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The Ballon d'Or is an annual award bestowed by France Football to the best player for club and country.
First introduced in 1956, 25 different players from twenty different countries have won the Ballon d'Or over the years. Initially open only to players plying their trade in Europe, any player in the world is now eligible to win the award.
There has been criticism that the Ballon d'Or award has largely favoured attackers. In fact, only two defenders and one goalkeeper have ever landed the prestigious award. The selection criteria has also been questioned, as there haven't always been unanimous Ballon d'Or winners over the years.
Essentially, it's an award for the best player in a calendar year for club and country. It's an icing on the cake if the player also plays a key role in helping his team win or make a deep run at a major tournament. This includes the league, Champions League, FIFA World Cup, and other continental international competitions.
However, a few Ballon d'Or winners, over the years, haven't always ticked both boxes. On that note, here's a look at the five biggest Ballon d'Or snubs over the years:
#5 Wesley Sneijder - 2010 (didn't even make the Ballon d'Or podium)
Wesley Sneijder was a top midfielder during his playing days. He hit the ground running on his arrival at Inter Milan in the summer of 2009.
The elegant Dutchman played a key role in the Nerazzurri becoming the first Italian team to win the continental treble in 2009-10. Sneijder bagged eight goals and 16 assists across competitions, pulling the strings from midfield.
That summer, he also scored five goals, including a brace in the 2-1 win over Brazil, as the Netherlands booked a date with Spain for the FIFA World Cup title. Four of his five strikes and an assist came in the knockout rounds.
The Dutchman received four Man of the Match awards in the tournament. Sneijder was one of the Oranje's standout performers in the final, but Spain had the last laugh in the final.
Nevertheless, his exploits for club and country should have made Sneijder an unanimous choice for the Ballon d'Or award that year. Instead, the Dutchman didn't even make the podium. Lionel Messi surprisingly took home the Ballon d'Or award ahead of his World Cup-winning teammates Andres Iniesta and Xavi.
Eight years later, Luka Modric, who won the Champions League and was also the FIFA World Cup finalist that year, won the Ballon d'Or. That makes Sneijder's snub all the more baffling.
#4 Cristiano Ronaldo - 2018 (Ballon d'Or runner-up)
Cristiano Ronaldo enjoyed a goal-rich 2017-18 campaign for Real Madrid, scoring 44 goals across competitions.
In what turned out to be his last season at the La Liga giants, Ronaldo had a modest league campaign. He scored 'only' 26 goals as Madrid failed to defend their La Liga title. However, in the Champions League, Ronaldo was at his imperious best.
The then 33-year-old amassed 15 goals, scoring in all six group games and both legs of the Round of 16 and quarter-finals. Although Ronaldo didn't score in his next three games, he played a huge role in Real Madrid doing an unprecedented three-peat in the Champions League.
Ronaldo moved to Juventus that summer and had a decent start to his campaign, winning the Serie A title later that season. He also scored a dazzling hat-trick against Spain at the FIFA World Cup, but Portugal were eliminated in the Round of 16.
However, the Ballon d'Or award that year went to Ronaldo's former Real Madrid teammate Luka Modric. Modric won the Champions League with Madrid before taking Croatia to the World Cup final.
However, Modric wasn't a unanimous choice for the award among fans and experts, as he didn't single-handedly impact games to the extent Ronaldo did.
Lionel Messi would also have been a more deserving Ballon d'Or winner than Modric that year. He scored over 50 goals for club and country, won the league and the Pichichi awards. Raphael Varane, who won the Champions League with Real Madrid and the World Cup with France that year, was also viewed as a more deserving candidate.
Interestingly, both Ronaldo and Messi, who have won ten Ballon d'Ors between themselves since 2008, snubbed the 2018 ceremony. Ronaldo finished second that year, while Messi didn't even make the podium.
#3 Thierry Henry - 2003 (Ballon d'Or runner-up)
Thierry Henry is one of the best players to have never won the Ballon d'Or award. The all-time Arsenal and France top-scorer made it on to podium for the prestigious award twice, but fell short on both occasions.
