The Ballon d’Or awards never fail to stir the pot. Each year, be it in terms of nominations or respective winners, somehow, eyebrows are raised across the beautiful game as one witnesses drama both on and off the stage. In yet another edition of this year’s prestigious awards, the one in question is Aitana Bonmati, who secured the coveted women’s Ballon d’Or, also marking her third in a row. Then again, this result only led the soccer world to indulge in an intense debate.
Bonmati beat out her Spain teammate Mariona Caldentey, even though Spain lost to England on penalties in the Women’s Euro 2025 final. The 27-year-old midfielder also missed out on the Women’s Champions League title last season, losing to Caldentey’s Arsenal. Still, Bonmati was named Player of the Tournament at the Euros, despite not starting Spain’s first two games while recovering from viral meningitis. England striker Alessia Russo, who helped her team win the Euros, finished in third place.
This only led to an interesting debate that if losing major domestic tournaments but winning a European could get you the Golden Ball, the same should be done in the case of Lamine Yamal, who only got to the semifinals of the Champions League, but did manage to win the Euros with Spain last year.
“100%. And I mean, we had this conversation, and Bonmati—didn’t win the Euros, didn’t win the Champions League, got to the final—Okay, so we getting participation trophies. Now who wins it?” remarked CBS Pundit. “Without a doubt, she is the best individually talented player in the world. When you talk about technical ability, skill, she is the best player. But for the metrics on what we’ve seen in how this all won today and give her credit, she was surprised because when you listen to an interview, she was really surprised.”
“She had no expectation. She thought someone else was speech and just went with it and said she’ll say how she feels. So you could see the shock by herself that she didn’t really feel that she was going to win today. So I give her credit for that.”
This only led the soccer community to dig in and make their stance clear on the same. While one fan commented, “How does this voting truly works,“ another wrote, “Stopped caring about this event since Nedved won it that year over Titi, I just didn’t understand the criteria they used for winning it..it’s all so inconsistent. Aitana had no business winning this year’s award..Zero. Compare it against the last two she won, zero justification.”