Five major controversies about the Golden Globes: Four Stars Ranking Controversy and an Overall Trend

The Golden Globe Awards will cause an uproar every year. Fans and experts complained that the award had lost credibility, but the debate was as fierce as ever. Regardless of the final list, there will always be different voices. The lack of clear standards makes objectivity untold, but even so, it cannot fully explain some of the options this year. It's not about Dembele's top spot, but involves several other rankings that have left many confused.

Pedri - Only 11th place

rarely have a surprisingly lower ranking than Pedri. For a long time, the Spanish midfielder was seen as a creative passer, and that's all. But last season, he transformed into a much more comprehensive player. On the defensive end, he is the best in Barcelona: leading the team in both attempts and successful steals, and also tops the list in blocking passes and shootings.

In addition, Pedri's dribbling ability has also improved significantly. Among all players in the team who tried dribbling at least ten times, he achieved the highest success rate - 66.3% (57 successful 86 attempts). Of course, his overall view and extremely penetrating passes never disappeared, and even if they failed to directly convert into assists, they continued to create threats.

Apart from the air confrontation, Pedri has almost become the "perfect" all-round midfielder - although no one expects him to really win the Golden Globe, he finally ranked 11th, which feels too strict and almost "crime".

Rafinia - Only ranked fifth

For Rafinia, there are actually only two logical results: second or third. Perhaps someone can argue that Vitinia should be ahead of him, because the Portuguese midfielder is Paris Saint-Germain's offensive metronome. But when comparing attackers, it is difficult to understand why the Brazilian winger is not ranked higher.

In the Champions League, Rafinia's performance was amazing. He not only surpassed Dembele and Yamal, but also surpassed everyone. He ended up being the top scorer and assists in the event at the same time, contributing an incredible 13 goals and eight assists. Even in La Liga, his total goals and assists are higher than Yamal.

Salah has a better figure in the Premier League, but voters have always regarded the Champions League as the ultimate stage. And on that stage, Rafinia was simply unstoppable.

Palmer - The eighth place

It feels like the voters are trying to convince us that the Club World Cup is an important criterion of judgment. Otherwise, Palmer's high ranking would be difficult to justify. Chelsea did win the Europa League, but that was the third-level club event in Europe, and they had hardly encountered any truly comparable opponents - perhaps only Real Betis was one, but the latter was far inferior to this London club in terms of strength.

Ironically, Palmer's performance has actually declined compared to the previous season. After joining Chelsea, he performed soundly in his first season, but this past season, especially in the second half, has seen a significant decline in form. In the last 16 league games, he scored only 1 goal and sent 2 assists, which often seems inconvincing.

In this way, it seems that a player can suddenly be regarded as the top ten players in the world as long as he plays a mediocre season and then make achievements in the Club World Cup final. Meanwhile, Douai, who scored twice in the Champions League final, ranked 14th. This makes people question: considering that Palmer has been a rotation player most of the season, should he really be in the top 30?

Vinitius - No. 16

This is a typical case where "fame is greater than actual performance". We all know how great Vinicius is - he can not only dazzling with his talent, but also create decisive moments. Over the years, opponents have made the entire game plan around limiting him, and he can still tear the opponent's defense.

But the situation was different last season. With Mbappe joining Real Madrid, Vinicius lost the center of the spotlight. His data in La Liga - 11 goals and 8 assists - was not outstanding, not only behind Rafinia, Lewandowski and Mbappe, but even worse than players such as Thorot, Perez and Budimir.

Putting aside personal data, Real Madrid itself also failed in the league, the King's Cup and the Champions League. This raises the question: What exactly did Vinicius rank so high as 16th?

Preference to attackers

The closer you play to the goal, the greater your chances of getting recognition. This is not a new trend, but it is still frustrating. Players like Yamal and Mbappe rank higher than expected, while people like Vinicius and Palmer benefited from the same logic. After Rodri won the last Golden Globe Award, many had hoped that this marked the beginning of valuing players in all positions. But this imbalance obviously has not disappeared. At least Vitinia entered the top five, which brought a faint hope.

This reflects the reality of the modern football media environment. Social media amplifies the obsession with highlights, with clips of goals and fancy moments obscuring those more nuanced contributions from midfield and guards. The stories outside the venue contribute to this hustle and bustle. A viral controversy could trigger a rebound, but then public opinion might turn again—but in any case, it fuels star worship. In today's football world, it's almost impossible to separate the performance on the court from the hustle and bustle that arises around it.