It would be hard to argue that he doesn’t deserve it
The Ballon d’Or organisers have stated that they are “thinking about” awarding Robert Lewandowski the 2020 award following Lionel Messi’s comments on Monday night.
The Paris Saint-Germain forward won his seventh Ballon d’Or after a year which saw him win the Copa America with Argentina and the Copa del Rey with Barcelona.
Messi faced tough competition from a number of players, notably Bayern Munich’s Lewandowski – who many people believe deserved to have won the award in 2020.
Due to the pandemic, the 2020 Ballon d’Or was not given to any player, despite the Pole enjoying a spectacular year, helping the German side to win the treble.
Despite picking up the Bundesliga Player of the Year award and scoring a career high 55 goals, France Football decided against giving the award to Lewandowski – or any player for that matter.
Maybe Robert Lewandowski could get his Ballon d'Or after all…
France Football Editor-in-Chief Pascal Ferre doesn't seem to be ruling it out 👀 pic.twitter.com/Hw3CGkqcqo
— GOAL (@goal) November 30, 2021
After receiving his seventh Golden Ball, Messi dedicated a portion of his speech to the Polish international, inisisting that he ‘deserved’ the award for 2020.
“Robert, you deserve your Ballon d’Or. Last year, everyone was in agreement to say that you were the big winner of this award,” he said.
“Hopefully France Football will give you the 2020 Ballon d’Or. We all believe you deserved it and I hope you can have it at home.”
Following Messi’s comments – which many people agreed with – France Football editor-in-chief Pascal Ferré admitted he is open to the possibility of awarding Lewandowski the award for last year.
However, he did add that they cannot be sure the 33-year-old would definitely have won the prestigious award.
He told Watson via Bulinews : “What Messi said was nice and clever. I think we do not have to make very quick decisions. We can think about it and at the same time we should respect the history of the Ballon d’Or, which is based on voting.
“We can’t be sure if Lewandowski would have won the Ballon D’Or last year. We can’t know because there was no vote. But, to be honest, Lewandowski would have had a great chance of winning last year.”
The striker – who has already scored 25 times in 20 appearances this season – previously admitted that when the 2020 Ballon d’Or was cancelled, he was in the best form of his career.
Related links:
- Lionel Messi to put seventh Ballon d’Or in Barcelona museum
- QUIZ: Name every man to win the Ballon d’Or
- An ode to Karim: Why Benzema deserves a Ballon d’Or
