Former Inter Milan & Argentina midfielder Esteban Cambiasso launched a heavy attack on his former international teammate’s latest accomplishment. Lionel Messi, who was named the winner of Ballon d’Or for this year, has been receiving a lot of criticism on account of not deserving the award ahead of Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski.
Cambiasso, who was an integral part of Jose Mourinho’s treble-winning campaign back in 2010, said that he stopped believing in individual awards the moment Diego Milito was not considered to be in the top 30 after a treble win. The Argentine forward had scored 30 goals across all competitions, but failed to secure a consideration spot in the nominees back then.
Adding to it, one of the biggest contenders to win the prize in 2010, Wesley Sneijder, was snubbed for the big prize and it was Messi too back then, taking the honours for having a stellar campaign in the league, and helping Barcelona win the league title.
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There have been many instances in the last 10 years, where this accolade was awarded to Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo despite a lot of people feeling they weren’t deserving of it in that particular year.
Manuel Neuer in 2014, Andres Iniesta in 2010 and 2012, Sadio Mane in 2019 and a few others had equally brilliant credentials, if not better, but lost out to Ronaldo or Messi.
“I stopped believing in individual football awards after Inter’s treble. At the time Milito was decisive, incredibly important in the team’s victories.
After a fantastic season he was not even included in the top 30, and had just returned from a year in which the team won everything and he scored goals in a flurry.
From that moment on, I realized that these awards don’t count for anything,”
Cambiasso said on Sky Sports.
The Bayern Munich forward has been receiving sympathy from all across the footballing world for not getting a chance to lift the prestigious trophy. Last year, when he was the outright contender to lift it after Bayern’s treble-winning heroics, the award was cancelled because of COVID-19 involvement disrupting a major chunk of the action.
Lewandowski scored 55 goals in just 47 games last season, and continued the same form this season by scoring 48 times in 40 appearances. He also broke Gerd Muller’s long-standing record of most goals in a Bundesliga season, and finished with 41 goals with nearly his last kick of the league campaign.
The Pole also had a stellar outing in 2021 across competitions for Poland, his national side. He scored 11 times in 12 fixtures, and was a pivotal presence in their Euro 2020 campaign. His former coach Hansi Flick said something along the lines of Cambiasso, but the Argentine clearly was more frustrated with the decision than the German national manager.
Cambiasso had a memorable decade-long stay at the Nerazzuri, where he picked up five consecutive league titles with them. He had won the league title with Real Madrid prior to this stint.
In 2014, Cambiasso moved to Leicester City, who were just promoted to the first division and scored his first goal against Manchester United in the Foxes’ memorable 5-3 win over the 20-time champions. He played a crucial role in helping them stay up in the league that season.
He then moved to Olympiacos in Greece, where he stayed for a couple of seasons and made 49 appearances. That was his last professional assignment as a footballer.
Cambiasso also made 52 appearances for the Argentine national side, a lot of which came alongside Messi, and was a part of the 2006 World Cup squad.
