Ballon D'Or not a true reflection of world football – Abraham
Former football club owner Horatius Abrahams says the Ballon D'Or favours European footballers.
LIMBA MUPETAMI
WINDHOEK
Sports consultant and former football club owner and coach of second division KS Cannons Horatius Abrahams says the Ballon D'Or is biased and favours European footballers only.
Abrahams said this in the wake of the cancellation of the highly sought-after award given by France Football Magazine to the best male and female players in world football. He said had the ceremony continued as planned, there would have been two African players in the running for the trophy: Senegal's Sadio Mane and Egypt's Mo Salah.
“I think the Ballon d'Or is not a true reflection of world football,” he added.
Previous winners
Barcelona's Lionel Messi has won the award a record six times while playing for Barcelona, followed by Juventus's Cristiano Ronaldo, who has won five (one with Manchester United and four with Real Madrid).
The only time the award was won by an African was in 1995 by former professional footballer George Weah, who is currently serving as the 25th president of Liberia. He won in the first year that the prize was opened to non-European players.
Right decision
The assistant coach of the Brave Warriors, Woody Jacobs, also shared his two cents on the Ballon d'Or, saying that the organisers were right in cancelling it.
“It would be unfair to give it to someone knowing that the English Premier League stopped midway and restarted again, whilst others completely cancelled their seasons,” he said. He added that the cancellation will give opportunity to African players like Mane and Salah to win this award.
“Even Gabonese international Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang deserves credit for his performance for Arsenal,” Jacobs added.
He said Messi stood out for him but Ronaldo and Polish international Robert Lewandowski, who plays for Bayern Munich, came close.
Words from football lovers
In a Facebook poll ran by Namibian Sun, most football fans picked Lewandowski as favourite for the cancelled award. Shaun Mcbride, Tricko Tjitja Tumuna and Herman Nekundi, YoungLegend Eliaser picked the Polish player.
Other fans like Frans Fu Worldwide Ugwanga picked Ronaldo and another, Victor Augustinium Goreseb, said that the award should have gone to Messi.
Records speak for themselves
The 31-year-old Lewandowski is renowned for his positioning, technique and finishing, and is widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation.
He is the Bundesliga's all-time leading foreign-born goal-scorer, and has been finding the net with incredible regularity since arriving in Germany in 2010.
He has fuelled his club's canter to an eighth successive league title, and he netted twice to help them lift the DFB Cup and complete a domestic double.
His six goals in that competition made him the leading scorer, and he has 11 in the Uefa Champions League.
That means he has scored 51 goals in just 43 competitive games this season, a breathtaking feat no-one else in Europe's top five leagues can boast.
WINDHOEK
Sports consultant and former football club owner and coach of second division KS Cannons Horatius Abrahams says the Ballon D'Or is biased and favours European footballers only.
Abrahams said this in the wake of the cancellation of the highly sought-after award given by France Football Magazine to the best male and female players in world football. He said had the ceremony continued as planned, there would have been two African players in the running for the trophy: Senegal's Sadio Mane and Egypt's Mo Salah.
“I think the Ballon d'Or is not a true reflection of world football,” he added.
Previous winners
Barcelona's Lionel Messi has won the award a record six times while playing for Barcelona, followed by Juventus's Cristiano Ronaldo, who has won five (one with Manchester United and four with Real Madrid).
The only time the award was won by an African was in 1995 by former professional footballer George Weah, who is currently serving as the 25th president of Liberia. He won in the first year that the prize was opened to non-European players.
Right decision
The assistant coach of the Brave Warriors, Woody Jacobs, also shared his two cents on the Ballon d'Or, saying that the organisers were right in cancelling it.
“It would be unfair to give it to someone knowing that the English Premier League stopped midway and restarted again, whilst others completely cancelled their seasons,” he said. He added that the cancellation will give opportunity to African players like Mane and Salah to win this award.
“Even Gabonese international Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang deserves credit for his performance for Arsenal,” Jacobs added.
He said Messi stood out for him but Ronaldo and Polish international Robert Lewandowski, who plays for Bayern Munich, came close.
Words from football lovers
In a Facebook poll ran by Namibian Sun, most football fans picked Lewandowski as favourite for the cancelled award. Shaun Mcbride, Tricko Tjitja Tumuna and Herman Nekundi, YoungLegend Eliaser picked the Polish player.
Other fans like Frans Fu Worldwide Ugwanga picked Ronaldo and another, Victor Augustinium Goreseb, said that the award should have gone to Messi.
Records speak for themselves
The 31-year-old Lewandowski is renowned for his positioning, technique and finishing, and is widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation.
He is the Bundesliga's all-time leading foreign-born goal-scorer, and has been finding the net with incredible regularity since arriving in Germany in 2010.
He has fuelled his club's canter to an eighth successive league title, and he netted twice to help them lift the DFB Cup and complete a domestic double.
His six goals in that competition made him the leading scorer, and he has 11 in the Uefa Champions League.
That means he has scored 51 goals in just 43 competitive games this season, a breathtaking feat no-one else in Europe's top five leagues can boast.
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