Arsenal and Lionesses Beth Mead expressed her disappointment with how the Ballon d’Or awards treated women’s football.
At the end of last year, Alexia Putellas from Barcelona outperformed Mead and earned one of the highest individual honors in world football, while Sam Kerr, Chelsea forward, finished third.
Nevertheless, Mead recently disclosed that she believed the organizers of the event had shown disrespect to the women’s game.
Mead won the second best player award in Ballon d’Or ceremony
“It was an honour to go to both. Much preferred the Best Awards, I thought the Ballon d’Or was a token Ballon d’Or for women’s football – and that’s all it was.
“The set up wasn’t great. Alexia went up, they asked her a couple of question and off she went.
“In between that they did Lewandowski top scorer, goalkeeper of the year – no female goalkeeper of the year – and a community award.
“They did three of four awards between the female Ballon d’Or and the men’s Ballon d’Or.
“And the at the end it was Benzema who won, his full family was on stage taking pictures with him, all the journalists. and Alexia was sat on the front seat as if she wasn’t even there.
“It’s such a prestigious award [Ballon d’Or]. but then, it was a tick box to have women there but they weren’t doing it right. The FIFA Best, they did everything aligned. They did it all together so it was so much better.”
