Did Pavel Nedved rightfully win the Ballon d’Or at the expense of Thierry Henry? The Frenchman acted like a gentleman in his reply!

The year 2003 belonged to one of the stars of Juventus football, when Pavel Nedved won the Ballon d’Or, surpassing such players as Thierry Henry and Paolo Maldini. Years later, the subject was brought up again and the French striker was asked what he thought about not winning football’s most valuable trophy.

Henry was a big favourite to win the Ballon d’Or at the time, scoring 32 goals and adding an incredible 28 assists. Few expected anyone else to lift the trophy.

But Nedved had a dream season with Juventus, for whom he scored 14 goals and assisted 17 more. He also won Serie A and was a finalist in the Champions League with the Turin side.

This ultimately convinced most people, as the former Czech midfielder scored 190 points, while second-placed Henry scored 128 and third-placed Maldini 123. The other places were then taken by Andriy Shevchenko, Zinedine Zidane and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The Ballon d’Or will be awarded again soon and among the main favourites are Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland. Quite logically, this award is thus discussed in many places. As well as on CBS Sports Golazo, where Micah Richards, Jamie Carragher and Henry are back for 2003.

Nedved and the Golden Ball? Henry responds

“Opinions are not up for debate. When journalists get involved, they vote how they want to vote,” Henry responded in the studio.

“Whichever way you look at it, they vote how they want, and if you look at the other votes in history, not just this year, every year, you look at the top three and you think, really? It is what it is. You can‘t debate opinions,” the former standout forward concluded.

The following year, Henry finished 4th, as he did in 2005. A year later, Henry still made it into the top three. However, he had to bow out to the duo of Fabio Cannavaro and Gianluigi Buffon, who dominated the World Cup by beating France in the final.

In 2007, the future reigning duo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had already reached the top three. That year, however, they both still had to watch Kaká take the top spot.

Source: CBS Sports Golazo, Transfermarkt