Suppose there is no tongo. Let’s assume that the list of players announced at the end of the gala is an exact reflection of what was voted on by a hundred journalists previously chosen by the organization, without last-minute manipulation of this result.
The organization of the Ballon d’Or is France Football, but this year it is also UEFA, with Ceferin as master of ceremonies, which arouses suspicion because he is one of the great enemies of Real Madrid.
Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr.
Europe Press
Let’s accept it anyway. Let’s admit that the mathematical accumulation of the votes of the hundred journalists leads precisely and exactly to the final list, although somewhat disconcertingly we are told that we will not know the points obtained by each footballer until well into November. Could it not be that these journalists are influenced? Will the organization not be able to accommodate their wishes to some extent?
Let’s imagine that neither. Let’s imagine that they are one by one incorruptible journalists, one incorruptible, from each country of the hundred most important nations for UEFA, as independent as the United Kingdom and Senegal. They voted very freely and their options prevailed without any prior or subsequent change.
So why, on the eve of the preliminaries, was a list disclosed to Real Madrid and to the public itself, identical to the one finally announced, except in the order of the first two classified?
Only the organization itself can filter a list so close to reality. Statistically, a random list cannot get everything correct except the first two.
Even if the explanation for this statistical anomaly does not lie in a final joke, in a last-minute solution, which it is already generous to admit with Ceferin behind it, the only thing that seems to remain standing is the hypothesis according to which the organization filters fake lists to ensure that Madrid goes to the gala thinking that Vinícius is winning when in reality he is losing. That’s to say, Madrid is wrong to prepare a sort of ambush of dishonorwith the world witnessing his frustration.
It is very difficult not to consider this last scenario as the least conspiratorial scenario of all, the most natural. The gala was obviously dull without the presence of Madrid, winner in other categories, and this is what we wanted to avoid thanks to fraudulent leaks.
They wanted Madrid to bite the dust live and directwith Vinicius crying before the eyes of the world and Laporta giving speeches surrounded by his brilliant women as a reward for a season without titles in men’s football. That’s what they wanted, and that’s what they didn’t have.
However, let us be extremely naive. Let’s accept the hypothesis flower power that the leak that Vini won was not self-serving, that it was simply an accident or the bad taste joke of a stupid intern from the France Football marketing department.
Even in this hypothetical context, so typical of the worlds of Yupi, Madrid could not bless with its presence the staging of a directly insane decision.
Even if the hundred journalists are indeed the exception, there is today an almost absolute consensus on Vinicius’ status as the best player on the planet.
Madrid could not participate normally in a ceremony that sought to depreciate its main asset. In the end, moreover, last night is just the culmination of a process of losing the prestige of the prizewhich begins to be called into question in the triumph of Owen about Raoulat the dawn of the century. And this has its most immediate antecedent in the awarding of the prize to a Messi semi-retired for accurately scoring a series of penalties in a World Cup designed for him.
“We will have to show UEFA who Real Madrid is,” he announced. Florentino Pérez before starting to win Champions Leagues without restraint. This time there was no need to announce anything. It is a policy of fait accompli.
The Ballon d’Or already knows who Real Madrid is.
