So, having the best players has not much to do with it? We must have some amazing PR-workers over here...
The next Ballon d'Or winner that isn't Cristiano or Leo
- Thread starter okLaptop1
- Start date
Bale for me, he's ahead of Hazard and Neymar at the moment and still seems to be getting better.
Which of the last 10 winners hasn't won it on merit then? Ronaldo last year? Messi the years before him?
Was going to post the witty 'Houllier' emoticon but have decided to give you a chance to elaborate before I do so because I am a nice guy.
Yes. 2012 is when stats & records became more important than actual performances, only in my opinion of course.
But they can hardly go around on these goalscoring sprees without the guys behind them. I know these guys can produce something out of nothing but they are usually surrounded by world class talent too. They deserve credit in my opinion, but it's hard to measure their performances as easily I guess.
Who else do you think should have won it then? Robben? Muller? Di Maria?
Giving it to someone other than one of them would have been a travesty, in my opinion too of course.
How can having amazing stats not be a good thing by the way? As long as it's not the only criteria you base your outcome on.
Pogba
Notice how you instantly went into confrontation mode, "my player deserves it". No one really cared too much about this award 10 years ago, it was a recognition, just that, then Marca and Fifa did their best to turn this into competition that defines an era, "my player scored 45 goals last season so he deserves it", "not minme score 56% of goals in semifinals and defining minutes of a match so he deserves it". The ballon de oro became de defining prize of an hysterical football era characterized by stats.
Iniesta should have won it at some point during the last years, Xavi, Robben, Drogba, Ribery. Is just that, a recognition, but no, now my player has to won it every year because mine is bigger than yours.
Barcelona and Real Madrid are ruining the football party for everybody.
Drogba should have won it in 2012 because his team won the UCL in mytical fashion with him as the central figura. Iniesta should have take it in 2010 for being the face of the Spain team that won the world cup. Milito or Sneijder in 2010 could also be a good shout. Ribery or Robben when Bayern won the treble.
But no, look at those stats!
Goalscoring is still more important than defending though. If you never score, the best you can do is draw. You literally need to score to win. Defenders deserve credit, every member of a team is important, but in general attackers are more important. There's a reason they get paid more right.
Bale or Di Maria
Di Maria after winning the double in 2016.
Don't get me wrong. Ronaldo and Messi have been the two best players in the world non stop (almost) for the last few years.
But again that's not really the point.
My points were that money spent isn't relevant in this conversation and if it was, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Also, Real and Barca come with a level of hype and media bull that no one else does. Do United have a newspaper that photoshops opposition goals to make them look more offside or the crowd to make themselves look more popular? We have noodle partners while you have journalists bringing politics and media pressure into the Ballon Dor. Obviously it's not just that but it happens enough that it seems like El Classico players get the edge in all of FIFAs awards.
Fwiw, I don't think you or Barca are killing football. On that count, if you're guilty, so are we.
Edit: I was curious so I checked that team of the year thing and guess who's top?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFPro#Appearances_by_club
Barca have 36, Real have 18. We have 8 and Bayern have 3. If they were really that much better than the rest of us than they'd be sharing the CL between them every year, the same way they do the Ballon Dor, not losing the league to Athletico. Everything points to them getting special treatment. Lahm was in it once, Alves 4 times ffs.
Last edited:
Probably one of Neymar/Bale/Hazard. I'll go with Bale as he's the oldest.
Probably Neymar.
Bale I reckon but only when Ronaldo leaves. The attack will be built around him, he'll go up a gear.
My opinion for recent times:
Iniesta in 2009 (CL semi-final clutch goal and final performance, generally awesome that season).
Xavi in 2010 (one of the performances of the season across all leagues, sealing the league title in the Bernabeu with 2 superb assists, completely dominating the game, World Cup win, generally awesome that season).
Messi in 2011 (CL semi-final solo goal and final performance, generally awesome that season).
Ronaldo in 2012 (sealed the league title in Camp Nou, scored against every opponent, semi-finals in the Euros, probably his best ever season, Messi stole it from him with his ridiculous goalscoring form towards the end of the year when he broke the all-time goalscoring record but ultimately he didn't win anything but a Copa del Rey).
Messi in 2013 (Ronaldo stole it from him with that WC qualifier hype towards the end of the year during the voting time while Messi was injured but remember that Messi was a 1 man show the entire season, scoring against every single opponent and consecutively, 46 goals in 34 games, without injuries he was on course of breaking his own La Liga goalscoring record (50) once again, making sure Barca won the league with 100 points, coming on with 1 leg and making sure Barca qualified for CL semis against PSG, whereas Ronaldo got knocked out and sent off in the Copa final and Madrid generally bottled the league by December).
Obviously those who actually ended up winning (Messi and Ronaldo) also had their arguments and it's not as if Heskey won it but yeah, that's my opinion.
I'd have gone for Sneidjer in 2010.
I wonder if he'd have won if Netherlands had won that final...
I wonder if he'd have won if Netherlands had won that final...
My moneys on some kid we don't know yet because Ronaldo and Messi will win it for the next 3 years imo. There could be a 16 year old now who will win it once they decline. Atm no one is close enough I'm afraid.
Paul Pogba
He isn't. Bale and Di Maria are both better.
The best player in those teams already get an award, it's called a winner's medal. An individual award shouldn't be overly influenced by how well teams do, it should be about, well, the individual.
And stats are a good way of measuring certain things. Not the only factor for things like this, but it would foolish to dismiss all stats just because.
They're all extremely good, but Hazard is better than Di Maria on his day. Him and Bale are very close.
