Let’s praise Rodri and turn our attention to the only blemish on the Ballon d’Or list

Rodri, who was crowned English champion with Manchester City in the spring and who also helped Spain become European champion in the summer, was chosen as the best footballer in the world this year.

The fact that the Ballon d’Or culminated in this way this year was a pleasant exception because generally, the experts—journalists from the FIFA top 100 countries can vote, a total of 100 journalists—tend to appreciate brilliant goals. This year, however, they decided to look past them!

Thus, Vinicius Junior, who scored a golden double with Real Madrid, i.e., won the Champions League and the Spanish Premier League, was caught shorthanded. Although this may have greatly disturbed the Brazilian and Real—the stubbornness and boycott of the big club were actually embarrassing—it is worth noting that Vinicius did nothing mystical.

Yes, he was good, as his 24 goals and 11 assists in 39 games show, but when compared to the glory days of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, it is more like a mediocre season.

Rodri gave freedom to others

Rodri, on the other hand, did something phenomenal in the 2023/24 season. The problem with this phenomenality is that the work of a (lower) midfielder is much more difficult to put into numbers and it requires a greater understanding of football.

Simply put: Rodri gave both City and the Spanish national team the freedom to act boldly. Because even the central defenders knew that if they had to go wandering with the ball, a tank named Rodri would always be there to protect them.

But his brilliance was not only expressed in the defensive phase, which is also aptly characterized by 9 goals and 14 assists in 50 games.

However, Rodri’s most important statistical indicator was that he helped City avoid the bitterness of defeat in 74 consecutive matches in the meantime. Or, let’s turn the same fact around: when City lost, it was only when Rodri did not play!

That’s why Rodri deserved this year’s Ballon d’Or and why he became only the fourth (bottom) midfielder in history to win the Golden Ball. The previous three – and we know, there’s going to be a lot of debate about who played where – were Josef Masopust (1962), Lothar Mätthaus (1990) and Luka Modric (2018).

The triumph of attacking players

Of course, more awards have gone to midfield players, but the rest of the players have been (clearly) attacking players (Michel Platini (x3), Kaka, Raymond Kopa, Zinedine Zidane, Rivaldo, Gianni Rivera and Ruud Gullit) or completely wingers (Stanley Matthews, Luis Suarez, George Best, Pavel Nedved, Luis Figo, Ronaldinho and Hristo Stoichov).

Of course, the Golden Ball has been awarded most often to strikers, with 43 in history.

For the sake of truth, let’s also note down the winners: Lionel Messi (x8), Cristiano Ronaldo (x5), Marco van Basten (x3), Johan Cruyff (x3), Ronaldo (x2), Alfredo Di Stefano (x2), Kevin Keegan (x2), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (x2), Eusebio, Omar Sivori, Denis Law, Florian Albert, Bobby Charlton, Gerd Müller, Oleg Blohhin, Allan Simonsen, Paolo Rossi, Igor Belanov, Jean Pierre-Papin, Roberto Baggio, George Weah, Michael Owen, Andrii Shevchenko and Karim Benzema.

Single defenders and a single goalkeeper

Fortunately, defenders have also been recognized on some occasions in world history: four times in total. Franz Beckenbauer, who introduced the libero position to the football world, was elected the best in both 1972 and 1976.

20 years later, in 1996, Mattias Sammer was elected the best, who, in addition to being a libero, could also act delicately as an attacking midfielder.

You can’t blame Fabio Cannavaro for being purebred, who, when he received the Golden Ball in 2006, was still as pure a central defender as is possible.

In the goalkeeping department, however, only one man has managed such a feat: the legendary Soviet Union goalie—he wore a hat during the games—Lev Yashin, whose award is currently given to the best goalkeeper in the world.

Those unfortunates…

And then there’s only one position left… wing-back.

Indeed, a wing-back has never been voted the best footballer in the world! The closest they’ve come to this is Roberto Carlos, who was second in 2002, and Paolo Maldini, who was third in both 1994 and 2003. Right-backs have fared even worse, with Philipp Lahm’s best result being sixth place in 2014.

Although, at first glance, this seems like a blatant injustice, it’s worth considering that until the 21st century, wing-backs were simply central defenders playing “on the wing” and generally had no specific tactical function.

In modern football, the situation is of course the opposite, which means that we can expect Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alphonso Davies or someone else to pull off the feat and carve their name in stone forever.