Criticism of Ballon d'Or Zero Gender Equality, Vivianne Miedema: I Feel Unappreciated

Dutch female footballer Vivianne Miedema (Instagram @viviannemiedema)

JAKARTA — Dutch female footballer Vivianne Miedema has criticized the organizers of the Ballon d'Or. The award is considered zero gender equality.

Vivianne felt underappreciated at the event because there was only one major award for women's soccer players.

"We went to the event and we thought: 'let's see what the awards are like' because I've been invited the last few years but never got the chance to attend", she said.

The Ballon d'Or awards for women's and men's footballers are indeed very unequal, especially this year. In total there are four special award categories for male players in the 2022 Ballon d'Or.

The details are the Kopa Trophy for the best young male player, the Yashin Trophy for the best male goalkeeper, the Gerd Muller Trophy for the top scorer, and the Ballon d'Or as the main award.

Meanwhile, for female footballers, only the Ballon d'Or is the only major award. Barcelona captain Alexia Putellas won the 2022 award for the second year in a row.

Vivianne was included in the list of performers nominated for the award on three occasions. However, she only attended the ceremony for the first time in October 2022.

"I felt unappreciated as a female footballer to be there. I think if they want to involve women they have to do it differently", she said.

"They have five or six different awards for the men's game and where we only have one award for women. If they want to make things equal they have to give men's and women's football the same award", she added.