majority. FIFA and the so-called panel/jury are now sentimental and political, they don't appreciate true talent again, that is what I can say right now. This is not the first time the deserving player has been robbed, even Messi was not worth the last one he won. It's all about humans pleasing themselves which is not fair.

In the past few years when Ronaldo became player who often received the Ballon d'Or, it was indeed time of objective selection because Ronaldo performance was also very good and he was always star for his country and the team he defended for European football.
But over time many people do not really believe in the selection, even many doubt each winner whether it is really transparent and fair selection or not, moreover it is not really visible that every journalist from each country chooses anyone in the 10 candidates submitted, what is clear is that the belief in neutrality at the Ballon d'Or ceremony is widely questioned.

An award known as the Ballon d'Or is usually given annually to the best striker who has contributed to the national team as well as a club in Europe. Basically this award is very prestigious for a star as this award proves that he is the best player of the year in which he gets the award. Every year after the awarding of the Ballon d'Or, there is a lot of discussion and criticism because the general audience or the general football fans make their own predictions to win the Ballon d'Or but the committee does not announce the winner of the Ballon d'Or as per the wishes of the football lovers. 
It happened this year because everyone thought Vinicius Jr. would get the Ballon d'Or this season, but it didn't happen.

Generally, this sometimes does not naturally represent the opinion of the majority, fast -forward back into 2010 Ballon d'Or winners, Wesley sneijder were no way the winner. A good systems should be deployed in other to get a true reflection of votes supporters and fans of this players view or choice. If things should go this way henceforth, it means the objective of this award is gradually changing if it does  not reflect the true choice of fans, irrespective of the fact that people have different views on player of choice. If a good system of voting is in place, it will definitely do well to try to reflect the supporters true choice.

Indeed. There is no way to make it objective. The Ballon d'Or is surely a subjective title.

I don't really understand about the vote mechanism. But this way may be most reasonable way to determine the winner. Do you have an idea to make it more objective? What vote method do you suggest?

In my own view, the name shouldn't be Ballon d'Or but favorite player title (based on journalist perspective).

The award is mostly given to Messi. Ronaldo won it when Messi experienced bad season only. I think it is reasonable if Messi and Ronaldo won the most award because these players are the most popular players at that time. They also always showed great performance in each season.

There is still debate as to whether Messi really deserved the award in 2023, some argue that the simple fact that he won the World Cup was a big reason for him to win the award.

In my opinion, what made this Ballon d'Or event gain so much notoriety in this 21st decade was the fact that great players like Ronaldinho, Messi and CR7 won the Ballon d'Or so many times (especially the latter two).

I remember that in 2010 Snejder had a great World Cup, but the one who won the award was L. Messi, despite not having had a good World Cup that year, generating controversy with some accusing this event of only awarding super popular players.

In short, i agree with some annual awards and disagree with some.

Offcourse it's not objective. Maybe more objective than Miss Universe contest, but still, it's popularity contest. It's almost impossible to win this award if you're goalkeeper or defender. Remember that how contraversial it was when Iniesta or Snejder didn't won Ballon d’Or just because you had to be Messi or C. Ronaldo to win it.
In recent years some changes to make it more objective. Previously all FIFA member countries were allowed to vote, now your country have to be TOP 100 in FIFA ranking to be able to vote. But still, it's popularity contest and there always will be people who aren't happy about results.
And I don't really like that some people are trying to put racism factor here because it's just ridiculous.

The Ballon d'Or has never been objective and never will be.I don’t agree with players winning the award based on journalists’ votes, and I think a fair method needs to be discussed. We've often seen journalists act emotionally in their voting over the years. In the past the award was only given to Messi and Ronaldo, even though other players deserved to win it.

If we can accept the process of referees officiating matches and we are comfortable with it without questioning if they were bias or their patriotism then I don't think there is need for us to start questioning the way the Ballon d'Or selection is being administered. The Ballon d'Or has been there for ages now, and it will always be there. People should just accept the process the way it is. If we keep questioning the selection process, then every year people are always going to complain. For me the Ballon d'Or doesn't really define a player, neither can it decide how far a player can go. It is just a recognition of how well a player performed in a particular year. Players don't perform excellently every year. That you did well this year doesn't mean you are better than the others.

