The 1st Annual Ballon d’Ata Awards

Today I got to thinking that the Ballon d’Or wasn’t flawed so much because it was a popularity contest, but rather because it didn’t have awards by position. Goals are very salient, and it’s can be tough to compare skills across positions. Lionel Messi may be a once-in-a-lifetime player as a forward. But is Virgil van Dijk just as significant as a center back? By the way, who’s the best fullback of all time – Paolo Maldini? He never finished above third in the Ballon d’Or voting, and there may actually be less debate about his supremacy than there is about Messi’s….
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