France Football’s annual award ceremony has long been considered the most prestigious accolade for individual footballers around the globe. Over the past decade, Bayern Munich players have been notoriously snubbed for the subjective award categories.
The most egregious example was the 2020 Ballon d’Or being outright cancelled rather than handed to a deserving Robert Lewandowski when Bayern won the sextuple. In 2021, Lewandowski broke Gerd Muller’s Bundesliga goal record and the Ballon d’Or mysteriously went to Lionel Messi, who scored 11 less goals in his final season at FC Barcelona.
The 2024 Kopa Trophy was awarded to Barcelona’s teen sensation, Lamine Yamal, after he helped Spain win EURO 2024. Bayern’s own Mathys Tel finished respectably in eighth place, despite scoring three more goals for his club than Yamal while playing half the minutes.
While it’s not surprising that Yamal won the award as a Spaniard who plays for a Spanish club, Bayern fans were surprised that Tel earned more votes than Aleksandar Pavlović. Pavlović did earn a spot in the top 25, but fell outside the top 10.
Most voters don’t follow other leagues very closely and rely heavily on stats and media hype. Pavlović’s rise didn’t really start until the Rückrunde and earned more yellow cards than goals and assists.
Pavlović will have a much better ranking in next year’s voting, but it’d be shocking to see anyone besides Yamal win the award for the next few years.
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