Megan Rapinoe, Popularity, and the Ballon d’Or
Since the last whistle of the 2019 World Cup Final sealed a 2–1 win for the USWNT over Netherlands and cementing them as champions, star winger Megan Rapinoe has been hoarding tiny golden statues. Not only did she receive the tournament’s Golden Ball (best player at the World Cup) and — thanks to the second-tier tiebreaker of minutes played — Golden Boot (top scorer, 6 goals/2 assists), but two months later FIFA also dubbed her 2019’s Best Women’s Player. So when it was announced that Rapinoe had also won the 2019 Ballon d’Or, the decision seemed unassailable — it was not.
Many people were happy, most of them American, but grumbles over Rapinoe’s selection grew, and opposing takes became unavoidable. Part of the “fun” of awards is the scrutiny, but many responses included a dash more frustration. Most points centered around the award falling victim to the easiness of a popularity contest, while others targeted the luminously pink-haired soccer star more specifically, labeling her a marketing darling whose stature after the World Cup hid many deserving players in her shadow.
It’s true, ever since Rapinoe’s mid-World Cup video of her vulgarly scoffing at the idea of visiting a Donald Trump White House, she became an inescapable figure around the globe. As a result of her performances in the tournament, which afforded her many opportunities to perform her signature celebration, American conservatives and haughty Europeans formed an unlikely alliance over her “arrogance” — either way, everyone was talking about her. Rapinoe’s luminously pink hair inspired adorable Halloween tribute costumes, and she earned platforms from award stages to sports talk shows in which to make multiple important points and deliver powerful speeches on women’s soccer, equal pay, injustice, sexism, and racism.
Given all of this, and that we’re much closer to the celebratory aftermath of the World Cup than the heightened suspense of knockout football where her on-pitch performances led a team and a nation, it’s at least understandable why there would be questions about Rapinoe’s selection for football’s highest individual honor, which is supposed to be a survey of performances for both country and club.
Due to recovery from multiple nagging injuries, Rapinoe’s club form prior to the World Cup was non-existent — quite literally, she didn’t play in any matches. After the World Cup, and in between additional USWNT duties on their domestic victory tour, Rapinoe still only played in six matches, and recorded no goals or assists.
But the weight of a World Cup pressing heavily on scales used by Ballon d’Or voters is nothing new. Just last year Luka Modrić broke the swapping of the Ballon d’Or between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo that had been going on since 2010 by leading Croatia to its first ever World Cup Final. While Modrić’s form for his club team, Real Madrid, the Spanish giants had rare trophy-less campaigns both domestically and in European competitions. It seems voters leaned heavily on his work as the tireless midfield puppeteer that powered Croatia past host country Russia in the quarterfinals, England in the semifinals, where their 4–2 loss to France in the Final would be their only defeat of the tournament.
Modrić wasn’t the only player to receive such a bump, France stars Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé received more votes than Lionel Messi (whose 34 goals and 12 assists led his club team, Barcelona, to a La Liga title, and whose 4 goals and 4 assists in the Copa del Rey added a second domestic title).
Even though the United States was favored, they were still vulnerable, and Rapinoe having a masterful World Cup is the only thing that kept the team from ever suffering defeat. Time and again, in the competition’s knockout rounds and against the toughest competition in the sport, the difference was Megan Rapinoe. Against Spain in the Round of 16 Rapinoe scored both goals in the USWNT 2–1 win; against France in the quarterfinal she scored both in another 2–1 win; injury forced her to miss the semifinal round against England, but she returned for the final to score the winning goal.
All told, Rapinoe scored five goals in three must-win matches, each one vital to advancing her team.
Despite this, Rapinoe winning the Ballon d’Or seemed a setback for a sport in a constant fight for legitimacy. A total of over a billion people watched the 2019 World Cup, and it was impossible to not notice — and remember — Megan Rapinoe. It’s understandable that it would feel lazy and, in a way, dismissive to point to the player who outgrew the sport in a month and became a global icon. Crowning Megan Rapinoe simply means that you’ve paid attention to Megan Rapinoe, but not necessarily women’s soccer. In this instance however — and with the precedence set the year prior via Luka Modrić — it’s hard to come up with an overwhelmingly more deserving player when using the same template.
But it would be an oversight to end the argument there, because the discomfort of those who disagree with Rapinoe winning the 2019 Ballon d’Or isn’t so easily dismissed — it is not merely a statistical argument. Roundly, the underlying concern sprouts from a sensitivity to Megan Rapinoe becoming a false stand-in for the best women’s soccer has to offer. It can falsely suggest that no one was worth watching more, and that women’s soccer is worth no more of a time investment than the month it takes for the World Cup tournament to play out every four years.
This sensitivity has a lot to do with concerns over the accessibility of the sport, and it’s not wrong. Rapinoe’s performance and activism gained her access to more screens and eyes than the FA WSL and NWSL, certainly pre-World Cup. The most decorated club in women’s football, Olympique Lyonnais, fields an all-star squad — headlined by last year’s Ballon d’Or recipient, Ada Hederberg, and this year’s runner-up, Lucy Bronze — and won the Champions League this year for the 4th year in a row. Wolfsburg is another European juggernaut in women’s football, but regularly finding either’s matches is a chore that also requires quality anti-virus protection.
This has improved some since the World Cup, but it is far from being solved. The FA WSL (FA Women’s Super League) now streams free online, and the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) reached an agreement with ESPN post-World Cup, barriers to the best talents and performances remain. Sam Kerr — arguably the best striker in the world — only had one of her thirteen post-World Cup goals reach ESPN airwaves. More people likely saw her announcement as Chelsea FC’s newest, and women’s soccer’s largest, signing. Likewise, Netherlands and Arsenal forward Vivianne Miedema’s recently scored six goals and provided four assists — in one match! Still, her highlights likely reached fewer eyes than any post-World Cup morning show segment featuring Megan Rapinoe.
Rapinoe earning a platform for her voice, and frequently using it to elevate others, is an overall good thing for women’s soccer. And, as a Black man in America under Trump, I’d also argue that it is a necessary blueprint for white athletes — and white people in general — that will always mean more to me than the games. That cannot be discouraged or belittled, its impacts have too great a potential.
Whether you believe Rapinoe to be deserving the 2019 Ballon d’Or or not, it’s easy to latch onto one argument and wholly discard the other, but acknowledging both is functionally necessary. Megan Rapinoe deserved to win the Ballon d’Or, but her becoming larger than women’s soccer shines an annoying spotlight on how much growth there is yet to accomplish, and rouses a familiar and exhausting frustration over all the reasons this continues to remain true.
