Thomas Muller has posited that his Bayern Munich teammate, Robert Lewandowski, deserved the 2021 Ballon d’Or ahead of Lionel Messi, who won it for a record seventh time, for obvious reasons.
Lewandowski had a fantastic season for Bayern Munich, breaking Gerd Muller’s Bundesliga goal record with 41 goals .
The Polish striker also scored 48 goals in all competitions, helping Bayern to win their 30th Bundesliga title.
However, Lewandowski lost out to Lionel Messi who won his first major trophy for Argentina – the 2021 Copa America, as well as winning the best player and golden boot of the tournament.
Lewandowski did win the 2021 The Best FIFA Men’s Player award in January, for the second consecutive time.
However, Muller is of the opinion that Lewandowski deserved the award.
“We know that it’s decided by journalists’ votes, and the winner, if everything goes well, is based on who gets the highest number of votes, and that’s why Messi won,” Muller told MBC Masr.
“But in Munich, we have a different opinion because we see Robert Lewandowski play and score everyday, and in Egypt it’s normal that many see Salah worthy of the prize. I can understand that because everyone wants that player who represents their team or country to win, the same for South American fans and journalists who saw Messi in the Copa America.
“It’s always difficult, everyone has their own favourite player, but individual prizes aren’t the most important things in football, what happens on the field is.”
2021 The Best FIFA Men’s Player award also caused a bit of commotion, in regards to Mohamed Salah.
Salah was third behind Lewandowski and Messi in the main vote, but was curiously left out of the Best XI.
Muller added: “It can be disappointing not being picked in the Best XI, but maybe last summer there was the Euros, and Europe has a big impact on Football, Italy has won and this automatically means the presence of multiple Italians in the lineup.
“It’s a mix between individual performances and team effort, there’s 20 players who deserve the prize, but four or five make the final cut, but of course, Mo Salah deserves to be there”
