Due to the coronavirus disrupting the soccer season, the prestigious Ballon d’Or won’t be awarded this year. The Ballon d’Or has been awarded each year by France Football magazine since Stanley Matthews received the first one in 1956. In recent times Lionel Messi has won it six times, only once more than his longtime rival Christians Ronaldo.
In 2018, the magazine started giving a women’s award, but it’s been put on hold due to the pandemic as well. During a telephone interview, the France Football editor Pascal Ferre told The Associated Press, “It’s such a strange year that we couldn’t treat it as an ordinary one. Let’s say that we started talking about making the decision, at least two months ago, It isn’t a decision we took lightly, but we had to accept it couldn’t be a normal or typical Ballon d’Or winner, and what really worried us is that it wouldn’t be fairly awarded.”
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