Since winning the Liberian player “George Weah” in 1995 with the Golden Ball award; No African player has been able to win it, which is the award given annually by the French magazine “France Football”.
And Wea – a former Milan player – remains the only winner of the award, which was opened from 1995 to competition for players from all over the world and is no longer limited to European players.
Over the past years, African players have achieved advanced positions in the annual ranking of the Golden Ball award. Egyptian star Mohamed Salah, Senegalese Sadio Mane and Algerian Riyad Mahrez appeared in the top ten list, but none of them came close to equalizing George Weah’s achievement, so what are the reasons for that?
African Solidarity
A previous report by the French newspaper “Le Monde” monitored several factors that may explain the absence of the stars of the African continent from the list of the winners of the Golden Ball, despite the brilliance of many African players with the largest European clubs in recent years.
Ferdinand Cole, a former player for the Senegalese national team, believes that African players suffer from the fact that their national teams are not among the best in the world, and this can affect the voting points.
Cole criticized what he described as the lack of African solidarity, and said, “I have always seen that African football has not been completely unified. From 2010 to 2016, coaches and captains of national teams were on the jury during the voting for the Ballon d’Or winner, along with journalists, but I have never felt solidarity from Africans.”
Paul Kisani, the former captain of the Gabon national team, spoke of the existence of “a form of pressure in the interest of the big stars”, referring to the role of the media and major companies in influencing voting and prize selections, as winning these prizes is associated with huge revenues and money and its impact on the image of the crowned player.
lack of justice
For his part, former Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o said in previous statements that African footballers are not respected or valued fairly.
In turn, the legend of the Cameroon national team, Roger Milla, said that “George Weah” won the Golden Ball “because Europe might not do anything” once morest the Liberian star, who achieved the consensus thanks to his extraordinary performance, which left no room for comparison between him and others at the time.
He pointed out that the situation today is different, and he talked regarding “there is a desire not to crown any African player with the award,” but added, expressing optimism regarding the possibility of achieving the award in the coming years through players such as Mohamed Salah or Sadio Mane, and said, “I think things can change. What he does “Mohamed Salah is currently wonderful, and what Mane is doing is also wonderful.. People have to be objective. If we want football to continue to progress in the countries of the African continent, the football authorities must be honest.”
With the decline in the power of Argentine star Lionel Messi and his Portuguese rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, who have dominated the award almost in the last 15 years, it seems that the field is open for African stars to write history once more and win the award, so who will be the successor to George Weah in the record of the winners of the Golden Ball?