Ballon d'Or 2020 cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic
France Football have announced that there will be no 2020 Ballon d'Or. Instead of the individual prize there will be a best XI of the 2019-20 season.
France Football, which has been organising the annual Ballon d’Or awards since its inception in 1956 – with a five year tie-up with the FIFA World Player awards between 2010 and 2015 – has announced that due to the coronavirus pandemic there will be no winner of the 2020 Ballon d’Or. That is particularly bad news for Robert Lewandowski but also rules out any continuance of the Leo Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo all-time duel for overall supremacy.
Lewandowski was a front-runner after bagging over 50 club goals for Bayern Munich and the Poland striker can still land a treble if Bayern win the Champions League. Neymar and Kylian Mbappé could win a quadruple this season with success in both French cup competitions and Europe while Ronaldo could score a Serie A and Champions League double as well as the Serie A Capocannoniere award.
France Football: "We can't treat this as an ordinary year"
The decision was taken by France Football editor Pascal Ferré. “In such a unique year we can’t treat it as an ordinary one,” Ferré said. “The season started with certain rules and ended with other rules. In January and February, soccer was played in front of full stands. Then from May and June it was with empty stands. Two months [January and February] are not enough to analyse, evaluate and make a judgment. The introduction of five substitutes and the Champions League finals format also play a part [in the decision]. The Ballon d’Or would have been decided over three games: quarterfinal, semifinal and final.”
The Women’s Ballon d’Or, which was inaugurated in 2018, has also been cancelled along with the Kopa award for the best young player and the Yashin award for the best keeper. In place of the individual awards a best XI of the season will be named as well.