Ballon d’Or prize tainted by lack of respect given to women’s game

The addition of the Ballon d’Or Feminin in 2018 was a high point for women’s soccer. It could have come a lot earlier with the men’s version running since the 1960’s, when it was created by magazine France Football, but it was finally a recognition that the top women’s players in the world deserved to be celebrated alongside their male colleagues.

The perceived equal footing also gave the women a massive boost in visibility. To have these players stand beside Lionel Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and other top names in the men’s game introduces them to a new cohort of people, along with the kind of career and commercial opportunities that have never been abundant.

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Monday’s winner, Barcelona Femeni and Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas, was crowned after a dominant season that saw the Spanish club win the domestic league/cup double and then their first-ever Champions League prize. It was also the first Ballon d’Or honor for a Spain international (male or female) since 1960, yet since the award’s introduction, the prize has been marred in controversies, several of which were the fault of its organizers.

First, they had to apologise to Ada Hegerberg — the first-ever winner of the Ballon d’Or Feminin — when she was asked by DJ Martin Solveig to twerk on stage after receiving her trophy. Then there’s the fact that the women’s long-list is just 20 players while the men’s is 30. If they were truly seen as equal awards, this number would be the same. There were also rumblings of it being a popularity vote when Megan Rapinoe won it in 2019 but, considering the voting system in place, this…