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Thibaut Courtois agrees with Edouard Mendy on Ballon d'or shortcomings despite winning the prestigious Yachin trophy.

 Former Chelsea goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois has slammed the voting process for the Ballon d'or award after finishing seventh on the list, a hierarchy that saw Mendy placed in fourth place. 

The Real Madrid Man did not hide his frustration after the Real Madrid goalkeeper finished seventh in the 2022 Ballon d’Or.

His Real teammate Karim Benzema took home the main prize at Monday night’s award show, with former Liverpool forward Sadio Mane second and Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne third. 

After the prize-giving, Courtois shared his delight for Benzema, who had long been the clear favourite for the award after leading Los Blancos to the La Liga and Champions League titles, finishing as top scorer in both competitions.

However, the Belgian international was less-than impressed with his final ranking that saw his finish behind the aforementioned top three as well as Robert Lewandowski, Mohamed Salah and Kylian Mbappe.

He also took issue with Real finishing third in the Club of the Year prize behind City and Liverpool.

‘We all have a strange face with the City thing,’ Courtois said.

‘Seeing the logic and knowing how they vote, I knew that I would have no chance of winning it.

‘I’m not saying I [should have] won it, but I’m not even on the podium being the goalkeeper who has won La Liga and the Champions League.’

Courtois can feel somewhat hard done by, given the 30-year-old’s outstanding performances during the 2021/22 season that culminated in winning the Man of the Match award in the Champions League final.

Goalkeepers, and defensive players in general, are often unfavored in Ballon d’Or voting, with the legendary Lev Yashin the only keeper to win the award having done so back in 1963.

The last shot-stopper to finish in the top three was Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer in 2014, while AC Milan’s Mike Maignan was the only other keeper besides Courtois to make the 30-man shortlist in 2022.

‘First of all, I am very happy for Karim Benzema. It seems that scoring a goal is better than stopping it. A battle that remains to be won."

Courtois added: ‘I see it as impossible, for a goalkeeper it is impossible to win this award. I don’t know if as a goalkeeper you can do more than what I did last year.’

The Belgian did at least claim the Yashin Trophy, awarded to the best goalkeeper of the past season, ahead of Liverpool’s Alisson and City’s Ederson. 

An almost similar occurrence had happened to Edouard Mendy in the 2020/21 season but in his case, he had been robbed of the Yachin trophy, finishing second below Donarumma despite his incredible performance and stats which were way better than that of the Italian stopper. 

The robbery had sparked reactions from his Chelsea teammates, with former teammate Rudiger, and Thiago Silva speaking out: 

"“Someone explain why he’s not nominated for the Ballon d'Or? What a performance…Edouard Mendy,” Rudiger had tweeted.

Taking to Instagram, Thiago Silva wrote: "He won the Champions League as one of the best goalkeepers?? Left off the list for the Ballon d’Or?"

Mendy himself spoke against the robbery and blamed his Nationality as a criteria for him being robbed of the award: 

"The best response was to stay the course on the pitch to show that my name deserved to be in the top 30.

"I think being African did me a disservice because I didn't play in any international competitions last year."

Thibaut Courtois also speaking out on the irregularities surrounding the voting process for the Ballon d'or speak volumes of the inconclusive nature of the results of the process. 

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