When the World Cup is all the gold that matters

As the World Cup enters its final two brackets of matches, arguments on fan channels are somewhat being heightened over who the Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) nominees would be at the end of this year, mostly citing leverage on World Cup performances.

Such is due supposedly to the award carrying the stature as the de facto "Best Footballer on Earth" each year.

Personally, I stopped holding the award in overly high regard since 1986.

And my perception never improved along the years as I got even closer to the sport as part of my job.

As with a lot in football, and sport in general, decisions off the pitch are highly susceptible to non-football influences, sometimes even criminal in nature.

And why 1986 you may ask? The year 1986 is almost always remembered as the year Diego Maradona captivated the world as he led a barely known squad of Argentines to their second World Cup triumph in Mexico.

With iconic moments such as his "Hand of God" goal against England in the quarterfinal, followed by one of the goals of the century as he dribbled past half the Englishmen on the pitch to net their winner, tgen repeatibg the act against Belgium in the semi-final, Maradona made Mexico 86 his World Cup.

In fact, football in 1986 was all-Maradona.

The Ballon d'Or panel, however, thought otherwise.

By either divine intervention or with KGB guns trained on them, they somehow found it fit for the 1986 Ballon d'Or to be awarded to the Soviet Union's Igor Belanov, the top scorer in Mexico with 6 goals.

Belanov earned a transfer to Germany following his exploits, but quickly found himself dropping from the Bundesliga ranks of Borussia Moenchengladbach to the lower tiers.

You'd even have to get Google to work hard to trace his whereabouts. He was almost never spoken off beyond 1987.

The late Maradona, while without a single Ballon d'Or to his name, remains one of the most revered figures in the sport, even worshipped from Naples to Lanus.

Come to think of it, of the Ballon d'Or recepients in the past decade, only incumbent Karim Benzema has a World Cup winner's medal in his cabinet.

Both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the Ballon d'Or over two decades without needing as much justification in terms of medals as Benzema did.

But that said, among the names touted as possible Ballon d'Or candidates this time around, is Manchester City's Erling Haaland, whose country Norway did not even make the cut to Qatar 2022.

While the World Cup in Qatar may have captured the world's imagination for many reasons, it lacks a 'Maradona-esque' spark or even a six-goal machine like Belanov.

Hence the coming Ballon d'Or winner may not have even made the trip there, let alone top the scoring charts or set it all alight.

Among other injustices of the world, a winner in Qatar might not win the votes to become the de facto best footballer of the year.

Although you would never find doubt in the minds of any footballer, that they'd rather bring home the World Cup than a Ballon d'Or.

Arnaz M. Khairul is a sportswriter, media consultant and former South East Asia representative of the International Association of Cycling Journalists (AIJC).

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of Sinar Daily.