Sneijder missed about 50 % of Inter's league games. Diego Milito was their standout performer across all competitions. He scored the brace in the CL final and the winner in the Coppa Italia final when Sneijder got injured after 5 minutes. He was also Inter's topscorer in the league, 10 goals more than their next best scorer Eto'o, and scored the winner in the narrow 1-0 victory on the last day of the season to seal the title. Hence why he was voted Serie A's player of the year.
Sneijder's World Cup exploits were exaggerated due to some jamy goals. Up until today I don't understand the hindsight Sneijder hype. I remember very well that during the 09/10 season no one was in awe of Sneijder dominating Inter's midfield, in fact Barca's defeat to Inter was a real shock.
It was about recognizing a certain individual of a team who did well in X competition during a season. Then, as you said, stats came in and ruined everything.
The pressing labour of Sneijder during the 3-1 in Italy was fantastic.
I'm sorry but whenever I see comments like...
it's a bit hard to bite my tongue.
It isn't though. The Ballon D'or is awarded to the best player of the past year.
You have lifetime achievement awards, testimonials and other stuff for recognition...
Adnan Januzaj.
Maybe how much Twitter followers or Facebook fans a player has, should be a deciding factor too...
What the hell is recognition anyway? Isn't it enough recognition if the majority of professional players and managers chose you as the best player?
A team could do badly or average despite one player being fantastic in it, I don't put too much stock into whether or not a player's team won the biggest trophies when I think of the best player over the year. And I disagree, stats haven't ruined anything. The only stats that really get talked about are goals and assists, and those aren't just "stats", they are actual important contributions that I don't think should be ignored.
I don't think it's close at all.
Recognition for me is... take the example of Drogba, fantastic player with a fantastic carrer, probably one of the best african players ever. Chelsea won the UCL in 2012 suffering and in-extremis, with him as the central figure of two of the most important matches in the campaing, the ballon d'or would have been a great way for the football family to recognize him as a player who gave a lot to football and that was the perfect moment... but no, Messi scored like 50 goals and won the spanish league, that's definitely more important.
Iniesta in 2010 is a great example also, considering he scored the most important goal of that year, but he's a player which its contribution can't be defined in stats, so no.
I don't care about stats and... I'm alive.
Baring injuries it will be Neymar. In fact he might even win it next or in a couple of years.
In general the Ballon d'Or should be handed irregularly. Sometimes there is just no real standout player. Who do you give it this year?
Messi? Injured a lot, good but far from great World Cup, won no trophies, no impact in the league, no impact in the CL.
Ronaldo? Finished 3th in the league mainly because of dropped points against direct rivals Barca and Atletico where he failed to make an impact, Copa del Rey final was won by Madrid without Ronaldo, World Cup was a desaster. Champions League? Di Maria was the official MOTM in the final and Ramos killed the tie against Bayern in the semis as well as kept them alive in the final. Fairly certain the 4th and 5th goals against Bayern belong to the "stat-padding" category as well as group stage goals against Galatasary and Co. and goals against Schalke and Dortmund's injury-plagued B team.
Some German player? Who? Neuer? Sure, great but "best player in the world" great?
If there is a standout player Fifa should honour the player but if there isn't a clear cut standout performer it becomes arbitrary.
Messi? Injured a lot, good but far from great World Cup, won no trophies, no impact in the league, no impact in the CL.
Ronaldo? Finished 3th in the league mainly because of dropped points against direct rivals Barca and Atletico where he failed to make an impact, Copa del Rey final was won by Madrid without Ronaldo, World Cup was a desaster. Champions League? Di Maria was the official MOTM in the final and Ramos killed the tie against Bayern in the semis as well as kept them alive in the final. Fairly certain the 4th and 5th goals against Bayern belong to the "stat-padding" category as well as group stage goals against Galatasary and Co. and goals against Schalke and Dortmund's injury-plagued B team.
Some German player? Who? Neuer? Sure, great but "best player in the world" great?
If there is a standout player Fifa should honour the player but if there isn't a clear cut standout performer it becomes arbitrary.
Hazard has never had a season close to what di Maria did last season. He's behind as of now, clearly.
Ronaldo will take it and Marca is already PRing for it.
My choice would be Di Maria, he's having a fantastic 2014. Maybe James Rodriguez, but no, will be Ronaldo no doubt about it, he has a huge marketing scheme behind him to help him get the prize.
Just go with the UEFA award, if you believe the award should reflect the player's influence in actually winning something instead of just being a silly media wankfest about who scored more goals.
Milito won it in 2010 after being the standout player in Inter's treble winning team, Messi in 2011 when Guardiola's Barca peaked, Iniesta in 2012 for his outstanding Euro performances, Ribery in 2013 for his terrific season that helped Bayern win a treble and Ronaldo in 2014 for being the best player in Real's La Decima.
Those awards actually represent what happened on the pitch, if you look back at them 20 years from now. Those are way better choices than the Messi vs Ronaldo popularity show.
Milito won it in 2010 after being the standout player in Inter's treble winning team, Messi in 2011 when Guardiola's Barca peaked, Iniesta in 2012 for his outstanding Euro performances, Ribery in 2013 for his terrific season that helped Bayern win a treble and Ronaldo in 2014 for being the best player in Real's La Decima.
Those awards actually represent what happened on the pitch, if you look back at them 20 years from now. Those are way better choices than the Messi vs Ronaldo popularity show.
Unless messi gets injured it's hard to see him winning it playing alongside a vastly superior footballer.
I'm talking about things as of now.Let's talk again in May.
It would have been shockingly bad decision had the best footballer award gone to Milito and not messi. The uefa award is limited in scope hence you get lesser performers getting it.