This Year Will Prove If the Ballon d’Or Truly Is an Individual Award

There’s always a certain novelty appeal to the list of Ballon d’Or nominations every year it comes out. The names of European football’s great and good are perused to find the odd one out, the name that doesn’t quite belong there. This year it was Jamie Vardy, and so the Leicester City striker was the headline pick alongside the usual names.

It’s not that Vardy doesn’t deserve his nomination. He scored 19 times as the Foxes pulled off the biggest sporting upset of recent times, forcing his way into the England fold for the summer’s European Championships. Vardy, as well as his Algerian team-mate Riyad Mahrez, warrant their place alongside the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Seeing Vardy among such company is still somewhat jarring, though, considering his meteoric rise (also considering how he drinks half a bottle of port before every match, as per Jack de Menezes of The Independent).

But the Leicester City striker’s nomination brings up a pertinent point about the Ballon d’Or. 

Is the award a true mark of individual achievement? Would Vardy have made the list had Leicester City not won the Premier League title last season? Indeed, it can be difficult to separate the achievements of a team from that of an individual, but the lines are blurred when it comes to the Ballon d’Or. 

This year’s Ballon d’Or will provide a gauge of how players are judged in deciding who wins the award. Messi and Ronaldo have performed below their usual stratospheric levels over the past year, but they are still favourites to lift the golden ball. Why? That will become clearer when the results are read out next January. 

Of course, both Messi and Ronaldo have enjoyed successful years in the context of their club and national sides. The former won yet another Liga title with Barcelona, also leading Argentina to the final of the Copa America. The latter won his third Champions League title, while also lifting the European Championship with Portugal in the summer. 

And so if either Messi or Ronaldo …

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