The Media loves Messi. As well they should!

No player has forced me into a YouTube vortex as much as Leo since Ronaldhino, or el Diego on more nostalgic nights.

But for whatever reason (be it his modest demeanour, or his boy-next door looks), it seems the Media can’t get enough of Leo, and may be exaggerating the gap between him and his contemporaries, including his eternal rival Ronaldo.

Yesterday Messi won his fifth Ballon d’Or by a resounding margin¹. He received 41% of points up for grab (to Ronaldo’s 28%), and even more impressively, 64% of all votes for 1^st place (to  Ronaldo 20%).

The world agrees: Messi is the best.

However, not all sections of the football world agree equally. The Ballon d’Or points are handed out by 3 groups of voters: National team Captains, National team Coaches, and Media representatives². While all three groups had Messi as the clear winner, the Media vowed at his feet almost in adoration, (maybe they’ve read 538’s awesome statistical analysis).

While Messi received 38% of all points handed out by Captains and Coaches, he received 48% of the Media’s points.

Even clearer is the Media’s response to who is the very best, with 80% of the Media reps giving Messi their top vote, while ‘only’ 56% of Captains and Coaches tipped Messi to be the stand-out player.

In comparison, while 24% of captains and 23% of coaches gave Ronaldo their top vote, only 13% rated him #1.

I suppose there is only so much love to go around, and Messi is getting all the cuddles.

We should always be conscious of the media’s biased perspective of the world, and how it influences our opinions. Perhaps I should watch a Ronnie clip from time to time… He is alright too.

[1] http://www.fifa.com/ballon-dor/organisation/gala-format.html

[2] http://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/ballon-dor/playeroftheyear-men/02/75/49/91/fboaward_menplayer2015_neutral.pdf

Image Courtesy: 2 TOP (www.flickr.com/photos/2top/8729191435), Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic | Flickr