A big night at the Ballon d’Or for some but are trinkets and stats all that matter?

A big night at the Ballon d’Or for some but are trinkets and stats all that matter?. A big night at the Ballon d’Or for some but are trinkets and stats all that matter?Will Unwin23 September 2025 at 4:21 pm0 CopiedTALKING BALLS

Fairness and football are rarely good bedfellows. At the glitzy Golden Ball ceremony in Paris on Monday night, there was further evidence of this as Aitana Bonmatí collected the women’s award for the third year in a row. “I still can’t believe it. Incredible,” cheered the Spain playmaker. “Thank you for this … it really could have gone to anyone.” Except it didn’t. You see, France Football has a tendency to overlook more deserving characters by focusing on talent, attitude and output. The Edinburgh comedy award has a rule where no one can take home the bacon twice, allowing others to get their moment in the spotlight, too, and preventing Football Daily’s questionable comedy heroes from collecting it annually. It doesn’t matter that Bonmatí has been a consistent pinnacle of excellence in the game, driving Barcelona to the Liga F title for a sixth straight year and recovering from viral meningitis to play at the Euros. She also had a penalty saved in the final as England beat Spain, which came after succumbing to Arsenal in the Women’s Bigger Cup final.

Alessia Russo finished third, Chloe Kelly fifth and Leah Williamson seventh, in between a collection of Spanish runners-up. The three Lionesses can boast winning a continental double, surpassing their Catalan comrades to the tune of two. Football Daily, however, does not want to look all jingoistic by focusing on how English people have fallen foul of democracy. Scotland’s Caroline Weir finished 30th. Compatriot Scott McTominay was 18th in the men’s competition, after winning Serie A and going on the razz to celebrate for a month. The partying alone should have at least put him a few places above certain counterparts.

McTominay had to keep his counsel when Paris Saint-Germain kingpin Ousmane Dembélé waltzed up to the stage. Whether the Bigger Cup winner deserved the gong ahead of second-placed Lamine Yamal is up for debate, leaving Cole Palmer (eighth) and Harry Kane (13th) craning their necks to see the winger a long way ahead of them. “What I have just experienced is exceptional, I have no words for it,” sobbed Dembélé, before finding his voice again. “I feel a bit of stress, it’s not easy to win this trophy, and to have it presented to me by Ronaldinho, a legend of football.”

Dembélé can point to his 21 league goals in 29 games, eight from 15 in Bigger Cup, plus 14 assists to go with them – but are statistics and trinkets all that matter? Should the 27th best player in the world, Declan Rice, not have been given a bump for maintaining the same haircut with care and precision over 12 months, regardless of his performance and medal tally? Perhaps put Dembélé in a yoghurt advert and then see who the real hero is.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Rob Smyth from 7.45pm BST for hot Littlewoods Cup clockwatch action from the night’s third-round action, including Liverpool 4-1 Southampton.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Total nonsense. You’ve got to remember what the game is about: winning football matches, and that means scoring goals, not recording the expectation of them. ‘Expected goals’ have only come about in the last few years. It’s a clueless development. Some people just use these words to try to sound clever” – Martin O’Neill gets his chat on with Donald McRae about all things management and Nottingham Forest under Big Vange.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Jack Grealish may have ‘never seen a player in my whole life get booked for taking a quick free-kick’ (yesterday’s Football Daily), but it has happened. In Leicester City’s 1997 Uefa Cup tie against Atlético Madrid, Garry Parker was carded for just that, and having already been booked, was sent off for his trouble. This was a tie that, in the words of Martin O’Neill, ‘we could never have won’, with five penalty decisions (one given, four not) all going the way of Madrid, on top of Parker’s bizarre exit. This was the referee’s last European game. However, given that Jack was two at the time, I’ll forgive him for not paying attention” – Glynn Marshall.

Thank you, thank you! As a former referee at a much, much, much lower level, I was very happy to see you clearly explain why the yellow card was issued for the quick free-kick. The ref told Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall previously not to do it, and he did it, hence the card. You can question why the defence has any right to get settled and slow down the restart since they’re the ones who committed a foul in the first place, but once the ref tells you not to do something, and you do it, look for a deserved card” – Rick McGahey.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Glynn Marshall, who wins some Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions are here.

