Today the Golden Ball is awarded

Tonight, at the Theater du Chatelet in Paris, there will be the awarding ceremony of the Golden Ball, the most important individual award of professional football to the best player of the solar year. Together with the men's Golden Ball, three other prizes will be awarded: the women's Golden Ball, now in its second edition, the Yashin trophy for the best goalkeeper of the year and the Kopa trophy for the best talent with less than twenty-one years. The winner of the Men's Golden Ball is already aware of having been chosen as the best player of the year: according to numerous rumors, for the sixth time in his career, it is a new record of Lionel Messi, Argentine striker and captain of the Barcelona, ​​considered by many to be the best player in the history of world football.

The Golden Ball has been awarded since 1956, the year in which the French sports magazine France Football set up a prize to be given to the best footballer of the year. For history and prestige, it has established itself as the most prestigious individual prize to which a player can aspire during his career. The last Golden Ball awarded, won in 2018 by the Real Madrid Croatian midfielder Luka Modric, interrupted a decade in which it was Messi himself and the Portuguese Juventus striker (former Real Madrid) Cristiano Ronaldo. With five awards each, currently Ronaldo and Messi are the players to have won the most, after the three from Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten.

Also this year the prize was awarded only on the basis of the votes of 180 international journalists: the Italian juror is Paolo Condò, journalist of Sky Sports and of Gazzetta dello Sport. The vote takes place via an email containing the thirty names of the final list produced by France Football: five preferences can be expressed, with 6 points assigned to the first choice and 1 to the last one. There are three evaluation criteria to follow, in order: individual and collective performances during the year, talent and sportsmanship, career.

There are no Italians on the list of thirty players this year. There are instead three currently registered with Serie A teams: Cristiano Ronaldo and Matthijs de Ligt of Juventus and Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli. The only Italian among the candidates for the four awards is Moise Kean, Everton and National Under-21 striker. Among the best goalkeepers is another Serie A player, Samir Handanovic from Inter.

There are twenty candidates for the women's Golden Ball, none of which is Italian. Last year's winner, Norway's Ada Hegerberg, is not among the favorites after missing the World Cup in France. The American Megan Rapinoe is a favorite, best scorer of the World Cup won in the summer along with Alex Morgan, another possible winner. The Paris ceremony will begin tonight at 8.30pm and will be presented by French journalist Sandy Heribert and former Ivorian footballer Didier Drogba.