Ballon d'Or is western-centric. I looked into the award's history right here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballon_d%27OrOnly once was it given to a black man from what it seems!? In 1995
Football is so beloved in all over the world, with countries in Latin America making it the pride of every neighborhood to support their local team. Yet we only see the reward rotate around English, Spanish, Italian and German players most of the time.
Let alone that, I'm pretty sure the organizers will overlook ambitious players to just create a feedback loop by nominating the most popular players. My generation is bored of the cliche of Messi getting the award and Christiano Ronalo being nominated...