Messi, Ronaldo, and the Politics of Celebrity Elections: Voting for the Best Soccer Player in the World

Christopher Anderson, Luc Arrondel, André Blais, Jean-François Daoust, Jean-François Laslier and Karine Van der Straeten ()
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Christopher Anderson: LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS GBR - Partenaires IRSTEA - IRSTEA - Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture
André Blais: UdeM - Université de Montréal
Jean-François Daoust: McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]

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Abstract: It is widely assumed that celebrities are imbued with political capital and the power to move opinion. To understand the sources of that capital in the specific domain of sports celebrity, we investigate the popularity of global soccer superstars. Specifically, we examine players' success in the Ballon d'Or—the most high-profile contest to select the world's best player. Based on historical election results as well as an original survey of soccer fans, we find that certain kinds of players are significantly more likely to win the Ballon d'Or. Moreover, we detect an increasing concentration of votes on these kinds of players over time, suggesting a clear and growing hierarchy in the competition for soccer celebrity. Further analyses of support for the world's two best players in 2016 (Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo) show that, if properly adapted, political science concepts like partisanship have conceptual and empirical leverage in ostensibly non-political contests.

Date: 2020-03
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Published in Perspectives on Politics, 2020, 18 (1), pp.91-110. ⟨10.1017/S1537592719002391⟩

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Working Paper: Messi, Ronaldo, and the Politics of Celebrity Elections: Voting for the Best Soccer Player in the World (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02297830

DOI: 10.1017/S1537592719002391

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