Football Awards : Divisive Choices

The Ballon d'Or awards honour the year's best players, coaches and clubs in recognition of their outstanding achievements. The awards ceremony is a great moment for the players as they all wait impatiently in hopes of being honoured with the prestigious prize. For this year’s awards that took place at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, Rodri of Manchester City was crowned the World’s best player for the 2023-2024 season awards. Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr. finished second, while Jude Bellingham secured third place. Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati won the women's trophy. 
The proclamation of the results brought about commotion among the two top contenders. For many football diehards, Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid stood as a firm favourite for the men's award. However when Real Madrid officials found out that their star player Vinicius Junior would not be winning the coveted award, with the results leaked before the ceremony, the Spanish giants decided to boycott the ceremony. Even though Vinicius Junior was absent in the award ceremony, the trophy was handed over to the proclaimed winner. 
A similar situation occurred during the Women’s Best Football of the year award in 2022 where Asisat Oshoala of Nigeria won the CAF Awards trophy whereas many fans had tipped Nchout Njoya Ajara of Cameroon as favourite. The result of the 2024 Ballon d’Or has raised eyebrows as to what criteria ar...