Cristiano Ronaldo has recently been officially named the winner of the BOAT (Best Of All Time) award presented by prestigious magazine France Football. Introduced as an honor recognizing the “greatest Ballon d’Or season of all time,” the Portuguese superstar’s victory quickly attracted significant media attention. However, behind the impressive-sounding name, the award’s sporting credibility and representativeness have come under considerable scrutiny.
From a purely sporting perspective, choosing Ronaldo’s 2008 season is entirely justifiable. It was the year CR7 enjoyed a phenomenal campaign with Manchester United, scoring 42 goals across all competitions, including 31 in the Premier League. He played a pivotal role in leading the Red Devils to both the Premier League and Champions League titles while collecting numerous individual honors, most notably the first Ballon d’Or of his career. Such an outstanding performance undoubtedly deserves a place among the greatest individual seasons in modern football history.
The doubts, however, center on how France Football determined the winner. Instead of relying on a respected panel of experts or hundreds of international sports journalists voting as they do for the traditional Ballon d’Or, the BOAT award was decided entirely through an online poll with a surprisingly limited reach.
A total of approximately 5,000 fans—5,009 to be exact—participated in the voting. More notably, participants were allowed to vote multiple times, paying one euro for each vote. Statistics showed that 4,665 people voted between two and four times, 300 cast between five and nine votes, and another 44 submitted as many as 10 to 26 votes. When votes can be purchased and one person can cast dozens of ballots, the result appears to reflect the willingness of a small group of passionate supporters to spend money rather than the collective opinion of millions of football fans around the world.
Clearly, France Football has skillfully capitalized on the enduring appeal of the legendary rivalry between Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, whose record-breaking 2012 season was also part of the conversation. Putting the two superstars head-to-head in a contest branded as the “greatest of all time” is an ideal formula for generating media attention and revenue. The BOAT award therefore looks more like a commercial and media product designed to drive engagement than a credible benchmark for football history.
Cristiano Ronaldo himself does not need the BOAT award to prove the greatness of his 2008 season. His goals, prestigious trophies, and the lasting memories he created for fans are already more than enough to cement his legacy. Winning this online poll may give him another eye-catching accolade in the headlines, but turning the results of a paid-voting contest involving just over 5,000 participants into a representative verdict on football history remains a considerable stretch.
Sources: kenh14