The European Golden Ball Award was actually okay, with relatively less controversy. However, FIFA's World Footballer of the Year sparked massive debate almost every year. Leaving aside the turn of the century, let's just look at recent times. Was it reasonable to give the 2010 Golden Ball Award to Messi? Diego Milito couldn't even make the 23-man shortlist—was that fair? Ultimately, as long as awards were voted on by people, true fairness didn't exist.
Did people really think Wang Shuo was just running around making appearances because he had no national team duties? Weren't Ronaldo and Messi doing exactly the same? Messi had just picked up several major awards in Argentina, followed by a slew of honors like the La Liga Best Latin American Player Award. Not to mention the individual accolades awarded to him by various authoritative media outlets in the Catalonia Region.