Unfortunately, this was a very poor approach. I’ll discuss it from the beginning. First of all, you've mentioned that the Ballon d'Or award is biased towards the West. Now, let’s think about this. First, we need to break down the term 'Western bias' into two parts;

The origins of the players and the countries of the winning football clubs. When we look at the last 20 years, we have a list which look like this;

2024 - Rodri (Spain), Manchester City (England)
2023 - Lionel Messi (Argentina), Inter Miami (USA)
2022 - Karim Benzema (France), Real Madrid (Spain)
2021 - Lionel Messi (Argentina), Paris Saint-Germain (France)
2020 - Award not given (due to the pandemic)
2019 - Lionel Messi (Argentina), Barcelona (Spain)
2018 - Luka Modrić (Croatia), Real Madrid (Spain)
2017 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Real Madrid (Spain)
2016 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Real Madrid (Spain)
2015 - Lionel Messi (Argentina), Barcelona (Spain)
2014 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Real Madrid (Spain)
2013 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Real Madrid (Spain)
2012 - Lionel Messi (Argentina), Barcelona (Spain)
2011 - Lionel Messi (Argentina), Barcelona (Spain)
2010 - Lionel Messi (Argentina), Barcelona (Spain)
2009 - Lionel Messi (Argentina), Barcelona (Spain)
2008 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Manchester United (England)
2007 - Kaká (Brazil), Milan (Italy)
2006 - Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Real Madrid (Spain)
2005 - Ronaldinho (Brazil), Barcelona (Spain)

As you can see here, we have 11 European and 9 Non-European winners. Although this is an exceptional statistic carried by Messi, it doesn't make sense to say that the Ballon d'Or is only Western-biased or Western-favored. When we look at club-based results, apart from the award given to Messi in 2023 (who spent a significant amount of time at Paris Saint-Germain before winning the award that year), all the other teams are European clubs.

We can't find this strange, can we? World football revolves around Europe. Just as the best basketball player each year is likely to come from the NBA, the best players in football will always come from Europe. Moreover, the English, Spaniards, Italians, and Germans you mentioned have the most prestigious leagues in the world. You can't expect the organizers to choose the Player of the Year from the Congo Ligue 1.

It's quite objective for the fact that some party weren't happy for the winner. Also, how real Madrid got to know before the event that their player wouldn't win, is another angle of how unreliable those officiating journalists could be, if the information wasn't held a secret till the final event.

The reason your asking this question is because of the controversy the award has caused in the world of football, now your saying we shouldn't talk about who deserves it between Rodri and vinicius junior, when originally that has been the bone of contention, because if Vinicius junior was awarded the Balloon d'Or, nobody would have raised an eyebrow, I'm sure you yourself OP wouldn't have asked this question.

However let's go the crux of the matter, talking about the award being really objective and reflect the best performing athlete in football. Yes the award is an individual award that recognize an exceptional football player in a calendar season, from the trophies the player has won both for club sides and country, to number of goals he scored and assisted, how skilful he is and whole lot more. Over the years they award has been given to exceptional players in recognition of their contribution in the calendar season.

 Well you can argue about the deciding pattern, the journalist and coaches that vote, but one thing you must always recognize is the fact that UEFA always has their hand in it.

The award is not always reflective of the best player in the world because there are some players who never got the recognition they deserve even though they performed spectacularly well at a time in their career. But also the popular opinion is not always the correct one because for example we all think that Vini Jr deserved it, or any other player in their time, but we are ignorant of all the requirements that the people who decide who should win look at. The difference between one player and another in this award is sometimes by just a fine margin. The objective of this award in another discussion is now being questioned.

People are never satisfied or happy when things don't go their way, a perfect example is Real Madrid boycotting the ceremony because their player didn't win the award, that was disgraceful and lacked class. They forget that sometimes when their players had won it in the past, there was talk of it being unfair, but nobody boycotted the ceremony.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong in how the awards are decided, Rodri deserved it as much as Vini did, and if the award went to him, then it is perfectly fine. Vini did not do things out of this world last season to be considered the undeniable winner.

@Reatim, yesterday I just read the news in a sports magazine about the Ballon d'Or Award, I also have the same question as you, objectively, then I found the answer, instead of having to explain in detail based on sports magazine sources, I will quote the answer to you, I think the answer makes sense to me.

If I think the answer is correct.

