Juvenal Edjogo, the former captain of Equatorial Guinea’s national team, has made a sensational Ballon D’or scandal claim which suggests his voting was revised.
Rewind a decade, Cristiano Ronaldo has just been handed the coveted crystal-studded Ballon D’or award for the second time, five years after his first, in November 2013.
It is interesting to note that voting that year was pushed back for the first and only time, with FIFA citing a lack of ‘eligible voters’ as to the reason for the rescheduled event.
This is where the suspicions over voting begin, but former Equitorial Guinea midfielder, who represented the likes of Alaves and Levante during his playing career, has taken fixing allegations to a whole new level with his latest revelation.
The now-43-year-old is certain he casted votes for both Andres Iniesta and Didier Drogba that year, but when the voting was made visible to the public, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had replaced the duo on his ballot paper.
“What little I can say about this type of award is that in 2013, I voted for my three players for the Ballon d’Or, and I sent my votes, and in the end when it was made public, the list of who voted for who, my votes were different,” Juvenal told Gol Play.
“It said I voted for Messi, Cristiano, and I don’t know who else, but I didn’t vote for any of them. That’s why I say, I don’t believe in absolutely anything about those awards.
“Since then, I’ve thought these awards have no value.”
The 2013 Ballon D’or has always been regarded as somewhat controversial after Franck Ribery, who was integral to Bayern Munich’s historic treble-winning season where they picked up the Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB-Pokal, came third in the overall voting despite being widely tipped for the award.
Ballon d'Or 2013:
🇫🇷 Ribery: 5 trophies
🇦🇷 Messi: La Liga, Golden Boot and Spanish Supercup.
🇵🇹 Ronaldo: 0 collective and individual trophies.After Ronaldo scored 3 goals against Sweden, the voting was extended for the first time ever.
The most protected player ever. pic.twitter.com/xmnk9KYHLH
— Nolo (@NoloFCB) March 1, 2023
Cristiano Ronaldo did manage to achieve a staggering feat of 66 goals in 56 appearances, but it was largely in vain after Real Madrid failed to lift any silverware that season.
These allegations are further compounded by claims from coaches in Fiji, Kuwait, Equatorial Guinea, Dominican Republic and Bolivia who also stated their had been altered.
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