Diego Simeone says he loves Raphinha and cannot believe he did not win the Ballon d Or

a lot of replies are basically saying the same simple thing no champions league no ballon d or i get it but it feels way too reductive when you look at what he did every week
 
the leadership side is what sets him near guys like kane in my eyes haaland and mbappe are monsters at scoring but raphinha does so much more in buildup and defensive work
 
as a neutral watching barca with and without him is night and day team looks lost without his pressing and movement even if the raw goal numbers are similar to others
 
calling him on the same tier as haaland and mbappe over multiple seasons is probably stretching it but if we talk only about last season he absolutely belongs in the conversation
 
that is why people shot back at the are you sure he is near their level question last year he genuinely outperformed all three in terms of total impact for that one campaign
 
you could see that even rivals respected him there were madrid fans openly admitting they wished the club had moved for him back when some barca fans were ready to ship him out
 
funny how the same barca fans who once wanted him sold now talk about him as captain material and say the club picked the wrong horse by going so hard on the yamal ballon d or push
 
the part about him not even being podium level hurts more than losing the main award honestly finishing fifth after that resume screams that a lot of people simply did not watch him
 
then you have comments acting like it is all barca fans fault for overhyping everyone from pedri to yamal when in reality half the overglaze came from neutral pundits and players themselves
 
someone joked that prem obsessed voters broke the list and i kind of believe it when cole palmer ends up ranked above pedri and raphinha that tells you what league people are watching most
 
barca critics will blame a mysterious pr machine for every narrative but everyone from zidane to random premier league stars was praising yamal long before this award season even started
 
it is convenient to forget all that when the wind shifts and suddenly dunk on barca fans for hype that basically the whole football world joined in on
 
the messi fifa best example shows that players and fans are no better at these votes than journalists they still gave him an award for a world cup that technically belonged to the previous year
 
so when people say do not let journalists handle it i just shrug nobody is treating these trophies as a pure objective ranking anyway
 
one of the best descriptions up there was calling it a pr and popularity award that sometimes lands on the right player by accident rather than design feels spot on
 
honestly my favourite part of the whole quote is cholo basically admitting he has no idea how raphinha did not win it like the rest of us guy sounds genuinely offended on his behalf
 
also the line about him loving raphinha fits perfectly you can see that obsession with players who press like demons and never let teammates slack imagine him under simeone in a two wing back grind game
 
someone said hed probably hate playing for atletico and to be fair going from barca freedom to cholo defensive drills might break his brain even if the coach adores him
 
still you can picture raphinha running himself into the ground in that system and becoming even more of a cult favourite coaches everywhere must be watching and taking notes
 
the captain talk makes sense he already acts like first captain even if officially he is not you could see it every time he dragged the team back into shape during bad spells
 
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