I was selected as the United States journalist to vote on the women’s Ballon d’Or this year. Though the general process is fairly well-known and the voting criteria are public, here’s a glimpse into what it’s like to vote for the award.
Being asked to do this is certainly not something I took lightly given the award’s history — the Ballon d’Or Feminin has only been awarded since 2018 — and the history of women’s soccer in general. There’s only one individual player award on the women’s side, as the men’s side also offers the Kopa trophy for best under-21 player, the Yashin trophy for best goalkeeper, and the Gerd Müller trophy for the top scorer. And the ceremony itself, held Oct. 28 this year, clashes with the women’s international calendar.
While awards can’t be the be-all-end-all for the sport and its players, in the women’s game, the long fight to be taken seriously and for media and fans alike to assign women the appropriate gravitas does factor into the weight of these kinds of ceremonies. Even the fact that there are 100 jurors for the men’s award and 50 for the women’s award is an indicator of how far we have yet to go in covering the women’s game, and a call to leverage moments like these to increase coverage and encourage media growth.
With that in mind, the process of becoming a voter was mostly straightforward. In August, an editor at France Football contacted me and asked if I was interested in becoming the U.S. voter for the award, as the last voter was no longer covering women’s soccer. I was not a member of the shortlist committee that selected the 30-player; I only voted on the finalists. The shortlist was compiled by the editorial staff of France Football, members of the editorial staff of L’Équipe, the best juror from the last award, and a UEFA ambassador — Nadine Kessler for the women’s trophy this year.
After I accepted, I was sent instructions and a code of conduct, in which you certify that you are an active journalist covering the women’s game and that you will be considering the period from August 2023 to August 2024, as well as keeping your results confidential until they’re announced. The voting period was open from Sep. 4 until Sep. 30. Women’s soccer journalists also voted on coach of the year and club of the year.
The three criteria for voting were:
- Individual performances, decisive and impressive contributions
- Collective performances and honors
- Class and fair play
I was given access to a voting platform where you’re asked to rank your top 10 players — the platform itself is quite nice, with a graphic display that allows you to use drag-and-drop to move players up and down the list.
Having to consider a year of playing time for 30 players is a very data-heavy task, or it was for me. I initially made a spreadsheet of players to weigh out club and country performance in that August-to-August window, one which also included the Paris Olympics. It’s hard to find the balance between acknowledging tournament performance while also trying to avoid recency bias.
The field position and competitiveness of the player’s team and league were also factors. You can’t compare apples-to-apples on stats alone between a goalkeeper in the U.S., a central midfielder in the U.K., and a forward in France. There’s significant continental play like the Champions League that doesn’t always have a direct counterpart across other regions or confederations.
And I thought there had been some hard omissions from the shortlist, such as Naomi Girma, but you also have to focus on voting on the players in front of you while acknowledging no player vote is perfect. At times, the “Parks and Recreation” Ron Swanson approach to awards felt like a guiding principle: “Awards are stupid, but they’d be less stupid if they went to the right people.”
I took a decent amount of time to vote, although voters are kindly requested not to submit right at the deadline, which I did not. I did take several weeks to think about it, moving players up and down my spreadsheet, watching footage, compiling stats, sleeping on it, and changing my mind multiple times. You’re not shown any results or points tallies; you have to wait just like everyone else to see who wins.
There were only 50 voters, after all, so I felt pressure to make sure I gave each player their due. In the end, you simply have to click the submission button and live with your choices.
(Top photo: Franck Fife / Getty Images)
