By Boluwatife Olaleye Ezekiel

T

he Best: Who deserves it? What does one have to do to get it? Is it even worth it? Coach Arsene Wenger and some other coaches have at different times said there should be no need for an award meant to recognize a single player as the best in the world. They along with some players believe it is full of politics. Shouldn’t the giving of an award to a person be just without it being influenced by any individual?



Over the years, so many controversies have surrounded the newly revamped ‘the best’ award in the aspect of voting, who the award should be given to, what to do to get it, the award being given to specific people and so on. However, have we forgotten that football is not like Tennis, Boxing and the likes? Football is a team sport [eleven players working together to achieve a goal as a unit which is winning]. So when you give an individual player the prestigious ‘the best’ award because of his performances throughout a calendar year, will it not downplay the performances of his teammates? Should award then be awarded to teams to recognize their efforts (because no matter how outstanding a player is, he needs his teammates) rather than individuals?
To this end we ask, has ‘the best’ or does ‘the best’ make a positive mark on football? Does it encourage selfishness instead of teamwork? Does it encourage ambition instead of vision? Yes, it helps people develop into better players but is it at the expense of the team? Do teammates become rivals because they want to win the gong? As much as the intention is right, to recognize the extra efforts put in by a player, if it becomes team-concentrated with everybody called on the podium and given awards, would it not make them function more as a unit because there is a prize that would recognize their collective efforts bothering greatly on technical adeptness and effective structural functionalism?


What do you have to do to win this accolade? It is said that all clubs and National team coaches, team captains and international journalists vote to determine the winner of this award, however what are the ramifications? Also in a world cup year, how should the winner be decided, are the votings rigged also? (Controversial examples can be that of 2010 where Wesley Sneijder was a huge favourite, same as 2013 where Frank Ribery was also tipped to win the award but came  up short because the voting was extended by a  month due to one player’s  heroics that led his team to the world cup). 

This prompted the French Coach Didier Deschamps to say, ‘changing the rules when the race has began is cheating’.


FIFA and its top executives were involved in a scandal few years back, leading to the arrest of some top officials and the proponed resignation of Sepp Blatter. With this in mind, it won’t be farfetched to say FIFA is the cause of the controversies that have surrounded ‘the best’ award. Their intentions are not always wrong but their methods are sometimes questionable. An example was the merging of the then ‘FIFA world best player’ with the French Ballon D’or which many saw as devaluation of the award and after five years of partnership, they have parted ways leading to the creation of ‘the best’



There will always be divided opinions on the award. The standout player should be rewarded for his extra efforts, commitment, zeal and everything that he put in to get to that level, however football is a team sport and there should be some sort of official recognition for collective team efforts as grand as ‘the best’.

In terms of voting, the voting system needs to be very transparent. Some will ask that should ‘the best’ award be team focused or player concentrated. Well, it is just a matter of perspective as it is a topic that will continue to divide opinions.

All I want my readers to know is to realize the essence of good management and learn to work with others in a team to achieve desired goals. We should give our all, be disciplined, motivated, and selfless and give our possible best as individuals and finally we should be transparent and live our lives with dignity and integrity.