Created in 1956 by the France Football magazine the Ballon d'Or award was devised to distinguish the best player in the world in that given year. Stanley Matthews, a forward from Blackpool was the first winner of what still is considered to be the most prestigious individual achievement in professional soccer. In 2010 the french magazine announced a partnership with FIFA, that would last until 2016, and from then on the organizations have split directions.
Until 1995 the award was restricted to European citizens, since this date and until 2006 the award began to consider only players who acted in Europe and from the 2007 edition, it started to cover players from anywhere in the world.
The first non-european player to win the trophy was the Liberian George Weah (AC Milan player at the time) and today there are already 12 prizewinners born outside Europe, which gives an average of almost 50% since they were able to start receiving the trophy, with special emphasis on Argentina and Brazil, the two greatest soccer powers in the world outside Europe.
As mentioned before, the first trophy was given to a right forward, and that along tells a lot of not only the tradition of the award itself but also shows that one of the most thrilling and exciting positions to play in is the forward position being it right, left or center. That states very clearly that the goal is definitely the most appreciated and valued moment in the entire game, followed by the creative dribbles and mind-blowing tricks performed by those skillful players that always seem to impress us, but the magic and the emotion generated from that single moment it's indescribable.
As we can confirm in the data below the tendency supports that right footers have favoritism since 65% of the previews winners were right footed.
Another aspect that seems to be quite heavily related to the chances of winning the Ballon d'Or is the club or league that you're in. If we look at the numbers more than half of the players that won, either played in Serie A (AC Milan, Juventus) or in La Liga (FC Barcelona, Real Madrid). That is something that can't be overlooked because it's a clear indicator that clubs with more collective titles tend to give their players, especially the ones that meet the requirements explained previously, a better shot of making a solid claim to the trophy.
Data doesn't lie, but what are you're thoughts on the next Ballon d'Or winner, does it match the description?
Soccer Analytics - Data Analysis
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