"Don't look back in anger" Bayern Munich fans, Harry Kane's Ballon d'Or rights the wrong from five years ago
Football won this week as Harry Kane left the 70th Ballon d'Or ceremony in London hoisting the grand prize. No one can argue that Kane doesn't deserve the prestigious individual award, as the numbers, the eye test, his antics and his humility prove why he is the rightful winner and the perfect ambassador for the beautiful game.
From a humble beginning in Leytonstone, London, he travelled across the UK on loan before breaking out at Tottenham. After trials and tribulations, now standing a man who is Tottenham and England's all-time top scorer, Bayern Munich's record-breaking talisman and a Ballon d'Or winner.
Kane's individual triumph at the award ceremony wasn't just celebrated by the VIP audience at the London Palladium, as Tottenham fans, England fans, and Bayern fans joined together and shared emotional stories to congratulate their captain on his incredible journey.
Of course, Bayern Munich players and executives were ecstatic with Kane's achievement, as finally, after 45 years, a Bayern player has won the Ballon d'Or. But for Bayern fans, this win means the most. It is not simply bragging rights or pride, but it actually healed the pain from the same ceremony five years ago.
Bayerns tough Ballon d'OR history is finally avenged
In 2021, Robert Lewandowski was one of, if not the best, football players in the world. An incredible Lewandowski spearheaded the most dominant side in football history to a sextuple-winning season in 2019/20, scoring 55 goals, including 15 in the Champions League.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the 2020 Ballon d'Or award was cancelled, despite all major competitions finishing as planned and winners being crowned. If you ask every football fan in the world, they would agree that Lewandowski is the clear-cut winner of the 2020 Ballon d'Or, no ifs, buts or maybes.
When normality resumed in 2021, Lewandowski once again looked primed to win the award after yet another incredible season with Bayern. The Pole tallied 41 Bundesliga goals in just 29 games, breaking Gerd Muller's "unbreakable" 49-year-old record for most goals in a single Bundesliga season.
Bayern couldn't retain the Champions League title after Lewandowski suffered an injury before a quarterfinals matchup against PSG; but Lewy was still the most feared striker and best player in Europe that season.
Coming into the final voting days, Lewandowski's biggest competitor was Lionel Messi, whose biggest selling point was winning the Copa America with Argentina, his first international title. Many pundits and fans felt France Football owed Lewandowski a Ballon d'Or from 2020, and the award in 2021 would make up for it. However, that wasn't the case.
Unfortunately, the voting tallies crowned Messi as the winner, winning by only 33 points over Lewandowski, making it one of the closest finishes in Ballon d'Or history. What made the 2021 award ceremony more controversial was the introduction of the Best Striker award, given to Lewandowski more or less like a consolation prize for being "second-best". Critics widely viewed the Striker of the Year award as a rushed token gesture to soften the blow.
Later, after the ceremony concluded, France Football overhauled the voting system. They changed the timeframe from a calendar year to a traditional European season and reduced the voting panel to journalists from only the top-100 FIFA-ranked nations to eliminate fringe votes, which determined the outcome of the 2021 Ballon d'Or.
While this is not to discredit Messi's amazing achievement with Argentina, the outcome infuriated every single Bayern fan, leading them to question the award's credibility and trustworthiness, especially with the makeshift changes and overhauled criteria following the backlash.
Lewandowski left Bayern Munich a season later for Barcelona to search for his Ballon d'Or, but it sadly never came.
Harry Kane's Ballon d'Or-winning moment couldn't change the results of the 2021 ceremony or give Lewandowski his flowers for his incredible 2020 season, but it certainly brightened every Bayern fan's day. It was a sigh of relief from an invisible burden that lasted five years, and it brought tears of joy and pride to see a player from your favourite club being celebrated for his excellence. It means the club can support and create a good enough campaign to put their players in the public eye instead of letting them fight for recognition on their own.
Bayern fans knew and felt that stark contrast in feelings when the ballot was read out in 2021 and 2026, going from feelings of hurt and anger in 2021 to the overwhelming happiness of 2026; it was a roller coaster of emotion. We may still look back on 2021 with a hint of bitterness and regret for what we couldn't do for Lewandowski, but as an old Oasis song goes, "'But don't look back in anger,' I heard you say".
