This is an almost eternal topic,where everybody seems to have his own view. The exciting Costa Rican goalkeeping legend Keylor Antonio Navas Gamboa of PSG recently had his take: "I think goalkeepers needs[sic] a separate Ballon D'or from the rest of the players. At this rate, goalkeepers stand no chance of winning the Balloon d'or because, people only care about the number of goals and assists and they never ever care about our saves." By the way, he is the winner of three consecutive Champions league titles with Real Madrid,he as the first choice goal tender.
It's either you sympathize with his view, you rebuff his view, you are a mix of the two or perhaps you stand on the fence.
Well a lot of people remain insistent that the colour, the thrill,the opium of the game of football is goals,goals,goals and nothing should change it. This view reverberates through the length and breadth of football and seems to calliberate everything about it– from rules that govern the game to the emphasis of governing bodies, journalists and sport content writers like me.
Can I ask a question? Why do you introduce a defender or even a midfielder and the first two statistics about him or her is "number of goals scored". I sit down and read things like this over and over again and I'm wondering– what happened to the core duty of the defender,where is the statistic for it? You will hardly ever find the statistic about a defender's or midfielder's core responsibility brought to the fore.
It's true, Yashin of the Soviet Union won the Ballon d'or in 1963. He went by the nickname black panther and black spider because of his amazing reflexes as a goalkeeper. He was especially known for his exceptional command of the defensive line in front of him despite never being a captain. He is the only goalkeeper to win the title. More recently in 2014 Manuel Neuer of Germany came the closest bagging the 3rd position.
It is also true that a defender named, Fabio Cannavaro won the Ballon d'or in 2006 and two other defenders have won it before him. No doubt an Alisson Becker of Liverpool in 2019, was named The Best FIFA Goalkeeper and was also the recipient of the inaugural Yashin Trophy. Also there is currently the Best Goalkeeper award at Ballon D'or awards.
Someone said, "with great players you can win matches, but with great goalkeepers win you titles." I don't think I agree with this though. However, I stick out my neck and empathize with Navas, goalkeepers need be celebrated much more today, we can't be so goal-drunk. In the last few years I have noticed some upturn in the value accorded the average goalkeeper, I wish it speeds up, they deserve it.
A Ballon D'or award strictly for them? I guess so. What do you think?
Cheers
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