The Best FIFA ceremony was held in Paris, claiming leadership in the hierarchy of football awards. The next awards were received by the Argentine Lionel Messi and the Spaniard Alexia Putellas, and the scandal was provided by the players and the management of Real Madrid, who refused to come to the awards because of resentment for Vinicius, who was not included in the symbolic team.

Paris has become the capital of football stardom, both of the most famous football awards are presented here: the Golden Ball, which is again handed out by its inventors from France Football magazine, and the award for the best from FIFA, which clearly competes with the Golden Ball not only in place and by the personalities of those awarded, but also by status: they are trying to present it as the only official award for the world’s top football players.

And the ceremony in one of the concert halls of Paris, perhaps, was not inferior to the “Golden Ball” in secularism: celebrities, their outfits and their jewelry were in place here too. Messi literally sparkled with sewing on the lapels of a tuxedo, and Putellas chose a dress in which she could only go out in public once: a snow-white tunic with a meter-long train trailing behind the Spaniard along the floor.

Photo: © REUTERS / Sarah Meyssonnier

The Best Award held the same level in pop numbers. 17-year-old Angelina Jordan walked around the stage barefoot, singing the title song about the best in her exciting adult voice, and dance director Sadeq Wuff, with a troupe of 40 dancers seated like in the podium, performed a number with soccer balls, which clearly exceeded the level of the stage and looked like an act. plastic art.

Emotionally, the show had powerful accents in the opening, compositionally built around the memories of Pel (Ronaldo’s unexpectedly great orator and the tears of the last wife of the King of Football), and in the end, when the main personal prizes were awarded to a female player and a male player. The stiffness and glamor of the Ballon d’Or were countered by the people of FIFA, who also paid tribute to gloss and luxury, with a line of sincerity, honest tears on close-up faces, and a bit of carnival: a picturesque Argentinean senior with a drum and a speech that clearly did not fit into any scenario limits.

Some pieces had to be thrown out of the layout right during the ceremony. We know this for certain, because the commentators had all versions of the scenario plan, including the final one, at their disposal.

The enduring character of the evening was FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who artistically and skillfully held the hall, walking around the stage in screaming white sneakers. He announced the main nominations: “… and the winner and officially the best – …” each time emphasizing the word “officially”. And it was the main idea: not another evening of distribution of prizes, but the main one of such evenings!

Photo: © Eurasia Sport Images / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

But in world football there is no such prize, before which any stellar soul would humble itself. Idol players make it clear that it is they who honor the awards by being behind them. Or they show their indifference to these ceremonies and do not come. This is what Real Madrid did this time. Due to resentment that the Brazilian Vinicius is not included in the symbolic team formed by the main football union FifPRO (by the way, it is headed by David Aganso, a graduate of Real Madrid), the other nominees from Madrid are goalkeeper Courtois, midfielder Modric, striker Benzema and coach Ancelotti – did not appear and did not even apologize. Although they could smooth the impression of this demarche, for example, by recording a video message for the participants.

Because of this, there was even an obvious embarrassment. And in the presentation of 11 members of the symbolic team, and in the final scenario, the Argentinean Emiliano Martinez appeared, although Thibaut Courtois became the goalkeeper of this conditional team. The demarche of Madrid was so obvious that almost unnoticed was the absence of all the representatives of Manchester City – forward Holland, midfielder De Bruyne and coach Guardiola.

But the representatives of women’s football found the top of discipline. All the main persons – both coaches and players – were at the ceremony and decorated it with themselves. The leader of the English team, the best player of last year’s Euro victorious Beth Mead was clearly upset that the personal prize this time went to the Catalan Putellas, who, due to an injury, did not even participate in the European Championship! But in women’s football, order is still above whims and jealousy. Women are great, they hold the fragile building of the star factory that men create for themselves in modern football.

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