Putellas may be the better player, but Mead’s individual heroics deserved recognitionThe images of Alexia Putellas clutching the Ballon d’Or trophy for the second successive year, becoming the first female player to do so since the introduction of the women’s award in 2018, were poignant.Poignant first because Putellas was standing there with the ACL injury that crushed her Euro 2022 dream and will keep her out for much of this season. And poignant also because, although injury meant she was not a signatory of the statement from 15 Spain players that said the national team environment was affecting their emotional state and health, she is the talisman of the team, has expressed support for her teammates and was clutching the...
The Norwegian’s powerful, inspiring speech gave me goose bumps and the award’s worthy winner dealt with Martin Solveig’s casual sexism magnificentlyWhen I was a young girl I had to deal with people calling me weird and strange because I spent so much time around boys playing football. However I am not alone – that seems to be a regular theme when you speak to many of the great female professional footballers in the world about their journey to where they are now. It is not free of adversity and it is challenging having to justify your talent in what has been considered a man’s sport for centuries.I think the quicker we tell young girls who dream of playing professionally that...
After his embarrassing question to Ada Hegerberg marred Monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris, the French DJ didn’t pass up the chance to keep on diggingEnormous commiserations to French DJ Martin Solveig, the latest person to be filmed doing something in public that apparently doesn’t reflect who he is. The this-is-not-who-I-am defence gets a lot of run-outs these days, as cameraphones catch non-racist people being racist on buses, non-homophobic people screaming abuse at gay people outside a nightclub, or any of the other variants that increasingly adorn the age. The point is: this is not who they are.Very occasionally, the person saying the thing is saying it on a stage, in front of a large audience and multiple television cameras,...
With Cristiano Ronaldo 33 on Monday and Lionel Messi the wrong side of 30, who are Europe’s bright prospects shaping up to be inheritors of the Ballon d’Or duopoly’s crown?“A very good question,” mused Cristiano Ronaldo as he basked in the glory of his second successive Ballon d’Or and fifth overall back in December. “I see some with great potential: Asensio, Mbappé, Neymar, Dembélé, Hazard, Rashford … and some others. In the next generation there are at least 10 players with very, very great potential.”It’s more than a decade since Milan’s Kaká became the last player outside of the Ronaldo-Lionel Messi duopoly to walk away with football’s highest individual honour. But with the Real Madrid forward celebrating his 33rd birthday...