The Ballon d’Or award has continue to divide football lovers as well as those who play an important part in the Sport.
Over the years, the award has been given out to top players who performed brilliantly over the months in review. This continued in 2024 as Manchester City midfielder Rodri was crowned the winner ahead of Real Madrid’s duo, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham.
As fans continued to share their take on the award, Jose Mourinho in the past has revealed the player who “deserved” to win a Ballon d’Or but never did, despite being “one of the best strikers in the world for many years”.
Mourinho has enjoyed successful spell as manager, leading the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan to glory. The Portuguese in the process coached the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo in his prime, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and lots more.
But in his own words, Mourinho’s “biggest success” was his Champions League triumph with treble-winners Inter Milan, who lifted European football’s biggest prize with the likes of Diego Milito, Javier Zanetti and Wesley Sneijder.
Surprisingly, Sneijder came fourth in the 2010 Ballon d’Or standings while Inter striker Samuel Eto’o came 12th with just 1.37% of the vote.
Eto’o never came close to winning the prestigious trophy but Mourinho is convinced he should have won it during his career.
“It’s difficult to understand how Samuel Eto’o never won the Ballon d’Or with the impressive career he had,” he said in an interview with Cameroon Radio. “Samuel played for the best teams in the best leagues in the world. He scored an incredible amount of goals and was successful in different leagues.
“He played three Champions League finals, winning two with Barcelona and scoring in both finals. He also won one Champions League at Inter Milan and won many league titles.”
Mourinho continued: “He was the best striker in the world for several years and I think he deserved a Ballon d’Or but these are things out of our control.”
Eto’o announced his retirement in 2019 following spells at Barcelona, Inter Milan, Chelsea and Everton, to name a few.
He is currently the president of the Cameroonian Football Federation but was recently handed a six-month ban from attending any international matches involving the country by a FIFA disciplinary panel.
