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#2 Forward Bias
If the bias for Real Madrid and Barcelona isn’t enough, then we have the tendency to lean towards forwards more. This is understandable. After all, in this beautiful game played on the panorama of green, it is the goals that matter the most.
Without scoring, a team can’t win – it is the very fabric on which the game is built. The goal of every player on the pitch is to play a part in putting the ball into the net. And so, it is only natural for the ones stabbing it into the net to have more limelight.
However, there have been some years where non-forwards deserved the award more than the eventual winner. In 2010, it was Sneijder, like Ribery in 2013. Angel di Maria in 2014 was imperative in Madrid’s Champions League-winning campaign and Argentina’s run to the final of the World Cup.
But none of them won the award.
Modric’s win this year might break this trend but it will remain as more of an anomaly than a trendsetter.
