Lionel Messi | PSG Watch

[Ladron de redcafe]

The GOAT won in a landslide here. But again, the big one is the Ballon D'or.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

So now it's changed from 'he did nothing for 2/3 of the timeline' to 'he did nothing apart from the World Cup'. I guess 35 goals and 30 assists in 51 games in 2022 is pretty easy, huh? Maybe you should rewatch some of his performances from 2010, if you're confused about what happened that year. Whilst you're at it, rewatch some of his 2022 WC performances and some of the ones for PSG this season. Might help help you get that hate out of your blood bro.

It's not even that. Its besides the point. The world cup is by a comfortable distance the biggest tournament over the last 2 and a half years.

Messi just won it as the best player, winning the golden ball (the only man in history with multiple) while winning MOTM and scoring in every stage of the tournament. So ofcourse it matters more than anything.

 

[mshnsh]

It is absolutely astonishing the barefaced cheek of Messi fans who've screamed penaldo for the last decade, who'll talk about messi's 7 goals in the world cup and neglect to mention Argentina were awarded a record number of penalties at the world cup, you can guarantee if another prominent player had been awarded 5 penalties at a world cup they would not be singing his praises for managing to score 4 of them.

You are a certified Ronaldo fanboy. Bitterness is obviously in you. I'd rather you don't comment on this thread since whatever you write will have a strong element of anti-Messi bias. Just concentrate on the Saudi league and the Camel of the year awards which your demi-god is very likely to win.

 

[Pickle85]

You are a certified Ronaldo fanboy. Bitterness is obviously in you. I'd rather you don't comment on this thread since whatever you write will have a strong element of anti-Messi bias. Just concentrate on the Saudi league and the Camel of the year awards which your demi-god is very likely to win.

Not cool. Be better than this.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

You are a certified Ronaldo fanboy. Bitterness is obviously in you. I'd rather you don't comment on this thread since whatever you write will have a strong element of anti-Messi bias. Just concentrate on the Saudi league and the Camel of the year awards which your demi-god is very likely to win.

Yeah I agree with picklered here. As much as it's fun to laugh at the Ronaldo fanboys' tears (and this one's in particular has been just glorious since the world cup), maybe there's no need to be a bellend. The Camel stuff isn't needed to make your point.

 

[Pickle85]

He's had a great season. Hell of a player and a privilege to have watched him over the years. He deserves to ride off into the sunset and enjoy a wind down in the US or whatever. I still think he's got another season or two in him at his level, mind, if he so chooses.

 

[mshnsh]

Yeah I agree with picklered here. As much as it's fun to laugh at the Ronaldo fanboys' tears (and this one's in particular has been just glorious since the world cup), maybe there's no need to be a bellend. The Camel stuff isn't needed to make your point.

@jm99 my apologies. I honestly respect Ronaldo (purely in football sense) very much. Definitely, one of the all time greats. It is his shenanigans before the WC that make me dislike him.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

@jm99 my apologies. I honestly respect Ronaldo (purely in football sense) very much. Definitely, one of the all time greats. It is his shenanigans before the WC that make me dislike him.

His behaviour prior to the World cup made what unfolded during the world cup (Messi's career culminating in him dragging his country to the world cup at the age of 35 while winning the golden ball in the process, and while Ronaldo was relegated to being a substitute for his country and ending his international career with 0 world cup KO stages goals or assists) absolutely delicious.

The last few months have even beautiful to watch. I was just pointing out (and I think the other poster may have been as well) that maybe the camel comment wasn't needed. That's all.

 

[The Urban Goose]

Not cool. Be better than this.

Before screaming "racist!" maybe check the internet first...

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1964146/saudi-arabia

"In previous years, the festival has included activities such as racing, best-looking camel awards, auctions and camel training"

"Participants will compete in 19 different categories with the aim of winning the grand prize of more than SR250 million ($66 million)."

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

The GOAT won in a landslide here. But again, the big one is the Ballon D'or.

Which he will easily win
I mean he won it off a year where he didn't win La Liga and got knocked out of the UCL in the RO16 in an embarrassing fashion just because of the Copa America
He could take a 6 months vacation until the award is given and he'd still win it

 

[Andrade]

Well it's of a lower standard, that doesn't mean it can't be harder to score. Like I said Bolivian football isn't anywhere near the standard of top European leagues, but players would struggle massively to go and play at that altitude. Playing in teams that are far more disjointed in terms of attack, because they don't train together and have worse managers is the same.

