After 10 long years, Ballon d'Or has finally shifted away from the reign of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Luka Modric has ended Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s dominance in the men’s awards while Lyon’s Ada Hegerberg took the first ever women’s award in Paris.
Ada
Martine Stolsmo Hegerberg, is a
Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Division 1
Féminine club Olympique Lyonnais. She has previously played for Kolbotn and
Stabæk in Toppserien.Hegerberg has represented Norway at the youth
international level, and made her debut for the senior team in 2011. In 2013,
she was a part of the Norwegian team that won silver at the 2013 UEFA Women's
Championship.When Lyon’s Ada Hegerberg finished the season with a third
consecutive Champions League winner’s medal she threw down the gauntlet,
tweeting: “Hey @Cristiano can you score one more tomorrow?” As she latched on
to a Shanice van de Sanden cross, scoring her side’s third as they defeated an
exhausted Wolfsburg 4-1 in extra time, she matched Cristiano Ronaldo’s 15-goal
haul for the 2017-18 campaign.In doing so Hegerberg beat her previous 14-goal
tally to secure the record for the most goals in a Women’s Champions League
season.
The
FIFA Ballon d'Or("Golden Ball") was an
annual association football award presented to the world's best men's player
from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and France Football, the prize was a
merger of the FIFA World Player of the Year award and the Ballon d'Or, the two
most prestigious individual honours in world football. The FIFA Ballon d'Or was
awarded based on votes from international journalists and national team coaches
and captains, who selected the players they deemed to have performed the best
in the previous calendar year.The six editions of the FIFA Ballon d'Or were
dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as part of their ongoing
rivalry.Barcelona's Messi won the inaugural Ballon d'Or in 2010 and went on to
win three in a row, after his wins in 2011 and 2012. Ronaldo, who plays for
Juventus, won successive awards in the next two years. The final FIFA Ballon
d'Or was presented to Messi in 2015. Its awarding bodies subsequently ended
their partnership; for 2016, France Football reintroduced the previous format
of the Ballon d'Or, while FIFA created The Best FIFA Men's Player award.
The
Ballon d'Or is an annual football award
presented by France Football. It has been awarded since 1956, except between
2010 and 2015, as explained above. Conceived by sports writer Gabriel Hanot, the
Ballon d'Or award honours the male player deemed to have performed the best
over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists. Originally it
was an award for players from Europe. In 1995 the Ballon d'Or was expanded to
include all players from any origin that have been active at European clubs.
The award became a global prize in 2007 with all professional footballers from
around the world being eligible.
So,
the winner this year is : ‘Luka Modrić’ – a (Croatian professional footballer who plays as
a midfielder for Spanish club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Croatia
national team. Born in Zadar, Modrić's childhood coincided with the Croatian
War of Independence which displaced his family. In 2002, he was signed by
Dinamo Zagreb at age 16, after showing promise with his hometown club's youth
team. After the 2011–12 season, Modrić joined Real Madrid for a £30 million
transfer fee, where he became a key contributor under head coach Carlo
Ancelotti and helped the team win La Décima during 2013–14 season, being
elected to the squad of the season.In
2015, he became the first Croatian player ever to be included in the FIFA World
XI. Modrić made his international debut for Croatia against Argentina in March
2006, and scored his first international goal in a friendly match against
Italy.Modrić led Croatia to the 2018
World Cup Final, and he received the Golden Ball award for Best Player of the
Tournament. Furthermore, he has been named the Croatian Footballer of the Year
six times, tied with Davor Šuker for most wins.
The
other winner is - Lyon and Norway striker Ada Hegerberg, who won the inaugural
Women's Ballon d'Or award.The 23-year-old scored in this year's Champions
League final as French side Lyon beat Wolfsburg 4-1 in Kiev.Wolfsburg and
Denmark striker Pernille Harder was second, Germany midfielder Dzsenifer
Marozsan third and England and Lyon defender Lucy Bronze sixth.The award -
voted for by journalists - recognises the best player in the world.
Co-host
Martin Solveig, a French DJ, was widely criticised on social mediaafter asking
Hegerberg during the presentation: "Do you know how to twerk?"The
player simply responded: "No."Solveig later apologised, and Hegerberg
played down suggestions it had marred her win.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
4th
Dec 2018.
