The Ballon d’Or is undoubtedly the greatest football award a player can win and it’s a dream of all young footballers to end up on the podium.
Over the years, big names have won the award but none has been able to reach the level of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. While Ronaldo has won the award five times, Lionel Messi is the leading winner with eight.
However, the former captain of Equatorial Guinea, Juvenal Edjogo, has sensationally claimed that his Ballon d’Or votes were changed to favour Messi and Ronaldo.
Last year, it was claimed by Juvenal that his votes from back in 2013 were changed in order to support Messi and Ronaldo.
As reported by Diario AS, Juvenal told Gol Play: “What little I can say about this type of award is that in 2013, I voted for my three players for the Ballon d’Or, and I sent my votes, and in the end when it was made public, the list of who voted for whom, my votes were different.
Cristiano Ronaldo poses with his five Golden Ball (Ballon d’Or) trophies (Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)
“It said I voted for Messi, Cristiano, and I don’t know who else, but I didn’t vote for any of them. That’s why I say, I don’t believe in absolutely anything about those awards. Since then, I’ve thought these awards have no value.”
However, it was also reported that Juvenal’s name was not actually listed on the public votes from 2013.
When Diario AS reached out to Juvenal for comment, he replied: “For the 2013 Ballon d’Or whose ballots were sent in September or October 2012, the only ones who voted were coaches and captains.
“I was the captain of the Equatorial Guinea national team for more than 10 years and I sent my votes for Drogba, Iniesta and Falcao through a link that we had to fill in after downloading. I don’t know if my votes didn’t reach FIFA because a journalist impersonated me.”
Juvenal continued: “This topic did not matter to me at the time and I do not care now. I simply said that I voted for some players and in the end those votes did not reach their destination. I think I wasn’t the only one to whom something similar happened.”
