The dawn has settled (as of writing this article) on the Ballon D’or ceremony last night with the big winner being none other than our rival’s star midfielder, Rodri. The decision to give the Spaniard the award was arguably the most controversial decision in the award’s 68 year history, and has since led to media criticism of the award’s integrity after snubbing Vinicius Junior for the gong.
No matter how controversial it may be, it wasn’t the only thing of note which took place at the awards with the likes of Lamine Yamal, Harry Kane and the ex-gunner Emi Martinez all winning at the ceremony as well.
All this plainly doesn’t concern anyone of an Arsenal affiliation but what does is the fact that we were the second most represented club in the Men’s top 30 for the award. This should serve as a source of pride for us gooners even though they weren’t ranked too highly.
We had four representatives who were Declan Rice, William Saliba, Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard in the list with each of them finishing 26th, 24th, 21st and 19th respectively. Only Real Madrid had more players in the list more than Arsenal, who did it without a single trophy last season, to be recognized.
Whether we trust the integrity of the award or not surely points to us doing the right thing. The next step for our club and our players is to climb higher in the rankings which we can only do by winning and winning only! Winning MAJOR trophies to be exact which we’ll be looking to achieve as soon as possible despite the choppy start to the season.
What did you all make of our players rankings?
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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So what’s so controversial about the champions legend, he deserves it if you ask me.
Rodri played a intergal part to the champions triple crown, he’s a generational talent that makes the champions tick, , they haven’t look convincing in his absences
I don’t think anyone deserves it more, or if they do it’s not by much (Vinicius is possibly the only one with a good claim for his role in the ecl win?). Rodri won the European championship with Spain, but I dont think his treble win counts towards this year’s award because it happened the year prior (22/23).
I thought the awards to Owen and nedved were far more controversial, or should have been. It’s voted on by people with their own biases, so I don’t take much from the balon d’Or personally, but I don’t think rodri is a bad shout, particularly.
Yes, Rodri an excellent player. Think what would happen if Arsenal lost, say, Saka for a whole season – or probably better not.
Real Madrid do have a sense of entitlement (not unnaturally given their record of success, I suppose) but they certainly do seem to have objected strongly that Vinicius Junior didn’t win. He’s a very fine player as well, and last he season was more successful with RM than Rodri was with City. There’s also the matter of the racial abuse that Vinicius has had in the CL. It all adds to the mix.
I expect the judges will probably make it up somehow with the Spaniards next year – it doesn’t do to cross Perez (the RM president) and the club too often.