Would you say that the Bolivian team smashing Argentina or Brazil when they go there, means that should be regarded as just as valuable as any other game.

Playing in teams that train irregularly, under managers that wouldn't get a job at club level presents challenges. That doesn't make it of the same standard.

And you're misrepresenting what I've said, you're saying it shouldn't be considered worth less than a good CL, which I'd argue but fair enough, but you're suggesting that messi's world cup is worth way more than benzema's league and CL performances, which I would massively disagree with. If you want to consider it different but equal to the champions league that's one thing, but suggesting that 7 games, hold more weight than the league and the CL combined is for the birds.

The Bolivian example doesn't make sense because it is one venue. Not every international is played in Bolivia, and these days they play dozens and dozens of international games. A lot of those games will be played in your own country in front of your own fans with everything in your favour. And even if you are playing away, 99% of the time it will be in a normal stadium, not at altitude or with any other weird disadvantage.

And some of your reasons as to why these modern strikers score less at international level aren't correct either IMO. The way we know this is by looking at players from the past like Pele, Muller and Puskas. Their ratios were basically the same at international level and club level (or higher in the former) and they had all the same issues re not training with their international teammates as much etc. Also they had less minnow opponents of the type that Ronaldo smashes to pieces in order to make his int. record look respectable. Yet those old guys still matched or exceeded their club ratios. Why?

 

[Gehrman]

Which he will easily win
I mean he won it off a year where he didn't win La Liga and got knocked out of the UCL in the RO16 in an embarrassing fashion just because of the Copa America
He could take a 6 months vacation until the award is given and he'd still win it

Yeah nothing to do with his individual form of being la liga top scorer whilst also being the teams main playmaker, and still being the worlds best dribbler for most of thst season having an iconic copa america which Argentina won where he broke several records. I know Messi shipped all those goals to PSG. He was playing as a CB false nr. 1 afterall. After he scored his screamer vs psg though missing his pen kinda took out some of the momentum for their comeback.

 

[Pickle85]

Before screaming "racist!" maybe check the internet first...

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1964146/saudi-arabia

"In previous years, the festival has included activities such as racing, best-looking camel awards, auctions and camel training"

"Participants will compete in 19 different categories with the aim of winning the grand prize of more than SR250 million ($66 million)."

Just because it exists according to Google, you're not going to convince me the poster was aware of it. It came off as a cheap stereotype. If I'm wrong, I apologize to the poster in question as its impossible to conclusively prove either way but it wasn't brilliantly judged, sinister intentions or otherwise.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

Which he will easily win
I mean he won it off a year where he didn't win La Liga and got knocked out of the UCL in the RO16 in an embarrassing fashion just because of the Copa America
He could take a 6 months vacation until the award is given and he'd still win it

If you want to focus exclusively on team success ("he got knocked out of the UCL and didn't win La Liga") he won the biggest trophy in the sport this December, so there's that. Using your logic, ofcourse he'll deserve the ballon dor even if he sleeps from now until June.

But leave that aside. His individual performances are what make him stand out. And what did make him stand out that year. He didn't "just win Copa America".
He dragged his country to it in Brazil, and in the process:

Most goals (4)
Most assists (5)
Most key passes (22)
Most chances created (26)
Most dribbles (36)
Most passes in the final third (133)

He was the top scorer and the top assister. He won the tournament top player award.

Not sure what more someone can do in a major international tournament. To dismiss that as "he won just because of Copa" is disingenuous (he was the best player in La Liga by a country mile) and misses the point (why wouldn't everyone focus on his spectacular copa?)

You just sound bitter.

 

[Andrade]

Yeah nothing to do with his individual form of being la liga top scorer whilst also being the teams main playmaker, and still being the worlds best dribbler for most of thst season having an iconic copa america which Argentina won where he broke several records. I know Messi shipped all those goals to PSG. He was playing as a CB false nr. 1 afterall. After he scored his screamer vs psg though missing his pen kinda took out some of the momentum for his comeback.

Hating Messi is so puzzling to me. How can you claim to love football and also hate Messi, one of the greatest geniuses the game has ever seen? Doesn't make sense. Odd.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

Hating Messi is so puzzling to me. How can you claim to love football and also hate Messi, one of the greatest geniuses the game has ever seen? Doesn't make sense. Odd.

