Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo could fail to win the 2022 Ballon d’Or. Because the new format will be used to determine the winner. How come?
Messi won the 2021 Ballon d’Or, which is his seventh trophy at the award, only approached by Ronaldo, who has five trophies. The election of Messi had received the spotlight.
Because, Messi failed to bring Barcelona to LaLiga and Champions League champions, despite successfully embracing the Copa del Rey trophy and eventually winning the title with the Argentine national team in the Copa America.
Moreover, Messi’s appearance slumped after strengthening Paris Saint-Germain this season. He has only scored seven goals in 25 appearances and failed to advance his club in the Champions League due to being eliminated in the round of 16.
However, there could be debate when Messi will perform well with Argentina at the 2022 World Cup and also in the first half of next season. It is not impossible for the Ballon d’Or to fall into his hands again.
Unfortunately, that is not possible because France Football as the initiator of the Ballon d’Or event changed the award format for the 2022 edition. The French magazine revealed three new criteria to determine the winner.
The first thing that is assessed is the performance from August 2021 to July 2022, aka one full season. It’s no longer a calendar year like it used to be.
That means Messi and Ronaldo will most likely fail to win. Because the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will not count and only the 6-31 July Women’s European Cup will count.
The 2022 World Cup will count towards the 2023 Ballon d’Or, while the winner of this year’s edition is scheduled to be announced in October 2022.
While the second is that voting will be focused on the individual achievements of players, no longer collectively as a team. That means the number of goals, assists or saves of a goalkeeper will be very decisive. There is also an aspect of fair play that is included.
Lastly, France Football magazine will also cut the number of voters, namely journalists from the top 100 FIFA country rankings, no longer 150 for the male category and the world’s top 50 for the female category.
Starting this year, Ballon d’Or Ambassador Didier Drogba will also be involved, as well as voters from the previous edition who were closest to the final result, namely Truong Anh Ngoc, Gordon Watson and Karolina Hlavackova.
(mrp / then)
