Something ‘Messi’ about this year’s Ballon d’Or

I feel utterly betrayed by the game we tell ourselves is the beautiful one.

Did Lionel Messi really have to go and win the Ballon d’Or this week?

Seriously?

Doesn’t he have enough of those on his mantelpiece already?

It was barely a year ago that Luka Modric set us free from the stranglehold Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had on football’s most coveted player award.

For a decade the pair didn’t allow anybody else close to the Holy Grail as they fought it out hammer and tongs, each racking up five titles from 2008 to 2017.

But then Modric came in like a fresh ocean breeze to wipe the slate clean and announce a new era.

And it seemed so fitting for Messi and Ronaldo to finish tied on five each to ensure the debate over who is the better of the two will go for generations to come.

But now all of that has flown out the window, assuming neither will win again, and Messi will forever hold the distinction of winning that fight 6-5.

The problem I have is twofold.

A: It is grossly unfair to think Messi might outrank Ronaldo at the end of their careers, judged purely on this tally; and B: Virgil van Dijk really should have won the award this week.

Van Dijk made a massive impact at Liverpool last season and even though Manchester City pipped them to the Premier League title, he did inspire the Reds to Champions League glory.

Something Messi couldn’t do with Barcelona.

He scored seven gazillion goals in Spain to help Barcelona romp to yet another La Liga title and finish on top of the scoring charts.

Again! We get it!

He can score hat-tricks against powerhouses like Levante in his sleep, with one leg in a cast.

Van Dijk also helped the Netherlands reach the inaugural National League final, while Messi still couldn’t break his Copa America duck with Argentina.

He failed for the umpteenth time as they lost to hosts Brazil in the semifinals.

The Dutchman eventually lost out to Messi by an agonising seven votes, with Ronaldo more than 200 votes adrift.

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp was very diplomatic about the result, but you could sense the German was boiling inside.

He said while he felt Van Dijk delivered the best display he’d ever seen from a defender, there is no denying Messi’s quality.

In other words, when it went down to the wire in the voting, the majority opted to give the Argentinian a long-service award.

What rubbish!

With the dizzying heights at which Ronaldo and Messi set the bar over the years, that playing field has no space for sentiment.

In fact, if you are going to dish out long-service awards, Ronaldo is always going to be ahead of Messi in the queue.

He has won five Champions League titles to Messi’s four, has scored more goals at the competition’s business end than anyone else, has proven himself a dominant force in three major European leagues (while Messi has never wandered away from Spain) and took Portugal to continental glory in 2016 and Nation League success this year – an increasingly glaring omission on Messi’s CV.

There’s nothing beautiful about a game so unbalanced in its accolades.

Jaco van der Merwe is The Citizen’s Head of Sport.

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