Fifa Ballon d'or 

As the ballondor gala is near the gates we can feel the tension mounting in the footballing world. This year Neymar , Messi and Ronaldo are nominated.

Let us see how the Ballondor works and ask ourselves does it actually worth the hype it creates or its just a political drama.

The FIFA Ballon d'Or (French pronunciation)  ​"Golden Ball"  is an annual association football award given by FIFA to the male player considered to have performed the best in the previous calendar year. It is awarded based on the votes from national team coaches and captains, as well as journalists from around the world.

It has became the hallmark of  success and a proof  that you were above the rest in that specific year .This competition has been existing since 1966  when evergreen English player Stanley Mathews  at the age of 41 won for the first time

As it is rightly said every coin has two sides. For some it is the most prestigious award while for others it is just an undeserved greatness .Since the creation of the Golden Ball 59 years ago, many  high-profile football stars complained that the Fifa Ballon d'Or is a political award.

However, many have started sniffing around to check out if FIFA’s is transparent enough in giving out this award. Many analysts are yet to understand the criteria that the football government uses to pick the world's best. But FIFA’s criteria for picking the Ballon d’Or winner include: performances in major tournaments; individual and team honors; individual talent; skill and fair play; their overall career and finally personality and charisma.

With 209 member nations, each country has three votes: one for the national team coach, one for the national team captain and one for a designated member of the media.But the recent winners of this prestigious award have raised some eye brows.

So I will throw some light on the recent Ballondor events when this golden beauty should have gone the other way

2011

Criteria	Messi	Ronaldo
Appearances	47	44
Goals	43	48
Assists	21	17
Trophies	Champions League, La Liga, SuperCup	---

2012

Criteria	Messi	Ronaldo
Appearances	71	69
Goals	91	65
Assists	21	14
Trophies	---	La Liga, Euro Semi

In 2010 it was crystal clear that messi would win the award but when he won back to back in 2011 and 2012 eyes were raised

(Messi showcase his fourth ballondor most by a player in football history)

In 2011, Ronaldo scored more goals than Messi but Messi won the Ballondor because of his silverware sucess but in 2012 Ronaldo was the part of the team which  won the Spanish Laliga and he lead Portugal to euro semifinal in which they dramatically lost in penalties against mighty Spain but again Messi got the award because of his goals. He did not win tournament with this national team or with his Club Barcelona.

In the span of two years the criteria was changed from silverware to goals which raised many speculations over the criteria which FIFA sets for Ballondor

Manuel Neuer

Goalkeeping is a disregarded art. Those who choose to do it are misfits, the sort of people who enjoy wearing a different outfit to everyone else.

Neuer has forced football to notice that a goalkeeper can play a significant part in a football match, and that's a triumph in itself. His excellence was a vital part of Germany's victory in the Wold Cup of last year and of Bayern Munich's victory in the Champions League of 2013; he had a blinder in the final and that made the difference between the two sides. In 2014, he conceded 14 league goals and in 62 matches in the same year he conceded just 40 goals in total.

      ( It was all Germans in the world cup thanks to decisive Neuer between the sticks)

Neuers stats 2014

Games played	51
Saves	28
Clean sheets	122
Keeper sweepings	95
Honours	Fifa World Cup, Bundesliga, Golden Glove, German Cup

Inspite of these spectacular stats of Manuel Nuer, Cristiano Ronaldo won the award with his blistering 61 goals and winning the dream LA decima for real Madrid. CR7 successfully defended his world player of the year status convincingly in Zurich

Adding salt to Nuer's wounds, Lionel Messi was ranked second. Frankly he shouldn’t have been in the top 3 places. Neither did he lead Barcelona to any titles, nor did he excel at the World Cup. There are many players who were more deserving such as James Rodriguez, Philipp Lahm, Sergio Ramos, Toni Kroos, Arjen Robben or Javier Mascherano. Apparently, the brands “C. Ronaldo and Messi” are too appealing after all.

The voters should have set the example because Football is a game that involves 11 players on each side, and victory can only be achieved by combining their talents.

            ( Neuer unbelievable save against higuain led Germans to lift the world cup)

But when it comes to subjective awards the biggest respect, the World Cup, is not enough to win the Ballondor. Just because he was a goal keeper he doesn’t qualify for recognitions like this is really heart breaking.

These are just a few recent examples of Ballondor blunders and the dark side of FIFA. There are many more like these when you dig down the history.

The great personalities about Ballondor

 Frank Ribery (when he was named third in 2013)

"I learned a lot during last year's Ballon d'Or gala. As soon as I got there, I told my wife that I would lose,"

"I saw how Sepp Blatter was hugging Ronaldo and how his entire family was there. I'm not stupid. It was clear that he had to win it. He wouldn't have brought his entire family with him otherwise.

 Manuel Nuer

"But I fear it will be about politics again. The Ballon d'Or is no longer for the best player. It's all about politics. Fabio Cannavaro won it in 2006 because he won the World Cup, that's all.”

 Zlatan Ibrahimovic:

"Cristiano Ronaldo can have the Ballondor, I already know that I am the best"

 Ricardo Kaka ( on winning ballondor  against messi and Ronaldo)

‘I'm the last Ballon d'Or winner 'born on this planet'

 Arsene Wenger

'Im not too much of a fan. I'm against the Ballon d'Or. I'm against all these things. I've seen careers destroyed because the players are too much obsessed to get individual rewards.

'I feel sometimes it encourages selfishness and people inside the game to go too much for their own sake when some partners are in a better position.

 Cristiano Ronaldo ( when messi won third ballondor in a row )

“It’s not a question of life and death – it’s not the end of the world. But I still haven’t understood the criteria. One year it’s about performance, the next it’s about

 silverware.”

 Jose Mourinho (on Ronaldo coming runner up in 2012)

"If Messi is the best on the planet, Ronaldo is the best in the universe. It would be a crime if Ronaldo did not win the Ballon d'Or."

"How can you win the Ballon d'Or without collecting titles, without winning anything important? Don't come to me telling me about the Intercontinental Cup or the Supercup, this is small stuff. Tell me about fat titles,"

Moreover, the truth is that the Ballon d’Or, like most awards of this nature, needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. The people who vote like captains of respective nations, Media, coaches, shouldn't be biased about their favorites and should vote on the basis of facts rather than making school elections.