They can hate him all they want. They're entitled to their own feelings. But some of this is just delusional. When they contradict themselves at every turn, and can't seem to stay consistent, ofcourse we are going to pick their arguments apart.

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

Hating Messi is so puzzling to me. How can you claim to love football and also hate Messi, one of the greatest geniuses the game has ever seen? Doesn't make sense. Odd.

Ah yeah right because arguing he is winning awards that he does not deserve is "hating him".
Got it. Sure make sense.
We're just going to lie and pretend Messi has been the best footballer from August 2021 to December 2022 I guess and ignore how he wasn't even fit to lace Son's or Mane's boots for close to 13 months out of 16

 

[Andrade]

Ah yeah right because arguing he is winning awards that he does not deserve is "hating him".
Got it. Sure make sense.
We're just going to lie and pretend Messi has been the best footballer from August 2021 to December 2022 I guess and ignore how he wasn't even fit to lace Son's or Mane's boots for close to 13 months out of 16

From January 2022 to December 2022 he had 35 goals and 30 assists in 51 games. How many did Son and Mane get? How did they do at the World Cup, the biggest tournament in football by a country mile? Yeah, you hate him and it's weird. No offense like.

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

From January 2022 to December 2022 he had 35 goals and 30 assists in 51 games. How many did Son and Mane get? How did they do at the World Cup, the biggest tournament in football by a country mile? Yeah, you hate him and it's weird. No offense like.

The award did not start in January 2022.
It's from August 2021 to December 2022.
After 12 out of the 16 months covered by the award : Son won a PL golden boot, Mane placed 2nd in the ballon d'or and Messi wasn't even nominated in Ligue 1's best XI or the ballon d'or 30 men shortlist.

Hey if the award was renamed "THE BEST World Cup player" then Messi would totally deserve it. But officially it isn't supposed to be all about the WC although the voters have made it that way and to be fair Messi isn't even the worst offender when Martinez exist.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Ah yeah right because arguing he is winning awards that he does not deserve is "hating him".
Got it. Sure make sense.
We're just going to lie and pretend Messi has been the best footballer from August 2021 to December 2022 I guess and ignore how he wasn't even fit to lace Son's or Mane's boots for close to 13 months out of 16

There has been no time since Messi was alive that he ‘wasn’t fit to lace Son’s or Mane’s boots’ haha the disrespect. At least pick a player within two levels of him like Benzema or Mbappé.

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

There has been no time since Messi was alive that he ‘wasn’t fit to lace Son’s or Mane’s boots’ haha the disrespect. At least pick a player within two levels of him like Benzema or Mbappé.

Nice revisionism.
From August 2021 to May 2022 he wasn't fit to lace their boots.
Couldn't make Ligue 1's TOTS
Had a stinker against Madrid in the biggest game of his season
Scored 6 goals in a PSG superteam that walked the league and overal struggled to adapt

 

[Gehrman]

Nice revisionism.
From August 2021 to May 2022 he wasn't fit to lace their boots.
Couldn't make Ligue 1's TOTS
Had a stinker against Madrid in the biggest game of his season
Scored 6 goals in a PSG superteam that walked the league and overal struggled to adapt

He scored 11 goals overall. Also they didnt really walk the league. A lot of their wins were jammy as hell. I agree though by Messi's own standards it was the worst individual season of his career.

 

[Andrade]

The award did not start in January 2022.
It's from August 2021 to December 2022.
After 12 out of the 16 months covered by the award : Son won a PL golden boot, Mane placed 2nd in the ballon d'or and Messi wasn't even nominated in Ligue 1's best XI or the ballon d'or 30 men shortlist.

Hey if the award was renamed "THE BEST World Cup player" then Messi would totally deserve it. But officially it isn't supposed to be all about the WC although the voters have made it that way and to be fair Messi isn't even the worst offender when Martinez exist.

With good reason.

BTW, World Cup golden ball >>> PL golden boot.

How have Son and Mane done in season 2022-2023 by the way? If you want, add up Mane and Son's G/A over the entire 16 month period and compare them to Messi's, let's see who comes out on top and whether it's as drastically unfair as you are making out

 

[jm99]

@jm99 my apologies. I honestly respect Ronaldo (purely in football sense) very much. Definitely, one of the all time greats. It is his shenanigans before the WC that make me dislike him.

