Why cancelling the Ballon d’Or award this year doesn’t feel right

The Ballon d’Or is an annual football award presented by French news magazine France Football. It is one of the oldest and regarded as the most prestigious individual award for football players. Lionel Messi currently holds the record for most Ballon d’Or awards with six and is closely followed by Cristiano Ronaldo with five.

This year, however, Polish striker Robert Lewandowski looked destined to win the gong after an impressive 2019-20 season that saw him find the back of the net 51 times in just 43 matches. Having already won the Bundesliga and the DFK Pokal, he and his club Bayern Munich are in great position to win the Champions league and complete an impressive treble as well. With his impressive exploits in front of goal backed up by silverware, he looked destined to be undisputed player for the individual award this season. In spite of the haitus in global football, football did returned and the season was finished as it was supposed to be, albeit behind closed doors.

However, France Football magazine today made the announcement that they were cancelling the award because they were worried “it wouldn’t be fairly awarded.” due to disruption in the football season caused by the pandemic. As much as the magazine tries to justify their actions, it surely feels like Robert Lewandowski has been truly robbed of the Ballon d’Or this season.