Should Robert Lewandowski feel elated, or bitter about it? How did he feel after winning the FIFA Best Men's Player award for 2021? Did he really cherish the award or felt it was only a “compensation” for again been denied the Ballon D’or, which went to Lionel Messi for the record seventh time? These are some of the questions for which the answers will never be found, but many felt the Polish striker deserved more. He, however, had to remain satisfied with the best men’s footballer award for the second straight year after a season in which he beat Gerd Mueller’s 49-year-old record of 40 goals in a single Bundesliga campaign. Many believed Lewandowski deserved to win the Ballon d’Or thanks to his stunning year, following on from 2020 when he also won the Champions League.
But Lewandowski can take solace from the fact that bigger names in world football in recent years have been denied the award, which went to Messi and Ronaldo with monotonous regularity rather. Football fans still rue that two of world’s greatest footballers in this century – Xavi and Iniesta – had never received the Ballon d’Or. They did everything possible for a football player on the pitch – they made FC Barcelona the most successful club on earth and then won two back- to-back Euro titles and finally the World Cup for Spain in 2010. Yet, their names could never find a place in the merit list of Ballon d’Or. May be, Lewandowski will have to wait.
The award is voted for by national team coaches and captains, as well as a journalist from each country. It was interesting to know Both Ronaldo and Messi continued their long tradition of not voting for each other. Argentina captain Messi went for Paris Saint-Germain teammates Neymar and Kylian Mbappe with his first and second votes, with Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema getting his final vote. Ronaldo, who won a special award at this year’s ceremony for breaking the all-time international scoring record, voted for Lewandowski, N’Golo Kante and Jorginho. Strange that Messi didn’t find Lewandowski good enough to be among his top three.