Again this isn't about Ronaldo. I have no intention of rehashing that argument, I think we've all been over that argument more than enough, it was specifically regarding overlooking the fact that half of Messi"s goals came from penalties when comparing his WC to mbappe's or comparing his season to Benzema, when the same people have spent a decade putting stats like non penalty goals as the measure of things

 

[PigeonEscobar]

Messi has carried a team of PL mid table level players to the world cup, that Argentina team although having a great record prior to the WC isn’t a patch (on paper) in comparison to the 1998/2002/2006 Argentina sides that severely underachieved and were full of world class players in every position, so I think both Messi and the manager deserve praise for that achievement.

Let the guy have that trophy, what difference does it makes really?
As a United supporter I’m just glad Casemiro got his recognition and that’s it.

Van Dijk hasn’t been anything special for a few years now, he’s got a trophy, the one time last season he’s faced world class attackers (other than what, Harry Kane?) in Benzema and Vini Jr his team lost the final.

But honestly, I never partake in these individual player debates in real life or online, I stopped being a fan of individual players the day that Beckham left for Real Madrid.
However, for the life of me, I could never understand how football fans who have been watching Messi play for a decade and half can debate that there was anyone who was ever as good at football as him.

 

[jm99]

The Bolivian example doesn't make sense because it is one venue. Not every international is played in Bolivia, and these days they play dozens and dozens of international games. A lot of those games will be played in your own country in front of your own fans with everything in your favour. And even if you are playing away, 99% of the time it will be in a normal stadium, not at altitude or with any other weird disadvantage.

And some of your reasons as to why these modern strikers score less at international level aren't correct either IMO. The way we know this is by looking at players from the past like Pele, Muller and Puskas. Their ratios were basically the same at international level and club level (or higher in the former) and they had all the same issues re not training with their international teammates as much etc. Also they had less minnow opponents of the type that Ronaldo smashes to pieces in order to make his int. record look respectable. Yet those old guys still matched or exceeded their club ratios. Why?

Well first off I'd say back then the WC and the like was considered the pinnacle and there wasn't such a gap between great managers at club level and international. I mean look at Southgate, if he left now would a single PL team be interested in him? Yet he's managed for years at one of the 5 strongest international sides. You think Fernando Santos is going to get a good club gig? Roberto Martinez wouldnt get a job in England managing a Tesco never mind a football club now, but he's just went from winning feck all with Belgium's golden generation to taking over Portugal, two of the ten biggest jobs in international football

Whereas the top managers at club level are so much better. That alone accounts for a bigger gap.

The example around Bolivia wasn't supposed to say that's how all international football is, it was supposed that adding artificial difficulty like training with a team a couple of times a year, or having a shit manager isn't the same thing as playing at a higher standard. It can present its own form of challenges, like playing in Bolivia, you might say well Messi doesn't have a great record playing in Bolivia even though he does everywhere else, therefore that must be the highest standard of football.

Again, as I said, at a push, I'd be willing to accept the different but equal to the CL as an argument, you could say it's presents it's own challenges, but to say those 7 games are worth the balloon d'or when this seasons champions league knockouts have barely begun seems crazy. If Messi gets knocked out at the last 16 again and someone else like Benzema scores 9 knockout goals again, against genuinely world class sides rather than half the teams being lower half of top 3 league quality, there has to be at least a debate for who should win

 

[amolbhatia50k]

You have more than double the amount of posts in this thread than I do. The question might be why do you care so much about this?

Depends what this is. It’s a long thread about a player. But only one person is ranting and raving about a non-topic here.

 

[jm99]

Depends what this is. It’s a long thread about a player. But only one person is ranting and raving about a non-topic here.

The non topic being the discussion of the men's award that the player this thread about won a couple of days back?

