When Aitana Bonmatti, a World Cup winner with Spain, took to the stage to accept her well-deserved Ballon d’Or on Monday night, there was a feeling of disrespect. This is not the first time.
This moment should have been a celebration of women’s football. But what could it be like when the ceremony was scheduled during the women’s international window? Most of the candidates could not attend or were not allowed to attend due to Nations League commitments or Olympic qualifiers the following day.
“It’s unfortunate we couldn’t be there,” he said England’s candidate, Georgia Stanway, said on Tuesday. “This is something we talked about as a group of players [about]And we said that it would be great in the future if you weren’t in the first round of the match, so we could enjoy the experience.
“that it [frustrating], because it will likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity. You never know if you will be selected for such an award again, so it will be really nice to enjoy the experience and be there and feel like a star among the stars. “If it was planned a little better, maybe it would be easier for a lot of female footballers to be there.”
Bonmati was there to represent women’s football – she had to leave Spain’s camp between matches and quickly return before facing Switzerland in Zurich on Tuesday night – but her Ballon d’Or was placed on the stage after her arrival by the theatre.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (US)
Another issue is the person set to present the award to her in Paris: Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 men’s tennis player who has previously spoken out against equal pay in sports and has no connection to women’s soccer.
Why tennis, you ask? Well, if it had been Serena Williams, who spent her entire life raising the profile of women in sports, or Billie Jean King, who continued her legendary championing of women’s sports long after the end of her playing career, it wouldn’t be the case. They raised eyebrows. If it has to be a men’s player, how about that? Explicit feminist British Andy Murray? Spanish great Rafael Nadal could have been at least related to Bonmati.
The journalists who invented the Ballon d’Or, Gabrielle Hanot and Jacques Ferrand, could be forgiven for not including the women’s Ballon d’Or in the inaugural award (won by Stanley Matthews in 1956), as women’s football is still struggling. Under a comprehensive ban all over the world. In fact, West Germany’s Gerd Müller had just won the title when the French women’s national team played its first official match in 1971.
But while the UEFA European Women’s Player of the Year award was created in 2013 (two years after the men’s Best Player award) and the women’s FIFA World Player of the Year award began in 2001 (the men’s award was in 1991), its name was changed to the FIFA The Best Awards in 2001. In 2016, progress in incorporating women’s football into the Ballon d’Or was slow and it took until 2018 for women to be included.
Football fans will remember the 2018 ceremony for many reasons. On the men’s side, Luka Modric finally broke Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s 10-year stranglehold on the award. This was also the first year that the Copa Trophy was distributed to the best under-21 player, but only on the men’s side. For those who follow women’s football, the memory of Norwegian Ada Hegerberg in her gold dress as she made her way to the podium to collect the inaugural Femenen Cup was there. But he was overwhelmed.
Hegerberg may not have been at the top of everyone’s list for the award – the Lyon striker narrowly beat out Pernille Harder – but her bid quickly fell through when French DJ Martin Solveig asked her if she knew how to juggle. Hegerberg pursed her lips to say “no,” before walking away.
While a torrent of criticism ensued, and (ironically) one of the most vocal players was tennis player: Andy Murray. “What questions did they ask Mbappe and Modric?” he wrote on Instagram. “I imagine this has something to do with football. And for everyone who thinks I’m overreacting, that it was just a joke… that’s not the case. I’ve been involved in sports my whole life and the level of sexism is very high.” Not real.”
The men’s Ballon d’Or ceremony has continued to grow with additional awards being added alongside the Copa Trophy. The following year, the Yashin Award was added to celebrate goalkeeping excellence, and two years later, the Gerd Müller Award was added (initially named the Forward of the Year award, and there has been no speculation as to which position this award honors). However, there are still no synonyms for women. There are no awards for goalkeepers, strikers or those under 21 years of age. Only the Ballon d’Or.
When the ceremony returned in 2021, after the COVID-19 hiatus, it was scheduled during the women’s international window. During the presentations, Dutch duo Vivienne Miedema and Leke Martens (who finished fourth and fifth in the voting) were actually part of the match, while Sam Kerr (who finished third) was asleep before Australia’s home friendly against the United States. . Although the winner, Alexia Putellas, was there to accept the award, she had to return to Seville for the European qualifier against Scotland the following night – an 8-0 defeat in which she started and scored.
Two years later and nothing has changed.
There will always be debates about individual awards, about how far the Ballon d’Or has fallen, especially in women’s football, about who has an opinion and whether or not they really like the game. But a sport that was condemned to shadow for so long has seen its moments in the sun frequently shrouded in gray clouds.
The Ballon d’Or still has a long way to go. Will next year be different? If history is any indication, you shouldn’t get your hopes up.
