It looks as there is some bad blood between Taylor Swift fans and footballer Alejandro Balde, which be hurting his chances of landing the Golden Boy title.
Balde, a rising star in Spanish footballing, is one of several young players who are in the running for the 2023 Golden Boy award. However, an army of fans behind the 12-time Grammy Award-winning musician, Taylor Swift, may be trying to scupper his chances.
After the sport star admitted he wasn’t a fan of the singer’s music, her Swifties have swiftly stepped in to mount a campaign against him bagging the best Under-21 soccer player award.
“Do I like Taylor Swift? No, I don’t like her music,” the Barcelona star had previously admitted. However, in this case, he probably shouldn’t have said no as it prompted Swift’s fans to take action.
Balde probably knew they were trouble when his votes on the TuttoSport website started to drop.
Never in his wildest dreams could Balde’s main rival, Jude Bellingham, predict that Taylor Swift’s fans could catapult him toward the award. However, it looks as if that might be the case.
Taking to social media, they are now urging fans to vote for the Real Madrid footballer so he bags the Golden Boy prize instead of Balde.
“Hey Swifties! We can’t let this Balde guy win the golden boy award. Vote for Jude Bellingham here,” the original campaign caption wrote.
Incredibly, it seems as if their plan is working.
At the time of writing, Bellingham had amassed almost 50% of the votes while Balde was trailing with 27%.
The Golden Boy Award is one of the most coveted awards that European football players under the age of 21 can receive. Alongside a fan vote, a panel of journalists from multiple media outlets will decide who gets the award. Well-known figures such as Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney have received the award in the past.
We’ll have to wait and see if Balde can shake it off and increase his trailing number of public votes.