Either way, someone with 90k posts on an Internet forum probably shouldn't be accusing anyone of caring too much about online debates

 

[GinobiliTheGOAT]

Yeah I remember when mbappe won the world cup with France scoring 4 goals, including the youngest to score in a final and a man of the match performance against Argentina at the age of 18, and won the balloon d'or. Oh no wait, he didn't that's right

messi is much better with psg his second season than first and as you said a world cup rates much higher. Benzema fell off a cliff to start this season, was injured and missed the WC. Messi was always going to win it. You could argue courtois was just as important as Benzema during that CL run. Messi was better in the final than mbappe, mbappe didn’t show up until the last 20 minutes as Argentina were dominating for most of that match. Absolutely nothing wrong with Messi winning it

 

[GinobiliTheGOAT]

I'm not saying his performances were nothing outside of the goals, but when more than half of your goals come from penalties, and your fans have spent the last decade saying penalties don't really count, but then say Messi scored 7 goals in the world cup and don't bother to asterisk it, the way they have with another player, its odd.

difference is Ronaldo has many games where he was shite but got a penalty and celebrated like he was MOTM. How many times has Ronaldo won MOTM without a goal or assist? Remove Messi’s penalties from this WC and he was still the best player on the pitch for 90% of those matches

 

[GinobiliTheGOAT]

Well first off I'd say back then the WC and the like was considered the pinnacle and there wasn't such a gap between great managers at club level and international. I mean look at Southgate, if he left now would a single PL team be interested in him? Yet he's managed for years at one of the 5 strongest international sides. You think Fernando Santos is going to get a good club gig? Roberto Martinez wouldnt get a job in England managing a Tesco never mind a football club now, but he's just went from winning feck all with Belgium's golden generation to taking over Portugal, two of the ten biggest jobs in international football

Whereas the top managers at club level are so much better. That alone accounts for a bigger gap.

The example around Bolivia wasn't supposed to say that's how all international football is, it was supposed that adding artificial difficulty like training with a team a couple of times a year, or having a shit manager isn't the same thing as playing at a higher standard. It can present its own form of challenges, like playing in Bolivia, you might say well Messi doesn't have a great record playing in Bolivia even though he does everywhere else, therefore that must be the highest standard of football.

Again, as I said, at a push, I'd be willing to accept the different but equal to the CL as an argument, you could say it's presents it's own challenges, but to say those 7 games are worth the balloon d'or when this seasons champions league knockouts have barely begun seems crazy. If Messi gets knocked out at the last 16 again and someone else like Benzema scores 9 knockout goals again, against genuinely world class sides rather than half the teams being lower half of top 3 league quality, there has to be at least a debate for who should win

what world class sides are remaining in CL? Cuz it’s not Liverpool. Bayern have gotten worse over the years. Really it’s just city and I guess Napoli

 

[jm99]

difference is Ronaldo has many games where he was shite but got a penalty and celebrated like he was MOTM. How many times has Ronaldo won MOTM without a goal or assist? Remove Messi’s penalties from this WC and he was still the best player on the pitch for 90% of those matches

Again it's not about Ronaldo or any other player, it's Messi fans spending a decade putting an asterisk next to goal totals that include penalties then conveniently leaving it out the one occasion it wouldn't favour their favourite player

And for your post above I wasn't arguing that it wasn't obvious everyone knew that he'd win it as soon as he won the world cup, it was the deserved part I argued with, I don't think 7 games in the world cup should count more than Benzema's entire season and CL knockouts

 

[GinobiliTheGOAT]

Again it's not about Ronaldo or any other player, it's Messi fans spending a decade putting an asterisk next to goal totals that include penalties then conveniently leaving it out the one occasion it wouldn't favour their favourite player

And for your post above I wasn't arguing that it wasn't obvious everyone knew that he'd win it as soon as he won the world cup, it was the deserved part I argued with, I don't think 7 games in the world cup should count more than Benzema's entire season and CL knockouts

yes but Benzema fell off a cliff hard to start the season much like Messi did the year everyone was saying Lewa should have won it. Benzema was amazing in that CL and absolutely did have a better season than Messi domestically.

again, for the PK talk, remove the PK’s from Messi and he still had a phenomenal tournament. Not contributing zilch EXCEPT for a penalty is the huge difference. His assists against the Dutch and Croatia were iconic

 

[Tom Cato]

Before screaming "racist!" maybe check the internet first...

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1964146/saudi-arabia

"In previous years, the festival has included activities such as racing, best-looking camel awards, auctions and camel training"

"Participants will compete in 19 different categories with the aim of winning the grand prize of more than SR250 million ($66 million)."

The OP was talking in the context of football. There is no taking that one back. Attempted to be funny, but didnt succeed.

