According to Mundo Deportivo, Kane unexpectedly won the Ballon d'Or thanks to his outstanding goal-scoring record and the titles he won with Bayern Munich last season. The Bayern Munich striker can finally place this prestigious trophy on his mantelpiece at home in Munich. Lewandowski failed to win it in 2020, even though all signs at the time pointed to him deserving this significant individual honor.
Let's look back at the facts. The 2019-20 season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the league was completed in July and the Champions League in August. Although played behind closed doors, no competition was canceled. However, France Football postponed its awards ceremony from December 2020; as Real Madrid won La Liga and Bayern Munich won the Champions League in Lisbon, the French magazine canceled the Ballon d'Or that year due to the pandemic.
As a result, there was a blank year in the list of winners. That vacant award should have belonged to Lewandowski. Messi himself acknowledged this. When accepting the 2021 Ballon d'Or, Messi publicly urged that the 2020 award be given to Lewandowski. Pascal Ferré, then editor-in-chief of France Football, admitted that no voting took place that year and that voting results circulating online were fabricated, but acknowledged: "To be honest, Lewandowski had a very good chance of winning this award."
This assessment was well-founded. In a year without the FIFA World Cup, Lewandowski won five titles, including the Champions League, Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, and two Super Cups. He also scored 55 goals in 47 matches, setting a personal record for most goals in a single season. FIFA awarded him The Best Men's Player—not as consolation, but because he truly deserved it. Yet every time the Ballon d'Or ceremony takes place, it would be only fair to posthumously award the 2020 Ballon d'Or to Robert Lewandowski in recognition of his exceptional achievements that year.