A world champion and the Paris enigma in the spotlight: have France Football's criteria become mere ink on paper?
The list was announced today
Every year, French magazine "France Football" reveals its list of Ballon d'Or nominees. And as has become the norm in recent seasons, controversy erupts the moment the names go public.
Followers always question the transparency of football's most prestigious individual award, and just how faithfully the stated criteria are applied when the nominees are chosen.
France Football have tried to update the regulations and lend the process a fair, objective feel. Yet the 2026 list has still sparked uproar and one nagging question: are the announced criteria one thing, while the reality on the ground is something else entirely?
The announced "France Football" criteria: are they merely ink on paper?
France Football's official criteria for the Ballon d'Or vote rest on three main, decisive pillars:
Individual performance and decisive impact: measuring the player's individual contribution and his goalscoring and assist figures in the big matches.
Collective performance and titles: how successfully the player leads his club or national team to official trophies and championships across the season.
Fair play and sporting conduct: respecting the rules of fair play and embodying the sporting spirit on and off the pitch.
Apply those three items to the announced 2026 list, though, and you uncover a stark disparity and a bewildering contradiction. The logic behind the selection becomes a puzzle in the face of the figures and facts.
Oyarzabal and Torres: when Barcelona's fame defeats a world champion's top scorer
This year's list of Ballon d'Or nominees produced what Spanish newspaper "Mundo Deportivo" branded a great injustice.
Real Sociedad captain Mikel Oyarzabal is missing. Ferran Torres, the former Barcelona and current Paris Saint-Germain player, is not. That contrast has stirred huge controversy in Spain, and a wave of anger with it.
Oyarzabal delivered an exceptional season by every measure. He was Sociedad's fundamental pillar and led them to the Copa del Rey, at the expense of Atletico Madrid.
Last season he scored 18 goals and made 4 assists in 40 matches for Sociedad, bearing in mind the team only played in La Liga and the Copa del Rey.
He then crowned his season with the most important mark of all: leading Spain to the top of the podium at the 2026 World Cup. Oyarzabal was La Roja's top scorer at the tournament with 5 goals and a mainstay in every match.
Despite all these figures and his distinguished individual displays, Oyarzabal found no place on a list of 30 players.
Torres, on the other hand, made the cut. And here is the paradox: he was the direct backup to Oyarzabal for Spain, scoring a single goal, which came in the final against Argentina as La Roja secured the title.
Domestically, Torres played 49 matches across all competitions with Barcelona, scored 21 goals and made 3 assists, and won La Liga with Barca.
So if the criteria are genuinely applied and Torres was deserving in the eyes of those who chose him, why was Oyarzabal left out?
Another question emerges here: does the media aura settle the comparison? Torres played for Barcelona before his move to Paris Saint-Germain, which kept him under a great media spotlight. Oyarzabal pays the price for his loyalty to the Real Sociedad shirt, far from the clamour of the elite, popular clubs.
Barcola and Mane: another puzzle on the Ballon d'Or list
The controversy was not confined to the Spanish duo. French media slammed the absence of Bradley Barcola, the former Paris Saint-Germain and current Liverpool player.
Selectors left Barcola off the list despite the huge achievements he racked up after a striking run of brilliance with Paris Saint-Germain and his resounding move to Liverpool, feeding directly into the major titles and victories.
Barcola scored 13 goals and provided 7 assists in 49 matches with Paris last season, and played his part in the club's biggest achievement, retaining the UEFA Champions League title.
He was also an important element for France at the World Cup, scoring 3 goals and adding one assist.
Desire Doue, the Paris player, missed out too, despite a superb record: 28 starts from 41 appearances, 13 goals and 11 assists with Paris, 24 contributions in all.
The gifted winger also chipped in with 3 goals and two assists for France.
His numbers underline just how important he was in the Champions League: 5 goals and 4 assists in 13 games in the European competition.
Yet the list featured names in the same position, or in other attacking roles, whose figures and impact fall well below his.
Take Senegal's Sadio Mane, the Al-Nassr player, named at winger. He went to the World Cup, made one assist, and Senegal achieved nothing of note, bowing out in the round of 32.
Domestically, he scored 14 goals and made 9 assists in 36 matches, but he was not even his team's top scorer. Cristiano Ronaldo beat him to that with more than double his tally, 30 goals and 5 assists, and yet
the Portuguese star was himself nowhere to be found among the Ballon d'Or nominees.
Is the Ballon d'Or losing its credibility?
The storm over who made the list, and who did not, drags the Ballon d'Or towards a question doing the rounds among fans: is the award losing its credibility?
Now we wait for the official announcement of the winner at the ceremony in London on 26 October, and to see just how faithfully the criteria France Football insist they always follow are applied, after all the controversy of recent years.
