So Ousmane Dembélé won the Ballon d’Or. Does it really matter any more?

The Ballon d’Or has been a source of contention from the moment it was created in 1956.

The award was jointly conceived by Gabriel Hanot, who played for and managed the France national team before becoming a journalist after he was injured in a plane crash, and the sports writer Jacques Ferran, his colleague on France Football magazine. 

A jury consisting of 16 journalists convened at the publication’s Paris headquarters, with each naming their top three candidates for European footballer of the year. In a tightly contested vote, the Blackpool and England winger Stanley Matthews narrowly edged out Hanot’s personal pick, the Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stéfano.

So it was that Hanot travelled to Blackpool Town Hall a week before Christmas to present the award to the 41-year-old Matthews, whose moment of glory was witnessed by few beyond his first wife, Betty, and the local mayor. 

The genius clown

It was about as far from the glitzy Parisian award ceremonies that have since become de rigueur, and it is pretty clear how Hanot felt about the jury’s decision. Writing in France Football the previous month, the Frenchman described Matthews as “un clown de génie” – a genius clown – whose ability to run rings around opponents bordered on the comical. Flattering enough, on the face of it, until you consider that he regarded Di Stéfano as “un grand chevalier” – a great knight possessed of “epic” courage and invincibility.

Born in a spirit of collective but subjective judgement, the Ballon d’Or has changed little in the 68 years since. The size of the voting panel has changed – the award is now decided by 180 journalists from the 100 top Fifa-ranked nations, although the initial list of 30 nominees remains an exclusively French affair, with contenders determined by journalists from France Football and L’Equipe – but now, as then, opinions differ. The question is whether any of it really matters.

Was Ousmane Dembélé really the world’s best player last season?

Hanot could not escape the feeling that Matthews’ selection was based on his body of work as a whole rather than his achievements over the entirety of the previous season. Almost seven decades on, many would question just how far Ousmane Dembélé, who became the latest recipient of the award in Paris on Monday night, was really world’s football’s leading light last season. 

The 28-year-old France international was a central figure as Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League, Ligue 1 and Coupe de France, scoring 35 goals and laying on a further 14. Yet more than half those goals were scored across a devastating run of form between mid-December and mid-February, while two came at the Club World Cup, a competition from which three of the four players who finished directly behind him were absent.

Among those was Mohamed Salah, who scored just one goal less than Dembélé while competing in a stronger league as he played a talismanic role in Liverpool’s record-equalling 20th league title win. With 29 goals and 18 assists in the league, the 33-year-old tied the record for Premier League goal involvements in a 38-game season, won a fourth Golden Boot to draw level with Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, and was named Premier League player of the year for a second time.

Should Mohamed Salah have won the Ballon d’Or?

Like Dembélé, who was also named the Ligue 1 and Champions League player of the year, Salah tailed off towards the end of the season, with just five of his goals coming after February. Even so, there are many beyond Liverpool who would have rated him higher than fourth in the world last season. 

Similar questions could be asked in relation to Lamine Yamal, who finished second despite scoring 18 goals as Barcelona won a domestic treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España.

Nor do the potential quibbles stop there.

Lamine Yamal: ‘the best player in the world by far’?

Taking into account only league and European goals, Dembélé was outscored by Kylian Mbappé, Harry Kane, Salah and Erling Haaland last term. As for the logic behind Virgil van Dijk finishing 28th on the 30-strong list despite being the defensive cornerstone of Liverpool’s title win, the less said the better.

In keeping with tradition, it did not take long for the first ripples of dissent to appear. Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, insisted his son was “the best player in the world by far” and suggested “something strange” had happened. Ferran Torres posted an exploding head emoji on social media after his Barcelona team-mate Pedri finished 11th. Neymar suggested it was “a joke” that his Brazil team-mate, the Barcelona forward Raphinha, who had the most goal involvements in the Champions League last season, was voted fifth.

Liverpool, meanwhile, pointedly published a picture of Salah alongside the Premier League trophy and his various personal honours, captioning it: “A season to savour for Salah.”

As for Real Madrid, who travel to Levante on Tuesday night, the club’s decision to skip the ceremony for a second successive year was all too predictable, given their risibly entitled behaviour when Vinícius Júnior failed to win the award 12 months ago. Mbappé, the top scorer in La Liga last term, finished seventh.

Has the Ballon d’Or had its day?

The fallout from this year’s vote was not of the same bitter order created by Madrid’s ungracious conduct last season, but it is hard to escape the feeling that the Ballon d’Or is well past its sell-by date. In concept and execution, it is deeply flawed.

There is something inherently absurd in an award that recognises individual achievement in a team game. It is an unspoken truth that the prize will go to the most potent attacker from whichever team wins the Champions League, with Rodri’s controversial victory last season the exception that proves the rule. And as the Vinícius brouhaha demonstrated, it exposes the unsightly vein of arrogance and presumption that runs beneath the game’s surface.

Matthews or Di Stéfano? Rodri and Dembélé, or Vinícius and Salah? Does anyone beyond the feted few really care any more?