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The show must go on: the golden ball is a proper ceremony and not really fake

Despite the image created for him, the Golden Ball ceremony was not particularly glittering and the only one that sparkled was actually the winning Messi and his family.

Gideon Kotz, who was present at the ceremony, explains why this ceremony is important and must continue and also defends the journalists who choose the candidates.

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• The Golden Ball

• Lionel Messi

Gideon Kotz, Paris

Thursday, 02 December 2021, 12:30 Updated: 12:33

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Summary: Everton - Liverpool 4: 1 (Sport 1)

I plead guilty. I also participated this year, as in previous years (except for the year of the last forced shemita) in "the glittering and fake event held in Paris. With luxurious suits, flashing lights, kisses, hugs and casual and hollow speeches." And even if I tend to agree with the writer's assumption, my colleague Michael Yochin, that "for this ceremony the whole business is being conducted," then for me, at least, it is actually just fine.

So first of all, one can relax.

On the scale of Parisian gala events, this event is not particularly glittering.

The musical theater of "Chatella" in the Hall of God knew sparkles from it and the appropriate comparison to "Golden Ball" is festivals or the distribution of film awards.

The guests, most of them from the field of sports, were properly photographed at the entrance and took their seats in the hall.

The suits were indeed well-cut, but solid, and quite ordinary at similar events or on an official evening in Paris.

In the days when they were repaired, the only one to have glitter in the suit was the big winner Lionel Messi who also dressed his wife and three sons that way.

It looks a bit like Disneyland, but not a corruption party.

More on Walla!

Michael Yochin argued: The Golden Ball is an absurd and irrelevant poll

To the full article

Messi was the only one to wear glitter at this event (Photo: GettyImages, ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT)

The stage was quite economical and the few effects were achieved through projections and lighting. The cocktail we were pushed into after the event, was basic. Affordable drinks and sandwiches. Admittedly made to taste, but these days who knows. The fact is that Messi himself contracted a virus in the gastrointestinal tract and his participation in the game against Nice and in the celebration held by his fans and the winner of the Yashin Prize Gianluigi Donaroma was not certain until the last minute. He also failed to score in a game that ended in a draw.

Secondly, it is good for me to see leading football players dressed in relative elegance and in a festive, cultural and relaxed atmosphere. It's soothing and different from seeing them sweating in torn jerseys, yelling at each other and the judge, getting into fights like thirteen-year-olds or neighborhood thugs, punching the face of someone who insulted their mother, and banging on their chests and breasts, while not always imitating a gorilla from a movie Tarzan or the Star of the Apes.

"It's good for me to see leading football players dressed in relative elegance and in a festive, cultural and relaxed atmosphere" (Photo: GettyImages, Aurelien Meunier)

Suddenly there, in the corridors, in the hall and on the stage of the "Chatella" theater, it turns out that they are one person.

Pleasant, smiling, occasionally kissing and hugging instead of arguing, and also surprisingly saying tasteful words, with considerable expression.

Didier Drogba, for example, is revealed to be a kind, witty, and humorous facilitator.

What's fake here?

Their image on the field or the one in the "shuttle"?

And certainly not all speeches are trivial or hollow.

In any case no more than those of film actors who receive an award at the Cannes Film Festival, (another "sparkling and fake" event that I try not to miss), or of politicians at election events.

Regarding the format: It is clear that this industry, which often has more money in it than in cinema, suffers from all the ills that big money brings.

But I find it hard to believe that journalists are less objective than coaches or team leaders who vote for a FIFA award. For seven years the two awards merged into one, until the package parted again. The list of thirty actors established by "Parnes Football" - also at every film festival there is an even smaller list of films from which only the winners are selected.

"Suddenly there, in the corridors, in the hall and on the stage of the Chatela Theater, it turns out that they are one person. Pleasant, smiling, occasionally kissing and hugging instead of arguing" (Photo: GettyImages, FRANCK FIFE)

There is only one argument that upsets, and that is the disqualification of journalists from countries that are, ostensibly, not "respectable" and have no idea about sports or means to watch it. There is here, I say this gently, a certain blindness to be noticed, for example in the skin color of many of the great actors today. Spaniard Thomas Ronchero, who described Messi's choice as a "historic scam", used this absurd argument when he said that "the journalists who voted in Burundi and Tanzania do not apparently see many games." Michael Yochin brought with him a list of countries of opinionless journalists, which came from the Seychelles and Barbados, passed through Pakistan, Libya, Macau and New Caledonia (which, by the way, is part of France), to reach as far as Andorra and Luxembourg. I will not be involved in defending the dignity and expertise of colleagues. I would just like to point out that a journalist in Luxembourg, one of the founders of the European Union, has a much better chance of physically watching, certainly these days, top games in the best leagues on the continent than an Israeli journalist.

The Golden Ball is a show.

And not a bad show at all (Photo: GettyImages, Aurelien Meunier)

Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp scolded British journalists for failing to influence their counterparts to select Muhammad Saleh.

Most of the critics came to claim the honor of Robert Lewandowski, who came first to the shuttle and received many cheers and I swear I did not hear from him any juicy Polish curse throughout the evening.

Jorge, Messi's father, responded to the criticism on Instagram and wrote: "Blah-blah-blah, go on."

Messi was the last to hit the red carpet, as befits a rockstar, and at the entrance, as well as at the exit, enjoyed the cheers of hundreds of Paris Saint-Germain fans crammed into the Chatella Square.

In the hall and to the press, he explained how happy he was, especially for his family, and how special the award was for him at this time of changes in his life, when two years ago he thought his career was over.

Not before sending a message of love to an opponent.

"I want to tell Robert, it's an honor to compete with you. You deserved the 'Golden Ball' last year. Everyone agreed on that ... I hope they give it to you, because you deserve it." Killian Ambape who came in advance not to receive an award, was perhaps a bit tense, but maintained dignity. He handed the female gold ball to Alexia Potlas, and repeated again, with a slightly sour face, his admiration for Messi.

Whoever did not want did not come to the ceremony that he had no chance of winning. Like Cristiano Ronaldo or Carim Benzema, who did stay in Madrid, but wrote on Instagram to his fans: "Thank you to everyone who supports me. I play football for you and the show must go on." Not bad for someone currently sentenced to prison for blackmailing a friend with the help of sex tape.

Because such ceremonies remind us that football is not life, just as cinema is not life.

This is entertainment, in the good sense of the word.

Distract us, perhaps give a more positive outlook on life to those with whom life has not been good, and a substitute for dark impulses and passions.

Not to mention the health of body and mind.

It is certainly possible to bring athletes back to being gladiators, as they once were, far in history. But I prefer them in suits.

Pierre de Coubertin initiated the Olympics to prevent wars, even if it did not always succeed he and I and you and you deserve their own Cannes Film Festival.

Yes, this is a show, and the show must go on.

And "The Golden Ball" is definitely not a bad show.

Gideon Kotz is a veteran journalist and media researcher who served as president of the French Association of Foreign Journalists.

Lives in Paris since 1977, has been covering many areas in the country for the Israeli media for over 40 years, and has been a Maariv reporter in the City of Lights since 2010.

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