I’m trying to be completely objective if the fanboys can please try to do the same. In 2020 and 2021 lewandowski was the best player in the world winning the sextuple one year and then breaking a 40 year old bundesliga scoring record. I get the award was cancelled in 2020 but for 21 the narrative was messi finally got his international trophy so he has to win balon d’or. But Argentina literally have the most copa Americas in history they won it 14 times before messi, he had 4 tries in 6 years to win it. 15, 16, 19, and 21. So was it really that impressive that he won a tournament that him not winning up to that point was literally a failure because of how good Argentina were historically? Im not trying to argue about who the best player ever is or what he’s done in the past. Can someone just objectively tell me that it was impressive and not just journalists being emotional and voting for their favorite player and the narrative instead of the actual best player?
Not to mention, Messi wasn’t that great for Barca in 2021, and was horrendous in his first few months at PSG. The Copa America ended up being the deciding factor, even though this wasn’t the case in the past when players like Alexis Sanchez had killer campaigns that involved winning the same exact trophy. Sentimental value unfortunately plays a big role in deciding these awards, even though they should be looked at purely objectively.
It doesn’t help that it’s all these brain-dead journalists who vote for it (some of whom openly admitted to not voting for Ronaldo in 2018 because he had rape allegations against him, even though there was nothing definitive…)