2021 Ballon d’Or nominations
Ballon d’Or award would take a break in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is once again back this year.
The top 30 nominations for 2021 would be released last week and it is not too surprisingly, a list heavily featuring Premier League stars.
Manchester City would win the 2020/21 Premier league and then made it to the 2021 Champions League final.
This would see Kevin De Bruyne, Ruben Dias, Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez named amongst the 30.
The eventual winners of the Champions League, Chelsea, would also have five players up for the award in the form of Mason Mount, N’Golo Kante, Jorginho, Cesar Azpilicueta and Romelu Lukaku.
Who though, should win the 2021 Ballon d’Or?
There has been a lot of talk around Jorginho, who won the Champions League with Chelsea and Euro 2020 with Italy, picking up the prize.
Frank Leboeuf on why Messi should not win Ballon d’Or
Elsewhere, Lionel Messi should, as always be in the conversation to be to pick up the award.
Though the Ballon d’Or is supposed to be an individual award and not consider a player’s team accomplishments, everyone does anyway. So, it is worth noting that Messi won the Copa America with Argentina over the summer.
And, despite being in an awful Barcelona side, the 34-year-old still scored 30 and assisted 11 in 35 La Liga ties last campaign.
However, though it was another stellar year for Messi, former France defender Frank Leboeuf has explained why Messi should not win the award.
Leboeuf claimed that Zinedine Zidane did not win the Ballon d’Or in 2000 and 2006 as he received red cards in each year.
So, as Messi was sent off the in Spanish Super Cup this year, we should also not give him the prize in 2021:
“In 2000 and 2006, Zidane did not have the Ballon d’Or because he had taken a red card each time. Messi took a red in the Spanish Supercopa for a punch, that can count. If we didn’t give it to Zizou, we shouldn’t give it to Messi “
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