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David Squires on … the Chelsea bomb squad and a perfect storm for Enzo Maresca.

BEEF STELLINGTON

Jeff Stelling is regarded in some circles as something of a national treasure after a 25-year stint in charge of Soccer Saturday but not everyone holds the broadcaster in such high regard. The 70-year-old has had a tempestuous relationship with his beloved Hartlepool United for a while now and in May he resigned as the club’s honorary president over Raj Singh’s handling of a potential sale of the club, leading the chief suit to write to other National League clubs asking them to ban Stelling from their boardrooms. It seems Singh is not the only Hartlepool-affiliated person to have beef with Stelling, with former manager Dave Jones another who has taken umbrage with the broadcaster’s influence over the club.

In 2017, Stelling spoke out against Jones on Soccer Saturday, pleading to the camera for the manager to “walk now. Go now. You’ve got 13 points from 51. This is not your level of football. If he won’t walk, sack him. If it means me resigning and retiring as president, I do so happily. Do it now, do it today.” And Jones, who was sacked after Stelling’s comments, has finally responded. “[Stelling] reckons he’s a Hartlepool fan,’ he growled on the Undr the Cosh podcast. “When I went in, I tried to change it too quickly but didn’t have the players to do that. I don’t think Stelling understood that. I wouldn’t pi$$ on him if he was on fire. I’d just walk away from him. Got no time for him. I think it was totally wrong what he did. I’m bigger than that. Put it this way, if we’re in the desert and I drove past him, I wouldn’t pick him up.” With a bucket full of popcorn, Football Daily eagerly awaits Stelling’s retort. Over to you, Jeff!

NEWS, BITS AND BOBS

The president of the Afghanistan football federation has been accused of demanding a $10,000 bribe to secure a spot for a player on the national team.

The Premier League will try to finalise details of new spending rules despite growing opposition to one element that has been likened to a salary cap.

More Arsenal injury woe: Noni Madueke is expected to be sidelined for up to two months with knee-knack.

Maths is obviously not Enzo Maresca’s strong suit: the Chelsea manager reckons Liverpool – five points clear at the top – might be “impossible to catch” in the title race with only 33 games remaining.

Arne Slot, meanwhile, has had a pop at Everton over their criticism of the amount of stoppage time added by referees in the Merseyside derby. “The three minutes were completely correct,” computed the Liverpool manager.

West Ham, meanwhile, are ready to party like it’s 2015.

Beyoncé, Socrates, Oprah. You’ve got to be good at what you do if you only have one name and for a while Monchi was one of the best suits in the game. But after a frustrating couple of years at Aston Villa, the Spaniard is poised to leave the club and is thought to be bound for his homeland.

And our European roundup from Monday night features an upset in Le Classique and a nice picture of a happy Gilmour after Napoli wobbled against Pisa but ultimately won 3-2.

MOVING THE GOALPOSTS

Our sister email is back with a focus on the Pakistan national team, which didn’t exist for more than a decade but is now firmly on the up.

STILL WANT MORE?

Enjoying the Premier League season so far? You might want to thank referees for contributing to that, writes former official Chris Foy.

Ben Fisher gets some chat on with Lincoln’s growth and innovation officer, among others, ahead of the in-form League One side’s Worthington Cup showdown with Chelsea.

There’ll be less banging on the table at meetings of Premier League suits, now that Arsenal’s Tim Lewis and Tottenham’s Daniel Levy have exited the stage, reckons Matt Hughes.

PSG cleaned up at the Ballon d’Or while losing to Marseille in Ligue 1, reports Luke Entwistle.

And one for your bookmarks: our Premier League top scorers page is live, live, live! You’ll never guess which big Norwegian is leading the way.

MEMORY LANE

Brentford manager Keith Andrews (left) takes in the scene as some mild funkiness breaks out around him on the Molineux pitch during Wolves’s 2-0 FA Cup third-round replay win over Kidderminster Harriers in 2004. Sat on his posterior in among it all: current Mainz boss Bo Henriksen.

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