Aside from I have seen a thread already about the result of Ballon d’Or, I feel like fans will always have some discussion or disagreement with the result. Was there ever a time that the public agreed on the result? There will always be haters of certain athletes.

But if majority of people agrees then we can say that those who decided were objective enough, no?
Definitely. Discretion should be utmost priority in this because bribery is not at all impossible. I wouldn’t want to think of that happening as it would be so unfair but it can’t be ruled out either.

No, the journalists are meant to make their choice clear to the public from the comfort of their home with either their official social media account or through podcast and the news will spread throughout reaching the Balon D'or representative. If anyone wants to bribe them then they need to reach each of the journalists but that will be stressful. Seriously I am not still certain how any manipulation can be done in the Balon D'or Award. The question that should be asked is how these Journalists get their judgment, is it through

Then the system and how it is being calculated should be made public to the public. This will help keep transparency in the Balon D'or award. If people keep having this mentality and untrustworthiness on Balon D'or system people will start losing interest in the system.

there's always going to be biases in the selection process as long as you assign certain persons to take charge of the balon d'or. Factors like the country certain balon d'or nominee comes from, the team he plays for and his overall personality will certainly influence the final decision of who eventually wins the balon d'or. It's the apex of football recognition and in the built up to that, the media has hard it fair share of over hyping certain player just to project them to the public as one that's worthy of being awarded the balon d'or.

The approach for the voting process is fairly good regardless of whatever biases that's associated with it. Even though the fans sees the quality of most players than what some of these selected journalist sees, Fans can't be allowed to vote because they will allow Thier emotions guide thier decisions. Most of the people that are against the selected people that are in charge of the voting and still feels that the award has lost it credibility are only doing so just because the outcome didn't go in line with what they want. Though the award encourages quality competition among players, the sense of entitlement certain teams have regarding the award with the notion that they must always project a player who stands to win it is contributing to making it look like the selection process isn't being transparent.

Yea, with the way the winning is being selected by 100 journalists, I doubt if it can be very easy to manipulate but no body can tell for real if it was manipulated or not but one thing I know for sure is that nothing is un-do-able once the right force is applied.

I am pretty sure it had nothing to do with his on-field attitude, but more about his on-field performance. Or more specifically, the lack of it.

Brazil had an awful Copa America campaign, while Spain had a good Euros (they won the whole thing). So it makes sense that Vini Jr does not win it. The only people who are mad about this are entitled Real Madrid staffers.

Balon d'Or is pretty meaningless though, it was almost always awarded to Messi or CR7. And when Lewandowski was the favorite to win in the COVID year they just shut it down. 

These 100 journalists come from each country of the latest FIFA rankings. The journalists are specialists and experts. But even before the players are picked by these 100 journalists, other experts already have handpicked 30 players before it even reaches the journalists. Obviously, credibility of these people should not be questioned as they have been working in the sport for a long time and are also interested in maintaining the integrity of the sport.
I can’t think of a better method, to be honest.

We can’t let fans choose certainly as they will be even more biased. They are just going to vote for their favorite athlete no matter what. Maybe there is some patriotism that could affect the juror’s decision but since there’s a lot of them and are from different countries I would say it balances out and at the end the athlete with most points (highest in the order chosen by the jurors) get awarded the ballon d’Or.

We are always curious about how the winner of Ballon d’Or determined.
It is very difficult to be objective since it is determined by journalist who basically aren't the person who understands deeply the nature of football. I guess it is all about the popularity of the player. Or where the player comes from.

It is very possible. I know what you mean, the journalist may pick the best players based on the country. For example: the journalist from Spain probably prefer choosing the players from Spain. This is something very possible to happen, that's why it is difficult to accept the winner of Ballon d'Or. Especially the winner in this year, there was a rumor that Vinicius was the winner but it suddenly changed when it was nearing the day of announcing the winner.

I did expect Vini to win it despite his performance for his country, I'm not against the fact that he didn't perform well but not winning it comes from decision of  those whom I  believe know the analytics of each players performance could judge who is the rightful owner of the title , it's elective and not by nomination so if they say thus is the right owner then it is and you guys should   stop the race thingy, it's a title and that doesn't make him a bad player (if you think he's the best then take it that he's the best player, there'sno need to convince others ), funny how the coach got the best manager and wasn't present to get the award

I don't think a brazilian has won the Ballon d'Or since 2007, the last one was Kaká, I was counting on Vini to win, but some attitudes, as you mentioned, had a big influence, do you think that if a player performs well for his national team, does that count towards winning the Ballon d'Or?

