Thierry Henry considers it a “disgrace” that “one of the greatest midfielders of all time” did not win the Ballon d’Or in 2005. He believes that this achievement would have been a “disgrace.”
After a fantastic year for both his club and his country, Ronaldinho, a forward for Barcelona and Brazil, was awarded the Ballon d’Or, which was at the time recognised as the European Football of the Year award. This celebration took place almost a decade ago.
Ronaldinho became the third Brazilian to win the award after he led Barcelona to the championship of La Liga. In addition, he was instrumental in Brazil’s qualification for the World Cup. Ronaldinho obtained 225 points, making him the third Brazilian to win the award.
However, the outcome came as a surprise to Thierry Henry, a former striker for Arsenal. Henry is of the opinion that Steven Gerrard ought to have been awarded the Ballon d’Or in 2005 on account of his success in winning the Champions League with Liverpool.
“It was a disgrace that he did not win European Footballer of the Year after Istanbul in 2005,” he said, as reported by the website of the Premier League. In my opinion, he will be remembered as one of the most accomplished midfielders in the history of the game.
Frank Lampard, a midfielder for Chelsea, would eventually finish in second place in the standings with 148 points. The top five players were Steven Gerrard, who had 142 points, Thierry Henry, who had 41 points, and Andriy Shevchenko, who had 33 points.
Micah Richards, a fellow pundit and a former Manchester City defender, is one of the many people who believe that Henry should have been awarded the Ballon d’Or trophy in 2003 instead of Pavel Nedved, a legendary player for Juventus.
During the coverage of the Champions League that CBS provided the previous year, Richards stated, “2003. During that season, you had a total of 32 goals and 28 assists. It was won by Nedved, who led the team with 14 goals and 17 assists.
The response that Henry gave was, “Look, you can’t debate opinions. Once journalists are involved and given the opportunity to vote, they cast their ballots for whoever they choose.
He continued by saying, “No matter how you choose to look at it, they vote whatever they want, and when you look at the votes in the history of it, not just my year, every year, you look at the first three, and you’re like, really? The situation is exactly as it is. Opinions cannot be debated in any way.
Even Nedved was taken aback when he was able to win the Ballon d’Or in 2003, surpassing Henry in the process.
During the time that he was receiving his award, he stated, “In my opinion, Thierry Henry is currently the best forward in the world.”
“I am filling with joy. I was under the impression that I would not be able to defeat Thierry Henry, Paolo Maldini, or Zinedine Zidane, and if I had been able to vote, I would have voted for Thierry as well as the other players who were on the podium.
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