Arsenal stars unfairly ignored for Ballon D’Or?

Arsenal fans are not used to seeing our players included on the shortlist for the Ballon D’Or award given each year to the player judged to have been the best over the course of a calendar year, so perhaps we should not really be too surprised that no Gunners are on the list again this year.

Having said that, I think that at least two of the current squad could argue a good case to be included, so do we think that Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have been unfairly ignored?

I know that the Chilean did start last season slowly after coming back late from his Copa America heroics with Chile, but as I say this Ballon D’Or is supposed to be judged over a calendar year, so his form at the start of last season should not matter.

So including the start of this season, which has seen Alexis score six goals in 11 games, and his performances for Chile which helped them retain the Copa America, I think our striker can feel unlucky to have missed out. I would say that is even more true of our German playmaker, whose creative stats were second to none last year.

It looks even worse when you see that other attacking midfielders who made the list, such as Iniesta, De Bruyne, Koke and Payet were easily outscored by Ozil on the stats website Squawka.com, and that was before he started banging in the goals recently.

Is it just me or does the list of 30 players reported by the Daily Mail just seem to be the same old faces with a fair few of them not having done what the two Gunners have over the last year?

Bob.

Tags Alexis Ozil Sanchez

13 Comments

  1. I dont think Sanchez could be in the list this year, however, Ozil deserves it for his record as a AMC.

  2. Ballon D’Or has turn to a boring boring event in last decade and you can even called it “Messi Ronaldo Awards” without any mistake. Other players will be pride (or didn’t care ) if mentioned as nominees. Ronaldo will be starring the awards this year as he break the duck with Portugal Euro 2016 campeone . Messi as usual will be his unfriendly company. One superhero, the Teethman Luis Suarez will appearance as cameo. Do I miss something?
    Sanchez and Ozil not being nominee? I don’t think they give s&%t about it hahaha…

  3. Its so unfairly for Alexis as he won copa for chile, because this award is all about winning trophy if you ask me, it is an award for the best player from the winning team not the best player of the year.

    But I guess premier league is catching up anyway, in terms of representatives with almost 10 reps this year.

    1. Uhm the trophy surely is about the best player of the year. Hence why the winner is called the best of the year…

  4. Both Ozil and Alexis should have been included in the list if France football considered their stats seriously. Look at the list of players included, there are some players who have performed less than Ozil and Alexis in the year. Who won Copa America? and who was the king of assist most of part of the year. The impact of Euro 2016 performance seems more high when you see the list.

  5. Sanchez won the Copa America and was player of the tournament. For me, his club form let him down.
    Ozil was brilliant at Arsenal all season. But at the euros he was “only” good, and in the end Germany went out in the semis. I think had Germany won the euros he would easily be in that list. However, the Ballon d’Or doesn’t concern me really. They deserve to be there but let’s be honest, it’s Messi vs Ronaldo every year. 28 of the names are irrelevant

  6. Until Barcelona and Madrid stop dominating Europe it will always be between those two.
    They are getting old we need some new heroes.

  7. Ive also grown tired of the Messi Ronaldo duopoly at the awards. Maybe they should put a limit on the number of times a single player can be nominated and win the award…because it is getting really boring now and probably frustrating to other players.

  8. the BDO is just a popularity contest, there is simply no justification to include Aguero who wasn’t topscorer in EPL, his team struggled into the top4 and did Lil or nothing at the Copa America and exclude an Alexis Sanchez who came back from injury in the 2nd half of the season which was the start of this year, gave many brilliant performances for Arsenal including against Man.City,Spurs went to Copa America to not just perform brilliantly and win the trophy, he was also awarded the player of the tournament that had the Higuain,Aguero,DiMaria,Vidal and even Messi.
    he beat all of them to the player of the Copa America tournament.

  9. also I don’t see why Lloris whose Spurs finished below Arsenal and wasn’t even among the top 3 goalkeepers last season (Cech,DeGea,Schmeichel) in cleansheets or saves… went to the Euros and didn’t perform so spectacularly or outta this world thanks to the good team and defence in front of him in which Koscielny was the main man in that defence. I dnt see how Lloris gets nominated and Koscielny who was brilliant last season, had a fantastic Euro in which he was moreso the leader in that defence, first playing beside Rami then Umtiti and so far this season has been by far the best defender in EPL and arguably the best in Europe cos Silva,Pepe,Varane,Ramos,Mascherano etc havnt done anywhere close to Koscielny this term.
    I dnt see how that Koscielny shouldn’t be on the list

  10. finally it’s rather annoying that Ozil despite having his individual best season for Arsenal last term, nearly meeting Henry’s assist record, having the most assists in Europe and by far creating the most chances in Europe. voted Germany’s best player at the Euro n alrdy having a good season now doesn’t get listed but DeBruyne gets in.

  11. I remember venting on multiple occasions about deserving gunners being left off the list, and I usually blamed it on the team or players not having any kind of silverware or individual awards to back their performances up. The fact Ozil was way on top of the assist list and got snubbed is very surprising to me. Even more so, although Ozil was our best player this past season, the fact the Alexis got snubbed is even more shocking. He actually won a championship this summer and got the golden ball of the tournament to add to that. This player of the year award is very political because they always base it on who won what award, but at least it was consistently political. Now I have no idea what a player needs to do to get onto that list except maybe play for a Spanish giant, an English champion of the last five years, or a person who stands out some other way. It’s stupid

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