Just to lighten the mood:

There is another topic discussion about Ballon d'Or: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ballon-dor-discussion-and-odds-1707409
Let's discuss only criticism here.

The Ballon d'Or award has been widely criticised for its objectivity and criteria. Although this topic is not a subject of much public debate, it is criticised by fans who want to see their favourite players win it. Critics of the award argue that the voting process is influenced by subjective factors and personal preferences of voters, leading to results that may not accurately reflect reality. The focus on individual statistics rather than collective performance and overall impact on the team is also a major point of contention. In addition, critics point out that the award choice is effected from media and marketing bias, and that its evaluation criteria are unclear and constantly changing. These criticisms raise questions about the award's ability to fairly and objectively determine the best football player in the world.

What should be the solution? Maybe changing the criteria? No one can tell because no one really cares.

Ballon d'Or is western-centric. I looked into the award's history right here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballon_d%27Or

Only once was it given to a black man from what it seems!? In 1995
Football is so beloved in all over the world, with countries in Latin America making it the pride of every neighborhood to support their local team. Yet we only see the reward rotate around English, Spanish, Italian and German players most of the time.

Let alone that, I'm pretty sure the organizers will overlook ambitious players to just create a feedback loop by nominating the most popular players. My generation is bored of the cliche of Messi getting the award and Christiano Ronalo being nominated...

Did I say a player would be willing to give out his entire savings as a kickback for the award? It was you who brought the narrative of the players bribing the journalists. How do you know how much each journalist will ask? And how did you come to the conclusion that the player cannot afford it? However, there is no need to argue in an event that might be impossible to achieve.

You seem to be contradicting yourself because asking us if the award is objective and reflective of the best performing athlete is the same as asking us if Rodri actually deserve to win. Maybe you don't want to come out plane as someone criticizing the process of selection and that is well understood. For me I was not expecting Rodri to win rather I was looking at Vinicius to win because he seems to have played better than Rodri. But the award has process of selection which I don't believe it could be rigged. Those who casted their votes in support of Rodri might have their way of knowing who is the best and I respect that.

There are many things that are not clear about this Balon D'or voting and how Journalists do their voting things. Like are they organize in a place and call individually to come and vote on their favourite players? Do the journalists knows each or see each other before going for the voting? Do they get noticed before the election? So many unknown about the Balon D'or, I'm not sure if we are going to know about the credibility of the Balon D'or voting system.

What I think is that before any journalist are allow to votes, there is going to be some things show to them perhaps the statistics and other things. I even saw online how stats were converted to points and I saw Rodri had about 8.2 \10 and Vinicious had about 7.6/10 but then I'm not sure how true this is and just like I said earlier, we can't say because we know just little about the system.

This award is not only for attacking players, nor is it given to the one who scores the most goals. Journalists who vote count different things, apart from goals. As you said, what did Vinny do with his national team? What did he win at a national level, what character is he etc. For me, Rodri deserved it and I'm glad he got it. He is an exceptional player, a role model all around, and deservedly being among the best of all times.

Do you mean that a desperate player will be willing to pay any amount to get the Ballon d'Or award even if it is the entire savings he has in his life? And what is the probability that he will get it after bribing it? Mehn that kind of risk is at the top of gambling. What I can think of as a possibility is the fact that the official might have someone who they support and give it to him. Apart from that, no player can be able to bribe their way into winning the Ballon d'Or award because they cant afford it.

There can still be biases if the journalists involved are not many but while selecting if it is 100 journalists that choose 10 plays each and which is used to make the final conclusion of who the best player is, I think it is good like that. No need to think about biases in this way. I think it is perfect this way.

Wining the 2024 Ballon d'Or is a priceless accomplishment. Players might be willing to give out a fortune to buy it if it has a price. Winning the award puts the player in the books of history as one of the greatest. The award could also bring more lucrative endorsement deals to the player which might even exceed the financial benefit the award offers. In summary, I think a desperate player will be willing to bribe all the journalists just to have the award but this is impossible because many of them cannot be bribed.

