So as Didier Deschamps said that Real Madrid's Rafael Varane deserves to win the Balloon D'or

It's strange and sad at the same time that how people despise the role of a defender in football. People measure everything in terms of goals and assists primarily followed by fancy passes, creativity of a midfielder and there is the full stop of Ballon d'or requirements in the eyes of majority of the fans.

Football is a team sport where each department is equally important and so are the players playing in those departments. Everyone has choices and for me it's the defense that deserves the most credits for the title triumph rather than midfield or attack. A defense is the key to win games. For example look at Liverpool last term (2017/18), they got a 80 goals attacking trio which was put up against a weak defense. Result? Despite their forwards scoring week in & out Liverpool went trophyless yet again. On the other hand you look at Real Madrid in UCL. Real Madrid were at the bay against Bayern who created so many chances in the semifinals but still Real Madrid outscored them due to marvelous performances from Varane and Ramos. Or for another example look at how Ramos's absence almost caused Real Madrid bottle the 3-0 lead against Juventus.

There are many examples that prove defense to be the biggest factor in a team's title triumph. Pepe, Patricio & Fonte's heroics won Portugal a Euro Cup despite scoring just 9 goals in the tournament. Absence of prime Thiago Silva saw Brazil concede 7 against Germany. Or the best example how a back four of solid defenders Pique, Puyol, Ramos, Capdevila did not concede a single goal in the 4 knockout games of 2010 WC and won all of them by scoring just 1 in each of them despite facing forwards like Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani, Müller, Klose, Robben, Van Persie, Sneijder in the process.

Talking about Varane, he was the key to France World Cup victory along with Umtiti. France didn't concede any goals against teams like Uruguay and Belgium filled with star attackers while also scoring some important goals.

Despite all these events in front of our eyes, we see people bringing defenders down because they don't score or assist. It's disgraceful to be honest. It's disgraceful to the defenders and the defense department of football.