The annual award is handed out to the best men’s and women’s player but was cancelled this year due to the coornavirus pandemic.
– Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski was considered a front-runner for the award, having scored a remarkable 34 goals for the Bundesliga titleholders, and Rummenigge was disappointed with the decision to not honour the sport’s best players this season.
“I believe Robert Lewandowski is playing a fantastic season and he performed maybe the best season in his career,” Rummenigge said at a news conference on Monday.
“Unfortunately France Football cancelled the Golden Ball which we are not very happy [with] and in the end it’s not very fair, not just Bayern but also for Robert Lewandowski who might have won.
“I believe it’s very important that in a season that, except the French league, [the other leagues] performed through to the end of the season, it has to be possible to give the Golden Ball to the best footballer in the world and of course, I believe in those circumstances Robert would have a good chance to win it in the first time in his career.”
The award is run by magazine France Football and it cited the “lack of a sufficiently level playing field” as the reasoning behind cancelling this year’s ceremony for the first time since 1956.
In a statement announcing the decision, the organisers said that not enough games had been played to hand out the award. Continue reading