Spain dominate Ballon d'Or shortlist as English players miss out

[nilelg5]

Not sure Klose/Muller should be in there - Didn't Klose have a miserable season with his club? And how well did Muller do at Bayern pre-WC?

Klose made 4 app's for bayern all season

 

[tiraths]

Why hasn't the thread been called 'World Cup player of the tournament' yet

 

[Joss]

Disopointed about no evra, vidic or rooney. I mean how can someone score 34 goals the season before and be excluded from that list as some of these players only had good world cups when they were pants for their clubs.

Vidic shouldn't be up there I don't think, but Pique probably should..

Klose made 4 app's for bayern all season

Thanks. His WC wasn't even that good.. didn't he miss a sitter against Australia, prompting James Corden to do a "My mum could've scored that" thing on his WC show.

 

[*Jones*]

As much as i agree about some of the decisions being odd,
if you play well in the worlds biggest tournament then you're obviously gunna be nominated (as much as i disagree with some of them)

 

[fuelledbypassion]

Not sure Klose/Muller should be in there - Didn't Klose have a miserable season with his club? And how well did Muller do at Bayern pre-WC?

Muller did alright, with 13 league goals last year, sometimes from a right sided attacking position. Klose didn't even hit double figures in the league, so I don't know how he can be in the list (although I rarely saw them play last year)

Dzeko was top scorer, but will seldom get a mention because he is Bosnian and therefore not in major international competitions

http://uk.soccerway.com/national/germany/bundesliga/2009-2010/regular-season/

 

[CtPauley]

Vidic shouldn't be up there I don't think, but Pique probably should..

Yh agree about the vidic one as he was out for a lot of last year but evra should be in it. He's proberbly not in it because of the protests by the french squad

 

[gavstacey]

OMG no David Ngog? i cry

I think it will probaly go to Messi just because everytime he touches a football he does something magical with it. Suprised there was no Milito or Rooney considering their form for clubs during the season.

 

[Joss]

As much as i agree about some of the decisions being odd,
if you play well in the worlds biggest tournament then you're obviously gunna be nominated (as much as i disagree with some of them)

Sure.

But surely if a player plays well throughout the whole season, and in club football's biggest tournament (like Milito) then doesn't quite perform (often with the rest of his country) in the WC, then do they not deserve to be up there with, or instead of a player who no one knew about before the WC, or who (like Klose) did OK, but nothing special..

I do agree though, that performing on the world's biggest stage is of course a good reason to be nominated for world player of the year. Just that we do have a separate award for WC player of the tournament.. (Actually as I post this, I regret my decision to go for Messi, he's awesome, but Sneijder did well in pretty much every tournament he played in last season.)

---------- Post added at 12:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 PM ----------

Muller did alright, with 13 league goals last year, sometimes from a right sided attacking position. Klose didn't even hit double figures in the league, so I don't know how he can be in the list (although I rarely saw them play last year)

Dzeko was top scorer, but will seldom get a mention because he is Bosnian and therefore not in major international competitions

http://uk.soccerway.com/national/germany/bundesliga/2009-2010/regular-season/

OK, fair enough RE: Muller


RE: Dzeko: Spot on - he's attracted the interest of Man City, Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, and the rest - surely that deserves some credit?

 

[Ed Syers]

I voted Gyan :wub:

 

[dasty]

Sure.

But surely if a player plays well throughout the whole season, and in club football's biggest tournament (like Milito) then doesn't quite perform (often with the rest of his country) in the WC, then do they not deserve to be up there with, or instead of a player who no one knew about before the WC, or who (like Klose) did OK, but nothing special..

I do agree though, that performing on the world's biggest stage is of course a good reason to be nominated for world player of the year. Just that we do have a separate award for WC player of the tournament.. (Actually as I post this, I regret my decision to go for Messi, he's awesome, but Sneijder did well in pretty much every tournament he played in last season.)

Pretty harsh to be singling out Diego Milito IMO. He wasn't even given a chance at the WC by that genius of a manager. Even Cambiasso and Zanetti was left out of the squad, players whom I thought would be able to bring Argentina much furthere, even the WC.

Oh and Jose Mourinho to win the World Coach of the Year hands down. He made a huge impact last year, an impact so huge that even various teams in World Cup tries to adopt his strategy (although that resulted in a boring WC, but let's not talk about it). Del Bosque did a great job too, but.... just take a look at Spain's squad.

 

[Joss]

Pretty harsh to be singling out Diego Milito IMO. He wasn't even given a chance at the WC by that genius of a manager. Even Cambiasso and Zanetti was left out of the squad, players whom I thought would be able to bring Argentina much furthere, even the WC.

Oh and Jose Mourinho to win the World Coach of the Year hands down. He made a huge impact last year, an impact so huge that even various teams in World Cup tries to adopt his strategy (although that resulted in a boring WC, but let's not talk about it). Del Bosque did a great job too, but.... just take a look at Spain's squad.

I wasn't saying Milito had a bad WC, i'm saying that he wasn't a standout player - whoever's fault that is, but he had a brilliant season with Inter, and thus deserves to be recognised.

 

[Mike.]

