Lionel Messi's election as the 2021 Ballon d'Or winner caused much controversy. Now the rules are changing

This award called for changes; here they come!

The Ballon d'Or, the way journalists honor world footballers, is revolutionized. This was announced by the initiators of the "France Football" magazine. Most important innovation: The players' performance is no longer assessed in the calendar year but for a season.

In addition, in the future, only media representatives from the first 100 countries in the Fifa world rankings will be entitled to vote to avoid "wary and whim" votes from smaller countries. Most recently, there were 170 voters.

Also new: When creating the lists of candidates, the journalists from "France Football" will in the future include the expert advice of ex-professional and Ballon d'Or ambassador Didier Drogba (44).

The fourth change: The decisive criteria for a winner are adjusted. Individual performance remains the most crucial criterion, and team performance and titles won should also be considered. In addition, the fair play idea of ​​the player.

On the other hand, one point of contention criterion is no longer applicable: the achievements in a player's overall career are no longer evaluated. This point caused a lot of discussions, especially in the last election. For example, Lionel Messi (34) had significantly less success on an individual level in 2021 than competitor Robert Lewandowski (33) but still won the election - also because of his career performance.

This ensures that only what a player has achieved in the past season is evaluated.

A statement from France Football said the changes "could be seen as a response to criticism that is sometimes accurate. But above all, it is about the declared will to always pay attention to the impeccability and moral nature of the trophy after 65 editions."