As a sidenote: a 10 year old account with nearly 1k posts and still a Newbie?

 

[Tom Cato]

Yesterday I posted a link from FIFPRO where they explained that the voting criteria were for the 2021/2022 season. Which honestly made Messi winning a bit odd:

https://fifpro.org/en/supporting-players/player-influence/world11/world-11-2022-voting-procedures/

We ask players to select the three footballers who they think have been the best in their position during the 2021/2022 season. There are four positions: goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and forwards.

Today this link reveals the voting metrics: https://fifpro.org/en/supporting-pl...ealed-who-made-the-2022-fifa-fifpro-world-11/

Players from 68 countries made submissions for the 2022 FIFA FIFPRO World 11. The 2022 Women’s World 11 marked a record-breaking year for voting with 6,043 players casting their ballots, while 18,640 voted for the 2022 Men's World 11.

Professional footballers voted for the best men’s players for the period 8 August 2021 to 18 December 2022 inclusive with regards to the FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World 11, while the FIFA FIFPRO Women’s World 11 was for the period 7 August 2021 to 31 July 2022 inclusive.

In light of that, Messi winning is both expected and fair. Also the FIFPRO Web Editor needs to stop being lazy and update the website so confusion can be avoided.

 

[jm99]

yes but Benzema fell off a cliff hard to start the season much like Messi did the year everyone was saying Lewa should have won it. Benzema was amazing in that CL and absolutely did have a better season than Messi domestically.

again, for the PK talk, remove the PK’s from Messi and he still had a phenomenal tournament. Not contributing zilch EXCEPT for a penalty is the huge difference. His assists against the Dutch and Croatia were iconic

Again still not the point. You can't spend a decade saying penalties shouldn't count in goal totals then include them in your player's goal totals. Particularly when penalties made up about 10% of another's total rather than 60%. Not mentioning it makes it seem like the last decade of not including them was borne out of bias and not anything genuine

 

[jm99]

Yesterday I posted a link from FIFPRO where they explained that the voting criteria were for the 2021/2022 season. Which honestly made Messi winning a bit odd:

https://fifpro.org/en/supporting-players/player-influence/world11/world-11-2022-voting-procedures/

We ask players to select the three footballers who they think have been the best in their position during the 2021/2022 season. There are four positions: goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and forwards.

Today this link reveals the voting metrics: https://fifpro.org/en/supporting-pl...ealed-who-made-the-2022-fifa-fifpro-world-11/

Players from 68 countries made submissions for the 2022 FIFA FIFPRO World 11. The 2022 Women’s World 11 marked a record-breaking year for voting with 6,043 players casting their ballots, while 18,640 voted for the 2022 Men's World 11.

Professional footballers voted for the best men’s players for the period 8 August 2021 to 18 December 2022 inclusive with regards to the FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World 11, while the FIFA FIFPRO Women’s World 11 was for the period 7 August 2021 to 31 July 2022 inclusive.

In light of that, Messi winning is both expected and fair. Also the FIFPRO Web Editor needs to stop being lazy and update the website so confusion can be avoided.

As I asked earlier does this mean next season's award will be based on January to may alone?

 

[Tom Cato]

As I asked earlier does this mean next season's award will be based on January to may alone?

No I belive it will be based on the calendar year 2023. Voting done at the end of the year, etc. Its a change made to make the achievements of the players more recognisable due to less time having passed

 

[jm99]

No I belive it will be based on the calendar year 2023. Voting done at the end of the year, etc. Its a change made to make the achievements of the players more recognisable due to less time having passed

I thought they'd switched it just last year so it was over the more sensible time frame of a season, like the women's award and it was only the exceptional circumstances of a winter world cup that's changed it back for one year?

Cos it definitely all used to be calendar year but then they changed it only a year or two ago max

 

[Tom Cato]

I thought they'd switched it just last year so it was over the more sensible time frame of a season, like the women's award and it was only the exceptional circumstances of a winter world cup that's changed it back for one year?

Cos it definitely all used to be calendar year but then they changed it only a year or two ago max

Well it either has to be that, or they will do something weird with it, like let the next period be 1 1/2 seasons to "catch up". No doubt the vote was made this way in order to include the WC performance.

The Ballon dor changed it format to season rather than calendar year now, so the confusion is complete