Before any manipulation can be possible there must be an amount for the bribe. Now, you need to calculate first how much the winner gets or how high the reward for winning the Ballon D Or that someone would want to perpetuate their way to winning the award. Then calculate that amount to 100 Journalists. What am saying in essence is that it will be difficult to manipulate all 100 Journalist. So I think the decision of the Journalist is fair. The method is better because they are not football representatives, they are more of the people's friends. The Jounralist are the people who keeps proper statistics of each player in the league or nominated.

Just like you rightly said, the Balon D'or award ceremony was held on Monday night and surprisingly, Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri was named as the winner and that has sparked several opinions from football experts, legends, veteran journalists and most of their views have been pointing to the fact that the most deserving of the award this year wasn't the player that was named. The majority of these views I think gives answer to the question you asked which is that the award is a mere subjective opinion of the organizers and doesn't necessarily reflect to the reality of who truly is the best footballer on the planet.

Voting method is not to be objective because they are going to votes based on who they wanted to win, and it's based on personal biases. And I think this also happens in the other sports such as NBA.

There are cases that they win the MVP award but it's not unanimously, meaning at least 1 member of the journalist didn't vote for them. And it's obvious, that they really don't like the player or they have something in their mind that they think deserves it based on their biases.

Any award is subjective, because the decision to award a candidate is made by judges based on their personal subjective opinion. Of course, the opinion of each judge can be influenced by many factors: bias, corruption, and anything else. In recent years, the Golden Ball has become an analogue of the Oscar, when they award not the best, but the most needed, from the point of view of the SJW popularity. Remember when the Golden Balls were received by Ronaldo and Messi - the most media and hyped football players. But since the Golden Ball is awarded for sporting merits, then the most effective (from an individual point of view) athletes should be awarded. This year, many are inclined to believe that this award has returned to its roots and was awarded based on objective assessment. Rodiri's indicators turned out to be better than Vini's, not to mention all sorts of Messi and Ronaldo.

This is even what I'm thinking could be the reason why Vini wasn't picked, well we can't really tell what could be the exact reason because I believe Vini is also a very good player that many were expecting to win Ballon d'Or. Since the winner was determined by 100 journalists, I think maybe it was done by voting which he wasn't lucky to be the winner. Something is wrong somewhere that is why there is an outcome like this, Ballon d'Or in previous years is totally different from this very one.

It needs to be transparent to avoid questioning from people. Vini may have terrible attitude but I don't think it is a good reason not to get Ballon d'Or because that dude is very skilled.

I see no influence from journalists, the award was given because Ronaldo's skills are above average, this is just my personal opinion, I'm not a fan of Ronaldo but I think he deserves an award for the skills he has

Usually the Ballon d'Or selection is based on the whole game, but Vinicius Jr. was supported by many but not by the judges and journalists. But I think no one can be 100% correct in selecting it, because there can be errors here. Because when the Ballon d'Or was announced, many fans of Vinicius Jr. clamored for many movements and names. But in comparison Rodri deserves it, because he is a worthy player and the judges have declared it a worthy player. A player who has been awarded as much by the judges as he deserves, I think Vinicius Jr should not have won the Ballon d'Or because he did not perform well at the World Cup.

The Ballon d'Or is definitely the best individual award you can win right now. No one can argue about that. Was Vinicius Jr. the best player in the Champions League? Who cares? This year, Rodri won the Ballon d'Or. There may be awards that have the potential to replace the Ballon d'Or, but all players, fans, and everyone interested in football cares the most about the Ballon d'Or. No matter who receives it, and no matter how objective it is, there will always be debates. That's what creates its advertising value, after all.

People will always argue. Even in seasons where the winner is the most clear-cut, we still see debates. If Vini Jr. had won, there would have been millions objecting to it. This is exactly why people look forward to the Ballon d'Or each year. We could create a simple ‘Bitcoind'Or’ based purely on statistics — goals, assists, and trophies — and determine the winners for all seasons in just one minute. But if we did that, would the award really have any meaning? That's what I mean.

Of course it's completely possible these journalists voted the players they like, it's why Messi can won Ballon d'Or eight times!

Ballon d'Or is subjective, it was never been objective, but we, as Average Joe can't do anything. However, it's hard to get objective results in this kind reward, there's always a way to bribe the voters.

You mean this one?

