Wild Ballon d’Or tale: did an intern try to help Dembélé win? | OneFootball

The Ballon d'Or always leads to bizarre stories. Currently, there is another crazy story that is causing a stir. According to 'The Athletic', freelance journalist Neal Gardner received an email from a marketing agency offering him money to promote Ousmane Dembélé as a strong candidate for the trophy.

Gardner immediately made the email public, after which the company was identified as the India-based marketing agency 'Bangrr International'. The founder of the company, Ali Husain, described the incident as a "misunderstanding" in a statement and blamed the action on an 18-year-old intern. Allegedly, the intern sent the email out of "curiosity" to research influencer rates—and not to actually create hype for Dembélé. The founder apologized to both Gardner and the PSG star.

The whole situation is doubly bizarre. On the one hand, Gardner is a self-confessed Barca fan. That was probably the reason he was contacted: his positive tweets about Dembélé would carry more weight because they came from a journalist who appeared neutral, not a PSG reporter.

On the other hand, any possible campaign would have been pointless anyway—because the voting for the Ballon d’Or has already ended. The winner will be announced in Paris on September 22.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 FRANCK FIFE - AFP or licensors