The release of the Ballon d’Or shortlists naturally focused on the absence of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo from the men’s top 30 for the first time in 21 years, yet the real glaring omissions were to be found among the awards ceremony’s token efforts regarding women’s football.
Before even getting to the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or Féminin, some major things are missing. Two awards, let alone individual nominees. That is because the organisers, France Football and Uefa, will be presenting prizes to the top men’s goalkeeper of the year – the Yashin trophy – and the top young player of the year – the Kopa trophy – but neither of those categories has yet been created for the women’s game since the Ballon d’Or expanded to recognise female footballers in 2018.
The lack of an award for under-21 female players is a crying shame because it is a missed opportunity to celebrate players such as the 20-year-old Barcelona and Spain forward Salma Paralluelo, the Colombia and Real Madrid winger Linda Caicedo and the United States and Angel City forward Alyssa Thompson. There will be plenty of deserved applause for Lamine Yamal, Kobbie Mainoo or Alejandro Garnacho, just none for their female counterparts.
For goalkeepers such as Spain’s World Cup winner Cata Coll, who also won the Women’s Champions League with Barcelona, or Mary Earps, who added an FA Cup to her World Cup Golden Glove, the organisers have made it clear they are not as worthy of recognition as Emiliano Martínez.
A spokesperson for the Ballon d’Or defended the awards and pointed to their addition of a women’s coach of the year prize, saying: “We have been committed to honouring women’s football since the inception of the Women’s Ballon d’Or in 2018 and we are proud of the progress made thus far.”
Then there is the date of the awards, Monday 28 October, clashing – as it does annually – with a women’s international break. This guarantees some of the female nominees will not be able to attend the ceremony in Paris.
Germany are hosting Australia in an international friendly, so that probably rules out the Germany trio Lea Schüller, Sjoeke Nüsken and Giulia Gwinn – one 10th of the shortlist. Plus, a large proportion of the shortlisted players will be preparing for fixtures scheduled for the next day, such as Ada Hegerberg, a former winner of the Ballon d’Or, who could be involved in European Championship playoff action for Norway.
The organisers said: “The date for the 2024 ceremony was chosen, as every year, based on several key considerations. These include the necessity to await the end of the 2023-24 football season and the end of the Paris 2024 Olympics, organising the ceremony as close as possible to the end of the 2023-24 football season, allowing jurors sufficient time to vote while avoiding any date clash with domestic league football in Europe (ie excluding Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays), as well as weeks with European club football matches. Based on said criteria, 28 October was the only viable date before mid-December, which we thought would have been too late to hold the ceremony.”
Last year, the ceremony came 24 hours before England played an away Nations League fixture against Belgium, so the Lionesses who were shortlisted, such as Georgia Stanway, did not attend. This year, England have a home friendly against South Africa on 29 October and it will be up to the head coach, Sarina Wiegman, if those who have been nominated – Lauren James, Lucy Bronze and Lauren Hemp – will travel.
The night before the awards, the United States are facing Iceland in Nashville, presenting the five American nominees and the Iceland and Bayern Munich defender Glódís Viggósdóttir with a challenge – albeit not an impossible task – to get to Paris in time. You could go on and on through the list.
Yes, about half of the men’s nominees could be in domestic cup action that midweek, including Rodri, one of the favourites, but no one is due to play on the night of the ceremony. And a women’s international break, when players are competing across the globe, is not a respectful time to arrange this event if you genuinely care about the women’s game.
To add insult to injury for the female players, comes the Ballon d’Or shortlist itself, and here followers of women’s football have every right to be exasperated. Fans and coaches used social media last week to lambast the omission of the US defender Naomi Girma from the 30-strong shortlist.
It is true that some of the US’s gold medal-winning performances at the Olympics came after the cut-off point – this award looks at performances from 1 August 2023 to 31 July 2024 – but it has baffled thousands to not see Girma listed, in light of her displays for San Diego Wave. She is widely regarded as the best centre-back in the world.
Equally, given Keira Walsh’s key role in helping Barcelona retain their Women’s Champions League title, and with the England midfielder also having contributed significantly to the Lionesses reaching a World Cup final within the period specified, not seeing her name on the list lessens this award’s credibility.
The players are chosen by France Football, with input from Uefa’s women football unit. The winner will be chosen by a jury of women’s football journalists representing the top 50 countries in the Fifa women’s ranking.
There are other notable absentees, such as the France forward Kadidiatou Diani, the top scorer in last season’s Champions League, Alex Greenwood, arguably the best-performing defender at last summer’s World Cup, and Olga Carmona, the left-back who captained Spain to their world title and scored the winner in the final against England.
Perhaps those are semantics, because there will always be debate about who might be 25th to 30th on a list of 30. But to leave out Girma and Walsh, who would both be extremely difficult to leave out of a World XI, and strong candidates for the top prize if you asked managers and coaches around the world, gives the impression again that this prestigious event, the great Ballon d’Or, is paying lip service to women’s football.
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