Reflections on Missing out on the Ballon d'Or: Robert Lewandowski's Uncertainty and Hope for Clarity in the Future

When the Ballon d'Or was unexpectedly cancelled in 2020, organisers explained that the decision was made due to the "exceptional circumstances" caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which prevented a "fair comparison" between players. Despite a temporary halt in play, football competitions such as league matches and the Champions League eventually resumed, leading to a vital discussion about the necessity of the prestigious award in challenging times.

That calendar year, Lewandowski helped Bayern Munich win the Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB-Pokal treble, all while plundering a vast amount of goals in against hapless 'keepers. However, the cancelling of the Ballon d'Or means he has an award missing from his trophy cabinet, after being deemed the worthy recipient in the public court of opinion.

Robert Lewandowski "doesn't know why" Ballon d'Or was cancelled in 2020

Indeed, Lionel Messi even acknolwedged the Pole should have won the award when collecting his 2021 gong - though no retrospective presentation is likely forthcoming.

"I think that’s the only year it was cancelled, for some reason," Lewandowski exclusively tells FourFourTwo. "I don’t know why. Maybe some years later I’ll understand what the reason was. For now, I don’t have the answer."

Despite missing out on the Ballon d'Or, Lewandowski was still named the FIFA Player of the Year in both 2020 and 2021, after he managed a staggering 41 Bundesliga goals in just 29 games, beating the 50-year record held by Gerd Muller.

So while he acknolwedges that missing out on the Golden Ball hurt, being recognised with other accolades when competing against the likes of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is still just as good.

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"If you win the FIFA award twice, and you can call yourself the best player in the world for two years in a row, that means a lot," Lewandowski says. "Of course, with the Ballon d’Or, sometimes different things around football are also important.

"But if you’re winning FIFA best player in the world, if you’re being compared with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi at that time, even then you can think you’ve achieved a lot, because I was close to them. Sometimes I couldn’t beat them, on the pitch and also with the individual trophies, so in winning those awards, I could really enjoy the moment.

"I don’t know how many players could beat both of them. I was proud: they’re legends who wrote the history of football and I was somewhere close to them."