Balloon Dior has lost it credibility, when Ronaldo said that in 2021 no one believe but now we have all understand, you said you don't want to hear about if the person they give the Award deserve or not but we are talking about something that a person deserve and that means a name must be mention, Rodri is a good player and no one can deny it but we know who deserve it, Balloon Dior has lost it credibility that no any players will even be happy if he win it or not because even if you deserve it and the FIFA don't like you they will not give you the Award.

Talking about the journalist, is it the journalist that is voting for the Balloon Dior or the players? The Balloon Dior voting that I know is a voting that players use to do, if it was journalist then many people who have won it before will never win it because there are some Balloon Dior that journalist prefer and they did not give it to who deserve it, No one can deceive me that Balloon Dior voting is made by journalist, is all lie, FIFA just want to find a way to deceive people so that they won't judge them, Even Champion League has value than Balloon Dior currently.

Messi won that 8 times and Ronaldo 5 times, it wasn't patriotism then?
There are one hundred journalists from 100 countries around the world, how would that be patriotism?
And if we talk about that Spain representative voted for Vini not Rodri, so stop with the conspiracies.

Vini lost because he has a garbage attitude on the field, that's why , they couldn't simply give him the title when there is no match where he doesn't quarrel with the referee the other players and so on!

For me the Ballon D'or is not objectively chosen but subjectively chosen by some of sports journalists if I am not mistaken. This means that is not an objective for many players although it is a very nice to have for many of them. I also don't think that it impacts the salary of any player, if the player is good he will get good offers and also if he is not that good but the journalists have given him the prize here he will not get higher salary compared to what he deserves. It is just a so called "prestigious prize" and nothing more.

There is no perfect method, whether it's for the Ballon d'Or or other Best Player awards. There must be little bias—as long as human beings are handling this system—but I believe that the system strives for objectivity to a certain extent because they know the whole world is watching. And as you can see, the top players are exceptional, so choosing the best of the best is never an easy decision.

It's not like they brought a player who barely has any records to crown as Ballon d'Or; every player who was nominated is an outstanding player. It's also very natural that if you find yourself in that spot, you will be patriotic to either your country or to a player with whom you have a personal relationship. The judges just try their best not to show it so that the fans will not notice and bring it to the media. But in general, the system is striving for objective decisions.

It's possible that a biased decision happened and also other reason behind it.

Not about football but I believe it also happened in different sports. Basketball for example, Nikola Jokic was snatched with an opportunity to make a record of a 3-time NBA MVP which will put his name among the popular names of the league history.
It's also the media who made the vote and I sincerely believe that Jokic won that award for the 3rd time but in my own opinion, they didn't let that happen because it might ruin the sport or maybe there's some racism there too. The records tell that he won that award but because everything relies on a voting system, it won't even matter if you have the better stats than the other guy.

Well since you don't want to discuss whether Rodiri deserve it more than vinicius, I think the objective is to showcase the best out of the best players and it is worth it for different reasons especially to give rewards for the sport participants. But in my view, I don't really think that just one person can be the best for every season because the selection can also be corrupted as many have also alleged. For instance, those journalist can be subjective to favour a particular player from their continent which is the reason that some people believe it is still a biase system. I have known some gamblers who believed that vinicius should have gone home with it while others argued to favour Rodiri and such argument didn't start today.

There can never be a perfect way of selecting the best player because there will always be defects or errors in the process. The question should be how are these journalists selected. Are different countries or continents represented objectively in the population of 100 journalists? If you select 70 voters from Europe and spread others to another continent, racial bias will make any European candidate win.

The Ballon d’Or has always faced backlash from people who think the process is not transparent. This issue with Vinicius Junior is not the first. There were agitations when Robert Lewendoski and Ering Haaland were not awarded, but from my observation, the process has been objective.

However, there is still room for improvement like reviewing the criteria for choosing the journalist that will vote. These voters should also be kept secret to avoid influence from the nominees.

In light of recent events, this got me curious.

We know that Ballon d’Or was recently held and they have decided to crown Rodiri as the winner. Now, I don’t want to hear whether he deserved it or not or should it have been vini. This post is not to discuss that but, I want to know if this award really is objective and reflective of the best performing athlete in terms of football.

It has been said that the winner is decided by 100 journalists each picking their top 10 players of the year. Is it possible that these journalists may be affected by some personal bias or patriotism? How objective is this award and is this deciding method really the best?