I wasn't saying Milito had a bad WC, i'm saying that he wasn't a standout player - whoever's fault that is, but he had a brilliant season with Inter, and thus deserves to be recognised.

its supposed to be over the year. he scored 30 goals, scored the goal that won them the league, the two goals that won the champions league, and the goal that won them the Coppa Italia.Its hard to be more standout than that

 

[Dunc]

Lol, a Sunderland player on the list, what is the world coming to.

 

[RobsonUtting]

Lol, a Sunderland player on the list, what is the world coming to.

If Gyan can get in, I'd go for Wes Hoolahan having an outside chance for next year's.

 

[Chaz Sexington]

Even as a Scot, I think Rooney should be included. And where's Milito!? I think it'll be Sneijder now, and Bale if he continues at the same level next year.

 

[sunilvk7]

Diego Milito goal won them Italian Cup, Seria A and Champions league still he is not nominated. Winning is secondary, but at least he should have got nominated.

Rooney for his brilliant season, Lampard for scoring 20 plus goals and 15 plus assists (Maybe wrong) didnt get nominated. World cup year doesnt mean you have to nominate players who had good WC, This award is meant to be Best player of the year not Best player of the World cup.

---------- Post added at 12:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 PM ----------

And Eto'o nomination is nothing but joke. He was not at all good last season.

Klose who scored 3 goals whole season got nominated for his world cup gaols. No wonder everyone call these award overrated and ****.

 

[Joss]

Ballon d'Or shortlist puts English football in its place
Paul Hayward - Guardian Blogs


With the reek of alleged vote-selling rising from Fifa's Swiss HQ the winner of the newly merged Ballon d'Or for the world's best footballer might want to take the prize with a pair of Marigolds to avoid contamination. English football has cleverly distanced itself from the game's governing body by having no nominees on the 23-man list.

There will be no English winner and probably no Premier League-based recipient, since the only candidates currently working here are Didier Drogba, Cesc Fábregas, a substitute in Spain's heavily-represented World Cup winning squad, and Asamoah Gyan, who arrived at Sunderland two months ago. The trio are long odds to beat the likes of Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi and Wesley Sneijder, a beaten World Cup finalist with Holland but victorious in Serie A, the Coppa Italia and Champions League in a one-month romp with Internazionale.

The biggest individual face-slap is for Wayne Rooney, for whom the eulogies dried up in March. Chasing a gigantic pay rise has burned more energy for the best English player than keeping up the pursuit of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the extravagant-talent league. Manchester United must wish they had seen this list before surrendering to Rooney's wage demands. His absence from the list of the world's best 23 might have pushed the price down, just a little.

England's dysfunctional national team could expect to send no contender to the ceremony in Zurich on 10 January but the Premier League's poor showing refutes the best-league-in-the-world boast. Diego Forlán, Cristiano Ronaldo, Arjen Robben and Xabi Alonso are ex-Premier League luminaries on Fifa's list: a welding together of France Football's Ballon d'Or for the European-based No1 and the global gong cooked up by Fifa in 1991.

These lists induce many a wince around England's clubs, except in the realm of management, where Fabio Capello, an aristocrat by any other measure, unsurprisingly failed to join Sir Alex Ferguson, Carlo Ancelotti and Arsène Wenger on the 10-man roll for World Coach of the Year. Needless to say none is English and only one (Ferguson) British.

Vicente del Bosque is recognised for his part in the completion of a world and European double by Spain while Bert van Marwijk, Del Bosque's victim in the final in Johannesburg, also makes the top 10, presumably for reacquainting Holland with the power of the clog. A gratuitous swipe, maybe, because Van Marwijk did pull off the miracle of Dutch unity and drew much of the best from Robben.

In the previous global recognition race Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and David Beckham made brief forays, but Michael Owen – the 2001 European Footballer of the Year – remains the only garlanded English footballer since Kevin Keegan, winner of the Ballon d'Or in 1978 and again a year later. Stanley Matthews won the first running in 1956, Denis Law took the roses in 1964, Bobby Charlton in 1966 and George Best landed the vote two years later.

But the closest English football came to winning the original Fifa prize was three seconds and two thirds. In this barren year there is no future winner of the combined award in sight, unless Rooney has climbed off his Dubai sunbed to return a changed man. Equally ominous is that such a high proportion of the world's most naturally gifted players have avoided life in England's highest tier, as did Zinedine Zidane, (the Brazilian) Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Luís Figo and Kaká – all winners, some of them multiple, since the formation of the Premier League.

Drogba is 32 now and Fábregas almost left Arsenal in the summer to return to Barcelona. This is not a good time for English bragging.

 

[Shockhorror.]

What a joke. Just give the award to Messi now, you know they won't look past him.

 

[RobsonUtting]

What a joke. Just give the award to Messi now, you know they won't look past him.

You sound like you think he's overrated! He scored nearly 50 goals and set up about 15 last season, there's a reason why people say he's the best in the world...
Because he blatantly is.

 

[fuelledbypassion]

Messi was pretty much man marked throughout the world cup too. It wouldn't surprise me if Papastathopoulos followed him into the showers after the Greece game |)