Football: Golden Ball, Kopa trophy… How are the winners chosen?

A few days after visiting the premises of Europe 1 and The studio of legends presented by Jacques Vendroux, the Ballon d’or trophy will be awarded to a footballer this Monday evening at the Châtelet theater in Paris, during a ceremony broadcast on the L’Équipe channel. Other equally prestigious prizes are awarded, such as the Kopa trophy which rewards the best young person. But how are the winners chosen? The channel’s editorial director, Marc Las, was the guest of Europe 1 to detail the voting processes.

First, for the Kopa trophy, “it’s the former Golden Balls who vote, it’s not journalists, nor the general public”, he explains to Jacques Vendroux’s microphone. “They choose three players: a number 1 who will score five points, a number 2 who will score three points, and a number 3 who will score one point. The one with the most points will have the Kopa trophy,” specifies Marc Las .

A similar method for the Ballon d’or and the Yachine trophy

For the famous Ballon d’Or, and also for the Yachine trophy which crowns the best goalkeeper of the year, the operation is different. “100 journalists from around the world – who correspond to the first 100 countries in the Fifa rankings – choose their top 5. Each place gives a certain number of points, and the player with the most is elected Golden Ball,” explains Marc Las.

“It’s a global vote,” continues the editorial director of the L’Équipe channel, who specifies that “journalists are selected by their quality. When I see the list of certain voters in certain countries, they are experts soccer”. And these recognized football fans necessarily have a “certain subjectivity” in their vote, he adds: “Some like beautiful football where you make around ten passes, others like players who dribble”.

50 journalists elect the Women’s Golden Ball

In total, eight prizes are awarded during the ceremony, and among them, a Women’s Golden Ball awarded since the 2018 edition. For this trophy, “there are 50 other journalists who also correspond to the first 50 countries in the Fifa ranking who vote”, informs Marc Las.

Finally, it should be noted that the Ballon d’or is organized by the magazine France Football, at the origin of this prize in 1956. It is “the teams of this title which put in place these regulations and which follow the work done by the predecessors”, would like to remind the editorial director of the channel L’Équipe . All that remains is to know who will succeed the 2022 winners, and in particular the Frenchman Karim Benzema. Response Monday evening from 9 p.m.