Vini Jr, the Ballon d’Or drama is only as important as we make it

This won’t come as a surprise to regular readers, but I don’t really care about the Ballon d’Or, even though I’ve followed it since I was a kid. What you achieve on the playing field is inherently more meaningful to me than the trinkets that others give you. However, I respect his story and the fact that when I was a child he introduced me to one Falcon Kushtaranked 30th in 1987.

Kushta was selected by a member of the Albanian jury, one of 27 voters at the time, who decided that striker Flamurtari was the fifth best that year in a class that included Ruud Gullit, Gary Lineker, Emilio Butragueno, Marco Van Basten, John Barnes, Paulo Futre, Michel, Bryan Robson, Lothar Matthäus and others. (Non-Europeans were not eligible at the time.) Perhaps this goal swung.

However, so are my Gab + Jules Show co-host Julien Lawrence notes that what’s important is that “the players care about this.” Because that’s what they do. A ton, actually. So much so that when Real Madrid learned that Vinicius Jr. would not win the tournament, they decided to boycott the entire ceremony. Not just Viney, but all eight players nominated, with ESPN citing a source calling it a “historic heist.”

A few hours later, Vini’s teammates from the Brazilian national team and Real Madrid joined in. Eduardo Camavinga calling it “football politics” and Richarlison calling it a defeat for football. In Brazil, some perceived this as retaliation For Vinicius‘ stance against racism.

Perhaps they really care a lot about what 100 journalists from 100 different FIFA countries think. Perhaps they think it was some kind of conspiracy against Real Madrid involving UEFA, since they are now partners with France Football, the magazine that presents the award, and this is payback for Madrid President Florentino Perez and his efforts to create a European Super League. (Of course, the Ballon d’Or ultimately went to Rhodriwho plays for Manchester City – not exactly a UEFA-friendly club.) Perhaps they just saw that their friend was genuinely upset and wanted to cheer him up.

Regardless, the hype surrounding the award continues to fascinate, and Real Madrid’s snub only makes it even more significant. They had planned a whole five-hour show on Real Madrid TV during the ceremony. It was canceled, as well as club charter plane to Paris. You don’t neglect things that don’t matter; you neglect things that are important to you if you feel that you are disrespected in some way.

Despite my feelings on this, on Monday evening I decided that it was my journalistic duty to watch at least part of the Ballon d’Or ceremony. I couldn’t find it on my TV so I searched for a live stream and the first one that came up was from YouTuber IShowSpeed. Now, despite my advanced age, I do know who he is, not least because he’s done a ton of things in and around football and he’s insanely popular, with 32.8 million subscribers to his YouTube channel.

I assumed his broadcast would consist of him watching the ceremony and speaking/commenting on it… and I was wrong. For most of the 3-hour, 22-minute broadcast, he simply sat in his seat at the awards ceremony next to Ibay Llanos (another streamer) and watched the events on stage. (Don’t believe me? Check it out here.) He changes his facial expression from time to time, but most of the time he doesn’t actually say anything. When I tuned in, 285,000 people were watching the broadcast – almost 10 times more than watched the official Manchester City live broadcast.

This isn’t about judging those who choose to spend their time watching a guy sit around and barely talk during an awards show. Tastes change and people can do what they like. Moreover, IShowSpeed ​​will lead its huge audience to something like this, which is ultimately a contrived, artificial event. Again, it has meaning because we choose to give it meaning.

For nearly two decades, the Ballon d’Or has served as a convenient way to keep score in the age-old rivalry between GOAT contenders. Cristiano Ronaldo And Lionel Messi. This was the first year that neither made the France Football staff’s 30-man shortlist, and the conventional wisdom was that Vini would win, with Rodri an unlikely outsider given both his position (defensive midfielder) so is the season. final injury received on September 22 in the match with Arsenal. Vincent Garcia, editor-in-chief of France Football: told The Times UK that they did everything possible to keep the winner’s identity secret, including not notifying him in advance as they had done in the past.

Voters submit their encrypted elections to a secure online platform with multi-factor authentication that Garcia says only he can access by entering a secret code known only to him. Garcia also told The Times that on the day of the ceremony, he would access the servers, carefully record the names of the winners and place each one in the correct envelope. And he personally handed each envelope to the announcers.

With the utmost respect to Garcia – who deserves credit for turning the Ballon d’Or into a mega-event even now that the Crisiano-Messi duopoly is no more – you suspect there is some showmanship and hyperbole involved. Isn’t he the only person who can access the calculations on the ultra-secure server? I mean, what if he loses his password like that guy in Wales who lost half a billion dollars worth of bitcoins over a misplaced piece of paper? Isn’t there a single tech nerd who has backdoor access? And if not, how could Real Madrid know a few hours before the match that Vini did not win?

Who knows? Who cares? I think it’s all part of the show. However, it leaves you with a tinge of sadness.

These are multi-millionaire superstars at the peak of their careers and have won some of the most important trophies in football. Why do they need approval from a hundred journalists from a hundred countries, the vast majority of whom they will never meet? (Like US Supreme Court justices, Ballon d’Or electors are appointed by one person, the editor-in-chief of France Football, and serve until they die or retire; unlike US Supreme Court justices, they do not have to go through congressional approval , they will be able to name their successors and may be suspended if France Football considers them to be biased, what happened to my Argentine colleague at ESPN Kike Wolf.)

I believe the general answer is that these athletes are natural competitors, and they compete for individual accolades just as they compete to win games on the field. The problem is that winning on the field is something they can control a lot more than who likes them and why.