In the first such instance in 2003, Henry finished second to Pavel Nedved of Juventus. That raised quite a few eyebrows as the Frenchman had a standout year, particularly with Arsenal, and was more deserving of the accolade.
Henry bagged 24 goals and a league-leading 20 assists, becoming the first player in a European top-five league to do so. That feat is yet to be repeated in the Premier League, with Messi (2019-20) the only one across Europe's top five leagues doing so.
Although Arsenal finished second to Manchester United in the Premier League that year, Henry was on a tear in the 2003-04 season as well. The Frenchman led the Gunners to a historic unbeaten league campaign which made Henry's Ballon d'Or snub in 2003 difficult to understand.
Meanwhile, Nedved, the eventual winner, scored 14 goals across competitions as Juventus won Serie A. The Bianconeri lost to AC Milan on penalties in the Champions League final.
Goals or goal contributions wouldn't be a true barometer of the two players' performances, as they didn't play in the same position. However, considering Henry's stellar exploits - especially in the first half of 2003 - he was arguably more deserving of the Ballon d'Or that year than Nedved.
#2 Virgil van Dijk - 2019 (Ballon d'Or runner-up)
Virgil van Dijk is widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs in the game at the moment. Strong in the air and in tackles, the Dutchman is a force to be reckoned with at both ends of the pitch.
Van Dijk has been a key performer for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool since arriving at the club in early 2018. He played a key role in the Reds reaching back-to-back Champions League finals in 2018 and 2019. Liverpool went on to win the competition in the latter year, thanks to van Dijk's assured presence in their rearguard.
In 2019-20, Van Dijk played a key role in Liverpool's first title in the Premier League era. The Dutchman was a strong contender to win the 2019 Ballon d'Or award, but he eventually lost out to Lionel Messi.
Though Messi had another strong year, winning the Pichichi and La Liga, this was a golden opportunity for the Ballon d'Or to go to a defender. Yet the award's perceived bias towards attackers and goalscorers continued.
Van Dijk did come close, though, losing out to the Argentine by only seven points in one of the closest Ballon d'Or races in years.
Dutch legend Ruud Gullit said about van Dijk's Ballon d'Or snub:
"The message of the Ballon d’Or was, he’s never going to win it again. But, you know, you can’t say Messi didn’t deserve it either. But if there was a possibility to make a stand for a defender, it was this year."
Gullit added:
"(Arrigo) Sacchi already said that van Dijk couldn’t win it because, otherwise, (Franco) Baresi should have won it already. If Baresi didn’t win it, why should he win it? That’s what he said. He didn’t say he didn’t deserve it, but he said they’re never going to give it to a defender. That’s what he said, and that’s a pity."
#1 Robert Lewandowski (2021 Ballon d'Or runner-up)
Robert Lewandowski is one of the most lethal strikers to have graced the game, especially in the last decade.
The prolific Pole has scored goals galore for club and country in the last few years. Lewandowski is the only player since the start of 2020 to score over 100 goals for club and country.
The forward played a key role in Bayern Munich's treble-winning campaign in 2019-20 to emerge as a huge contender for the Ballon d'Or. However, the award itself was controversially canceled that year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn't held belatedly as well, robbing the Pole of a great opportunity to win the coveted award.
Far from being disheartened, Lewandowski put up another stellar year for club and country in 2021, scoring 61 goals. He also scored 41 times in the league to break the late Gerd Muller's five-decade-old record of most goals in a Bundesliga campaign. In the process, Bayern coasted to their ninth consecutive league title.
As if that wasn't enough, Lewandowski has been on a tear this campaign, already amassing 25 goals across competitions. That's a whopping 21 more than 2021 Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi. Messi won the award largely because of his exploits in Argentina's triumphant Copa America 2021 campaign.
Lewandowski ticked all the boxes - goals, big titles, records and impactful performances - yet the Ballon d'Or eluded him once again. He did win the inaugural Striker of the Year award, but that wasn't what he had come for.
Lewandowski's Ballon d'Or snub has been roundly criticized by many legends of the game.
