It’s a season of hard work and remote duels which ends with an evening, a ceremony where all the elite of football will be present to crown their king. This Monday, October 30 at the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris I), France Football will present, as it has done since 1956, its Ballon d’Or, an emblematic trophy which rewards the best player in the world each year, as well as the best female player since 2018.
Since 2022, the criteria for awarding the title, currently held by the Frenchman Karim Benzema and the Spaniard Alexia Putellas, have evolved slightly. The French weekly went from a calendar which rewarded the best player of each calendar year to a “more coherent” system, which rewards the best of each season. This year therefore, he is the best player of the 2022-2023 season, particularly marked among men by the World Cup played in Qatar in November and December and won by Lionel Messi’s Argentina, the overwhelming favorite.
After a panel of journalists from France Football has designated the list of 30 nominees, it will then be up to, for the men’s vote, a panel of one hundred journalists, from the top one hundred nations in the Fifa rankings, to give their “top 5” which will shape the final ranking, the five players mentioned being respectively awarded 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points. Same principle among women, but with only 50 voters.
Three extremely simple criteria are given by the organizers to guide these journalists in their choice, firstly “individual performances, decisive actions and the impressive nature of the actions carried out on the ground”. Then come, as a second criterion, “the essential role of the player in the team, collective performances and the trophies won” then, in third position, “fair play and class on the field”. Previously, the player’s overall career was taken into account among these criteria, which is no longer the case since the 2022 edition.
Last season, Karim Benzema for the men and Alexia Putellas for the women were the first players designated by this “new look” formula. For the Madrilenian, his entire exceptional 2021-2022 season with Real Madrid had therefore been taken into account. Essential to the Merengue club’s conquest of the 14th Champions League and the title won in La Liga, the former French international had scored 44 goals and provided 15 assists in 46 matches, including 10 goals scored in the C1 final phase.
A Golden Ball which did not suffer from any form of dispute, since “KB9” won the trophy with 356 points ahead of Sadio Mané, the biggest gap between two players since 1998. It was much more tight among the women between the Barcelona Putellas (178 points) and Beth Mead (Arsenal, 152 pts).
