Fabien Rahmad
7 January 2019
On 3 December 2018, one of football’s most anticipated awarding event in the world took place, which is the 63rd annual Ballon d’Or. The Ballon d’Or is an awarding ceremony held yearly recognizing the best footballer in the world within a particular calendar year. It was initially held by France Football in 1956, recognizing European footballers. As the years went on, the Ballon d’Or started recognizing footballers playing in European clubs, until 2007 wherein every footballer in the world is eligible. Each year, 30 footballers are nominated by French journalists and they will also vote for the winner, based on their achievements throughout the year.
Out of the 30 nominees, the winner of the 2018 Ballon d’Or is Luka Modric, the Croatian central midfielder playing for the Spanish club Real Madrid. He received 753 votes – 276 more than the runner up and last year’s winner Cristiano Ronaldo. This result seemed to have shocked the world to a certain extent, but by reviewing Modric’s year and all of the accomplishments he had achieved, it looks like he is bound to have his bands on that Golden Ball. He became the sole playmaker in Real Madrid’s midfield and brought them to victory in the UEFA Champions League. in the 17/18 season. He also became the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year for 2018, a few weeks before the Ballon d’Or commenced. Lastly, and arguably one of his best accomplishments so far, was carrying his Croatian National Team to an unlikely final of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
However, the 2018 Ballon d’Or was one of the most drama-filled Ballon d’Or in recent times, mostly due to the significance of Luka Modric’s win. If you look back at the history books of the past winners of the Ballon d’Or, you can easily spot a pattern that within the last ten years, there had been only two winners: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, sharing 5 trophies each. With that, the Croatian has actually ended the decade-long reign by those two world-class players. This was the primary factor that shocked the world because for them as long as they can remember, the expected winner of the Ballon d’Or was either Ronaldo or Messi.
Regarding his victory, Luka Modric himself was completely overwhelmed with inexplicable emotions. “It is something unique for me,” he said. “It was very special.” He was very proud of himself because he acknowledged that Messi and Ronaldo were “phenomenal players”, which means that he had accomplished something quite extraordinary on the pitch to beat them. Later in his acceptance speech, he dedicated his Ballon d’Or to all the other footballers who have missed out on their own trophies in the 10 years dominated by Lionel and Cristiano. The audience received that as a very heartwarming and respectful remark because there had been a consistent first, second, and even third runner-ups for the past decade who probably also deserved a Ballon d’Or of their own, such as the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, and Wesley Sneijder.
Various other footballers also made comments on the results and implications of the 2018 Ballon d’Or. The Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, currently playing in LA Galaxy, made one comment leaning more to the controversial side. He said, as quoted by Fox Sports, “now we can see that Messi was competing for the Ballon d’Or against Florentino Perez, not Cristiano.” Ibrahimovic is saying that Lionel Messi is really competing against Real Madrid (a metaphor made by Florentino Perez as the club’s chairman) and not just against Ronaldo. It is because he believes that Real Madrid has such a great and powerful influence to ensure that their players get individual recognition. Many other football audiences also gave some evidence regarding the club’s huge influence on the awarding.
One Instagram comment said, “Let’s be honest if Ronaldo was still at Madrid he would have won, just goes to show how corrupt and biased the whole thing is.” He claimed that Ronaldo was destined to win if he had stayed as opposed to moving to his new club, Juventus, especially considering his great string of performances in 2018. Because Ronaldo moved, Madrid needed to find another person to be guaranteed a place in the Ballon d’Or history books – Luka Modric. Despite no concrete evidence of any illegal procedures in and around the famous awarding, that is the current consensus within the football community.
In conclusion, I think there is no denying that Luka Modric had a wonderful 2018. The boy from Zadar who encountered a rough childhood in war-ridden Croatia, who had to face the death of his grandfather at such a young and tender age, is now a World Cup finalist and the best footballer in the world. Despite the controversy and disagreements on the awarding, you cannot take away his astonishing achievements and accomplishments throughout this very year.
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