Petit Calls Ballon d

By Joshua Walters

Emmanuel Petit has described the Ballon d’Or award as fake and stupid and said ‘everybody in football should hate’ it.

According to the 1998 France World Cup winner, the award, organized by French Football Magazine, is leading many players of the current generation to push for personal glories to enhance their standards in the sports than helping their teams to win laurels.

Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder Luka Modric won this year’s award on Monday.

Modric won the Champions League with Real Madrid and led Croatia to second place at the Russia 2018 World Cup which was won by France.

Juventus and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who won the Champions League alongside Modric last season, came second as Antoine Griezmann, who lifted the Europa League with Atletico Madrid and the World Cup with France, came third.

“There is no meaning to it and every year we have to sit there and celebrate someone winning an individual prize," Petit told reporters on Wednesday. 

“Look at the France team that won the World Cup. They are all talking about trying to win the Ballon d’Or. Who cares about this stupid trophy? That is not what football is about. It’s only strikers that talk about this trophy."

“Everyone in football should hate this award, but there is so much focus on it. The players know it is good for their salary, their transfer fee, and their career, so they don’t care about the team awards anymore."

“This award is not about the sport of football, and the people focused on it show that they only care about money and image. That’s it." “These players need to realise that the Golden Ball is not how they will be remembered, but if you asked certain players whether they would like to win three Champions League and a World Cup or one Golden Ball, I’m pretty some would take the last option."

“It’s all about ‘me’. That is so sad. The people in charge can take some of the blame because they created this fake award. It should never have been given so much importance.”