An open secret? According to the Catalan sports daily Mundo DeportivoLionel Messi would be best placed to win his sixth Ballon d'Or in Paris on Monday (December 2nd). A team of the magazine France Football, who created the trophy in 1956, went to Barcelona to conduct an interview with the Argentine international and was spotted by the sleuthing of Spanish media.
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As tradition dictates, a team of journalists travels to the winner's place of residence for a photo shoot and an interview a few days before the awards ceremony. And as tradition dictates, the rumors announcing the winner's name are multiplying as the ceremony approaches. With more or less accuracy.
In 2015, the website of the International Football Federation (FIFA) had inadvertently published the name of the winner on its website before deleting the text. In 2016 and 2017, these are the weekly ones France Football who had leaked on social networks. By 2018, the full ranking had been unveiled on Twitter a few hours before the start of the ceremony.
This year, it is the Argentine Lionel Messi who will be crowned, ensures the Spanish media. Vexed, the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo would have decided to boycott the ceremony scheduled for Monday night at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
"No hairpieces or false mustaches"
Is there still need to watch the ceremony Monday night? "People may be surprised", teases Thierry Marchand, journalist at France Football, responsible since 2009 to carry out the interview of the laureate.
Inside the magazine, a half-dozen people know the name of the winner before the official result. A well kept secret but also a real headache for the team of France Football, forced every year to compete ingenuity to lure scoops researchers.
"We (journalists, photographers) take different planes. But we do not wear hairpieces or false mustaches, we're not there yet ", advance the one who explained last year have realized "Several major interviews with Griezmann, Modric, Ronaldo and Varane to blur the slopes a bit more. "
The journalist enjoys multitudes of articles or other exclusive information announcing the winner's name: "For 10 years it's pretty easy, there's a chance in two (between Ronaldo and Messi) to fall on the winner. As in the second round of a presidential election. That makes me laugh. " It is not a question of denying this "information" so as not to " to give body to the rumor ".
The Messi-Ronaldo reign since 2008, the Modric parenthesis in 2018
He was a little less amused last year to see a former employee of France Football announce the podium, while only half of the ballots had been counted. A podium that, apart from the winner, was revealed to be totally wrong.
The risks of flight also come from the players concerned, and especially from their entourage. "We can not warn them at the last moment, explains Thierry Marchand. But the players understood that it was not in their interest to reveal the result. "
"Beyond the name of the winner, it is also the way he wins that matters, with what gap on his pursuers", continues Thierry Marchand who believes that there is "Always a story to tell, a particular context" to spice up the result of a trophy which, since 2008, is shared between Cristiano Ronaldo (5 times) and Lionel Messi (5 times too). Except for the victory of Croatian Luka Modric last year.
