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These two trophies are the most notorious individual trophies in
sports. In this article I will be comparing them with each other
and looking at things like what they are valued at, the materials
used etc...
To begin with, the Ballon d’or is a trophy that has been awarded annually by French
news magazine “France Football” since 1956 with the fi rst winner being Stanley
Mathews. This iconic award was only awarded to players who were European until
1995 where George Weah became the fi rst Non-European to win the award.The
award also temporarily merged with FIFA, merging the FIFA Best Player Award from
2010 to 2015 to make the FIFA Ballon d’or.
This “Golden Ball” has gone through a few design changes since its origin (It has
always been designed by the Meller family) but as it stands currently the award is:
● a height of 28 cm, a diameter of 22 cm, and it is a sphere in shape
● Filled with a wax like material
● The surface is fi lled with fi ve kilograms of 18-carat gold
● Costs 3,000 Euros to make
On the other hand *The Michael Jordan Trophy known as the NBA MVP trophy until
2022 has also been awarded since 1956 and is awarded to the best regular season
player in the current NBA season . There hasn’t been much changes to the trophy
since it was made except for the voting system which swapped between exclusively
player votes and sportswriters and broadcasters since the 1980-81 season.
However, this trophy has a unanimous winner which was Stephen Curry in the
2014-15 season unlike the ballon d’or which has never had a unanimous decision.
Furthermore, this trophy is only awarded to NBA players so not every basketball
player can win it unlike the Ballon d’or where any professional football player can
win.
The new Michael Jordan Trophies design:
● The trophy stands 23.6 inches tall and weighs 23.6 pounds, representing
Jordan’s jersey number (23) and number of NBA championships (6).
● Its fi ve-sided base is a nod to Jordan’s fi ve league MVPs.
● The namesake badge is six-sided, a nod to Jordan’s six NBA championships.
● The 15-degree angle of the base is a nod to Jordan’s 15-season career.
● The crystal basketball consists of 23 points, a nod to Jordan’s jersey number.
● The crystal basketball measures 1.23 inches in diameter, in reference to the
singularity of the MVP and Jordan’s standout career.
*There is no disclosed value or cost for this trophy
To conclude while the Ballon d’or is the more iconic trophy because of its golden
look and history behind it, The Michael Jordan Trophy is more impressively
designed in my opinion with the subtle nods to Michael Jordan himself in the
design of the trophy but it is only awarded to NBA players so arguably it has less
value than the Ballon d’or because it is exclusive to its own league. Whereas, the
Ballon d’or can be won by any professional footballer so it is extremely difficult to
win.
~ Written by Parsa Salari Sharif
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