If there is one pinnacle in football that every footballer aspires to achieve, then it is the Ballon D’OR. It baffles me as to why the success story of team sports should be pinned down to the effort of a single player.
Is the best player chosen good enough to play in between the sticks, play as a right back, central midfielder and strike simultaneously? Assuming Neymar chose to score against Seville in Messi's record breaking game, could Messi have scored that record breaking second goal? If at all, not from that move.
What if Ronaldo scores 8 goals in match and Casillas concedes 10, what will be the importance of Ronaldo to real Madrid? I am beginning to think the award is losing is value on a number of fronts, not least its political inclination and goal scoring heroics.
Is the Ballon D’OR given to the best player or a player from the best team? Why didn’t Wesley Sneider win in 2010, or Andreas Iniesta in 2012?
Well, the answer is simple, Messi outscored them on each occasions. What criterion is used to compare these players?
Is there anything common between the Portuguese goal machine and the German goal keeping genius in Manuel Neuer?
Comparing them for one award may not favour the goal keeper as he will not make the headline news as his opponent.
284 goals in 271 matches, 26 league goals in 16 matches, 22 hatricks in 5 years and above all, 17 champions league goals in one season will easily make all the headline as compared to, say Philip Lahm , who scored 1 league in 2 seasons prior to his double this season?
Are we promoting fairness as FIFA is preaching? Not when height is compared to weight.
In 2006, the last non-scoring player in Italian Fabio Cannavaro won the world best player after a stellar world cup in Germany and some 5 star performances at the Barnebau.
FIFA later said the award was issued to the Italian to motivate the defenders and other creative players. Can you imagine any center back winning the award in the next decade?
Few midfielders can boast of the vision of Iniesta or the recycling abilities of Xavi, but neither has won the finest player or may win as their most prolific scoring seasons each produced 8 goals, a tally Messi or Ronaldo can achieve in just 2 matches as against the mid fielders needing 50 plus games to achieve.
Legendary goalkeepers like Gigi Buffon, Iker Casiilas, Van der Saar, Peter Schmeichel, and Dida might have regretted choosing the stick ahead of deeper roles on the pitch.
It will only be fair to compare a Ferari to another Ferari and not a Bugharti. Goal-scoring prowess like the current duo may never be bettered anytime sooner, why using that to judge who is the best player in the world?
Messi has been off colour for the current season by his astronomic standard, but 2 successive hat-tricks and people are saying he deserved the world best player yet again.
My simple question is, are strikers more important than defenders? Liverpool is a litmus test as to who is important in a team. 101 league goals scored, 52 conceded, and the results favoured Manchester city as Vincent Kompany and his defensive partners were superior to Kolo Toure and Skrtel combination. Have you heard of this cliché, “strikers will win you matches, but defenders will win you trophies.”
What is the essence of the FIFpro XI? Is it not the best players in the various positions chosen by the players themselves?
So if the FIFPRO XI is announced why the best player in the world? The earlier FIFA sorts itself, the better for us all as followers of the game. When dignitaries like Michel Platini starts making utterances like “the FIFA Ballon D’OR must go to a German and not Cristiano or Messi.”
I am obliged to also air my opinion on the current saga. The Germans have the best team, not the best player.
The Germans remember are the only nation to have played in 6 successive semi finals in the FIFA world cup. Not even the dreaded Penta Campenato could achieve that feat. Ask the Brazilians what happened to them when they met at the Maracana sports stadium in their semi finals with the Mannschaft?
They equaled their worst ever defeat since 1926? Can you tell me Mario Goetze is a better player than Neymar, or Shurrle is better than Willian?
Look at the former Shaktar Donetsk’s man on the wide side of the current blues team. The best team is far different from the best player.
Is it time to scrape the world best player away or rebranding it? How did Messi win the golden ball at the summer’s world cup?
Sepp Blatter was even surprised. Assuming the 2011 Messi was to turn up in Brazil, then Juste Fontaine’s record of 8 goals in a single world cup would easily have been smashed at the group stages.
He scored 4 goals at the group stages and never showed up especially in the finals.
The issue of individual awards in team sports needs clear-cut performance to get the nod ahead of your colleagues. In his worst scoring season after becoming the star player, Lionel Messi scored 28 league goals, a feat that will be hailed as astronomical by any other player. He scores even when he is not playing any good game by his standard.
Is it not enough to award him the golden boot and choose the best player for the entire calendar year? Is there an effective player out there better than Thormas Muller?
Chelsea may be flying in the league with Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, and Eden Hazard getting all the plaudits. The truth is that their best player is that magical Nemanja Matic in their midfield.
So who will you vote for?
The dependence of any side on a single player is mainly due to how they packaged their playing systems. When Barcelona played around Messi, he scored at almost every move, what followed when Luis Enrique pulled him to support the midfielders? He failed to score 315 minutes in all competition.
His Iberian counterpart in Cristiano Ronaldo might be scoring goals for fun this season, but it has to go down to the resurgence of Karim Benzema and the good work from Isco.
So the question is, should the award be given to a goal scoring hero or just a consistent performer across the entire year? What percentage of the votes casted by the electorate is used to adjudge the finest on the planet? Stanley Mathews might have been the first player to have won the award in 1956, but I doubt if an English player can ever win the coveted award at this rate.
If proper planning is not done on this Ballon D’OR, it will soon change into “ Baula D’OR”. When brilliant center backs like Nesta, Terry, Carragher, Osei kuffuor were not even short listed, then calling it world best player might be too misguided.
The three candidates for the awards include the perennial duo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano, sand witched by the ever reliable Gelsenkirchen born Manuel Neuer, though any neutral follower of the game might not have problem predicting the winner.
After another monstrous goal scoring heroics only blemished by shambolic defense at the world cup, the Real Madrid forward may soon make it a hat-tricks of the Ballon D’ORs.
The pro Messi’s may use the world cup to launch their campaign, but is the world best player won in just one month? What if Ghana’s Majeed Waris had scored 20 plus goals at the World Cup, should he have been a worthy winner?
Why was Luka Modric, overlooked despite been the man behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s abnormal scoring streak?
Manuel Neuer might not be revered for scoring goals, but after redefining the role of a goal keeper, backed by his four goals conceded in 17 league matches this season, the former Schalke 04 short stopper’s might just have a case.
Imagine an award for goalkeepers only, who could have been bold enough to compare himself to the Bayern Munich man? What has he in common with Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to fight for? If the name were to be changed into say sports personality of the year or most consistent performer, then a neutral platform might have been created.
On Monday, when the three nominees announced, in Manuel Neuer, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo battled for the highest individual prize in world football, don’t be surprised to hear Cristiano Ronaldo Dos Santos Aviero. Why are athletes awarded a joint certificate in the relay events and not the last athlete? The answer could have solved this current saga.
“Can we ever see another defender wining this award, when Ronaldo seems to have fallen in love with hat-tricks?”
If 1 hat-trick in Manchester won him the best player once, then 27 hat-tricks in the famous white should be winning him his third Ballon D’Or come January 12, 2015.
Good luck to the men at the back and proper planning anticipated from Sepp Blatter and his team.
The article continues with a complete profile of the three finalists, after the winner is announced.
By Saani Abacha
@Saani_abacha