Virgil van Dijk lost out to Lionel Messi on the 2019 Ballon d’Or by the smallest of margins, but the Argentine did walk away with his sixth award.
Last year, Luka Modric lifted the Ballon d’Or and became the first player since Kaka to be neither Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi to win the award.
But Ramos thinks that this dominance from two of the best players of the current generation isn’t a good thing – and called for there to be an award from them, and one for everyone else.
“They could create a Ballon d’Or just for those two [and award it to one or the other] depending on results, and another for the rest. It would be best for football,” the Spaniard told AS.
I think this was a bit of a tongue in cheek comment from the Real Madrid man, but he’s not a million miles away in his point.
Basically, I take this away from it – Ronaldo and Messi are that dominant that other players shouldn’t be pushed down by their individual abilities.
A bit like how we’ve seen goalkeepers being given a chance with the Yashine Award – awarded to the best stopper in the world that year. 2019’s winner? Alisson.
It wouldn’t be bad if they changed the award to give a player in each position a chance, but that just isn’t going to happen, I don’t think.
Besides, it would take away some of the allure of the Ballon d’Or.