Why did Modric win the Ballon d’Or in 2018 but Lewandowski didn’t this year?

In the history of football, you won’t find more controversial topics than the Ballon d’Or awards. Especially over the last two decades, when there are far more potential winners on the menu. But in the final, only one footballer will make it to the top.

Iniesta, Ribéry, Xavi, Henry or Raul. What do they have in common? Apart from some serious talent, a bit of bad luck. Because they’ve never won the world’s most famous award. The list is long and we could certainly go on. So let’s turn to the last five years. The reign of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Why? Because there has been a huge change that has altered the way fans think about the long-held rankings. There has always been the familiar pairing of the Argentine and the Portuguese in a battle for the top spot between them. No one got in their way.

But in 2018, everything has turned around three hundred and sixty degrees. It was December 2, and Luka Modric went to the podium in the Parisian capital to collect the Ballon d’Or. With 753 votes, he dominated the entire category for himself.

The dominance of CR7 and LM10 was gone, according to sports experts. A new era was about to begin, and it was the Croatian international who was to start it at the age of thirty. For many people there was an ice shock. No one wanted to hear the end.

Mainly for one reason. For the large crowd, Luka was not the clear winner. Surely Cristiano Ronaldo, who came second and was 275 points behind, could have been in his place. But that year something else came up.

We don’t keep statistics

Numbers went by the wayside, journalists didn’t just vote for goals scored. It came down to three factors, according to which the organising magazine France Football is governed. First and foremost, individual and collective performances are decisive. Next, the behaviour of the players, meaning fair-play, the number of red or yellow cards. Finally, the player’s career as a whole.

After all, it will take its toll. The boy who went from Zagreb in Croatia to sunny Madrid alongside the best players in the world. And in that Golden Year, he won everything he could. Starting with a third consecutive Champions League win. Then first place in the league, the Spanish Cup and the Super Cup. To individual accolades that would be the envy of any star.

Not forgetting, of course, the World Cup in Russia. Literally the silver generation of Croatia held their own and thanks to the tremendous help of Modric, the greatest success their country has ever seen.

But for some, it wasn’t enough. After all, he didn’t score a decent amount of goals during that period, let alone assists! And yet he still managed to deservedly win it all with a large number of votes. He didn’t stand out with his basics, but more with his movement around the pitch, passing success or one-on-one dribbling. At the same time, there was a silent call for change. There was an awareness that stats are not the only basis for success.

Lewandowski experienced the exact opposite

Compared to Modric, he scored countless goals and passed even more greedily. It’s just that in passing, ball possession, processing and many other disciplines there was a victory for his opponents.

For one thing, no one followed the cancelled vintage of last winter, when there was no better player than the Polish cannonballer. Secondly, what he did with Bayern will not be replicated in the next ten years, not even sixty percent. Let alone this year.

He fought, he worked, he dreamed. Unfortunately, in the final, scoring ten times as many goals didn’t help. But everyone wanted him to. If only for the way he was robbed last year. Still, he was trying for his career highlight with a happy ending. Unsuccessful. Let him take solace in the title of “Striker of the Year”.

The controversial winning of the Paris Diamond is not his fault. Rather, we can look with a questioning expression at the journalists who didn’t leave their vote on principle alone for the lucky nine.

They will be writing about the LM10 win, not the player with a number on his back wearing a 30. If it wasn’t for a successful half year in the Blaugranas, we probably wouldn’t be looking at Lionel Messi’s impressed face to this day.

This was the turning point

Can we take the Ballon d’Or as a serious competition anymore? After all, what do we see in place of the best goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma instead of Édouard Mendy. The stopper duo from the Italian national team, Chielini and Bonucci, in thirteenth to fourteenth position.

While in the best winger spot again, Raheem Sterling is even flying in the top fifteen? Spaniard César Azpilicueta is again with the twenty-ninth position thanks to the arrival of Thomas Tuchel to Chelsea.

Leaving the best defender of our time in the last ten? In that case, Rubén Dias is probably playing a complete pencil at Manchester City. Chaotic deployments that make you wonder what parallel universe we live in.

Respect will be a long time coming. And whoever Lewandowski was second, the rest of some of the names don’t make sense in the top 30. Exceptions, of course.

The fifty-sixth edition left disappointment in many hearts. The Ballon d’Or is to football lovers what the BAFTA is to filmgoers. Only after the latest showing, it is more likely to see an attempt to hide a long-standing mistake that came close to being saved by 2018.

Source: Golden Ball