The new criteria

This past Friday, France Football named the 30 nominees in the running for the 2022 Ballon d’Or award, a list that did not include Lionel Messi’s name for the first time since 2005 following his underwhelming debut season in Ligue 1. When it comes to the calendar year, the Argentine leads several of the players named ahead of him in the list for the famous prize in goal contributions and chance creation for club and country, but the time period in which a footballer must perform to stake their claim for the accolade no longer runs from January through to December as it has been moved in line with the European campaign, between August and May. This means performances at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will not be factored in this time around, as the ceremony at which the Ballon d’Or is handed out will be held on 17 October, a month before the tournament begins. France Football has also decreased the number of journalists who get to vote for their top three from 170 to 100, and has declared that there will be more focus on individual brilliance and less on what a player achieves collectively with his club. Lastly, a player’s entire career will no longer be part of the criteria, which suggests one brilliant standout season from a footballer could result in that player being awarded the Ballon d’Or, whereas it previously favoured players who had shown years of consistency at the highest level. These amendments were announced, interestingly, months on from Messi’s controversial Ballon d’Or triumph in 2021.