Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball)

I'm not surprised. I have yet to see FIFA officially recognize any football outside El Classico to be officially sancioned professional matches.

Clearly ignoring a full year and making your list based off one spanish league match is the right way. The real travesty.... WHERE WERE VILLA AND PEDRO!? FIFA shopuld be condemned for not expanding the finalists to include these too. They deserve to have there cocks shoved down the medias throat too... such a shame, blatter fucked up again





-----
Sigh.... in all seriousness, do you NOT get my problem now Wild? Seriously, did any of them outside of Messi deserve this? I'm being serious. Was Xavi THAT Good in the world cup? I don't think so. Was he that good for barca? If he repeated his euro 2008 performance than yes. But 08/09 was year he deserved balon d'or. And dont get me started on Iniesta. He missed 2 or 3 months? He dived to get Hetinga sent off than capitalized.


And this is no knock on Xavi or Iniesta. They ARE two of the top 10 players in the world. Undebiable. But that doesn't mean in 2010 they were balon d'or players.

The shortlist should have been Sneijder, Messi, Robben. Actually I could see Xavi over Robben,even though Robben was bayern's catalyst and immense in WC. Spain won the world cup and that alone deserves a nomination. However truth is no one player stood out. It wasn't pirlo or cannavaro or buffon like in 2006, or ronaldo and rivaldo in 2002. It was a dominating team performance.

Sneijder and Villa should have been on the shortlist, along (meh) Iniesta I suppose. It's such a weird shortlist.

Senatore_M84 said:

I'm not surprised. I have yet to see FIFA officially recognize any football outside El Classico to be officially sancioned professional matches.

Clearly ignoring a full year and making your list based off one spanish league match is the right way. The real travesty.... WHERE WERE VILLA AND PEDRO!? FIFA shopuld be condemned for not expanding the finalists to include these too. They deserve to have there cocks shoved down the medias throat too... such a shame, blatter fucked up again





-----
Sigh.... in all seriousness, do you NOT get my problem now Wild? Seriously, did any of them outside of Messi deserve this? I'm being serious. Was Xavi THAT Good in the world cup? I don't think so. Was he that good for barca? If he repeated his euro 2008 performance than yes. But 08/09 was year he deserved balon d'or. And dont get me started on Iniesta. He missed 2 or 3 months? He dived to get Hetinga sent off than capitalized.


And this is no knock on Xavi or Iniesta. They ARE two of the top 10 players in the world. Undebiable. But that doesn't mean in 2010 they were balon d'or players.

The shortlist should have been Sneijder, Messi, Robben. Actually I could see Xavi over Robben,even though Robben was bayern's catalyst and immense in WC. Spain won the world cup and that alone deserves a nomination. However truth is no one player stood out. It wasn't pirlo or cannavaro or buffon like in 2006, or ronaldo and rivaldo in 2002. It was a dominating team performance.

Click to expand...

David Villa did...

Besides, what kinda argument is it to suggest Iniesta doesn't deserve it cause he missed three months due to injury and then suggesting Robben of all people in the next paragraph...

Christian said:

David Villa did...

Click to expand...

+1

Villa carried Spain in most World Cup games. It's insane two Spanish players got on the shortlist but none is Villa. Sneijder and Villa are the two who deserves it the most. Sneijder awesome with both Inter and the Dutch, Villa best player of the World Champions and at club level he did well too.

Senatore_M84 said:

-----
Sigh.... in all seriousness, do you NOT get my problem now Wild? Seriously, did any of them outside of Messi deserve this? I'm being serious. Was Xavi THAT Good in the world cup? I don't think so. Was he that good for barca? If he repeated his euro 2008 performance than yes. But 08/09 was year he deserved balon d'or. And dont get me started on Iniesta. He missed 2 or 3 months? He dived to get Hetinga sent off than capitalized.


And this is no knock on Xavi or Iniesta. They ARE two of the top 10 players in the world. Undebiable. But that doesn't mean in 2010 they were balon d'or players.

The shortlist should have been Sneijder, Messi, Robben. Actually I could see Xavi over Robben,even though Robben was bayern's catalyst and immense in WC. Spain won the world cup and that alone deserves a nomination. However truth is no one player stood out. It wasn't pirlo or cannavaro or buffon like in 2006, or ronaldo and rivaldo in 2002. It was a dominating team performance.

Click to expand...

sorry, but what you're saying about Xavi is horribly wrong.

He has been magnificent for club and country this year. Barça's best player along with Messi last season, undoubtedly. Even look at the Clásico in Madrid, head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch. Brilliant last week too, of course.

With Spain, who I don't support really, but watch nearly every game, he has been a key player. Spain absolutely would not have won the World Cup without him. Surely by now everyone understands why even Cesc does not play regularly.

Now that Sneijder is not included, Xavi is surely the deserving winner. Iniesta has been great but not for the whole year, so no. Messi only got to the last 8 of the World Cup so also no.

But anyway, Iniesta is going to win it. And it really is the same as when Cannavaro did.

Senatore_M84 said:

It wasn't pirlo or cannavaro or buffon like in 2006, or ronaldo and rivaldo in 2002. It was a dominating team performance.

Click to expand...

And once again the REAL best player of the tournament, Gattuso, shakes his head in disbelief

WTF, Messi over Sneijder? He's a great player but Sneijder was better both in CL and World Cup. This is totally unfair!

Pippo Inzaghi scored more goals against Madrid than Messi, Iniesta and Xavi. Damn you FIFA

Like I said before, pretty insulting that Sneijder didn't finish top 3. We're talking about someone that won the 3 most important club awards while being super important AND got to be in the WC final while being his team's best player (second best player of the WC). Yeah his last 3 months have been not good...but still.

Needless to say I think Milito and Forlan deserved more recognition (that's looking outside the Spanish NT, considering in WC year it usually goes to the best player of the WC winning team, but I do think that if your recognizing Xavi, and Iniesta for their WC, recognize Villa and Casillas, if Casillas doesn't save them in that game vs Paraguay there would be no WC in Spain).

hahahaha amazing, im happy that cunt sneijder didnt end up as a finalist in the ballon d'or, Messi should win it.

I still think Forlan deserves it the most if you consider the world cup as the main factor this year. He liftet his team as a leader wich both Messi and Ronaldo failed to do with far better teams. Based on the whole season the Award has to go to Sneijder for obvious reasons. Both Sneijder and Milito were Key factors in Inter winning the treble still they got completely ignored yet Messi who had a shit world cup is probably the front runner. Ridiculous but nothing new.

Out of this three i would give it to Xavi because he was the best/most consistant player and world cup winner.

Xavi should get it. I remember him a couple of years back, never thought he'd become the force that he is now. A late bloomer, but instrumental both for club and country, the crucial part, possibly the very reason for such dominating football. Hate his guts, but his importance must be recognized in front of any other striker. As for the others, Messi did squat in the WC, while Sneijder is simply far from his individual level, no matter what he won. Iniesta was not nearly as good as the previous season because of too many injuries. IMO Pedro was better for Bartha last term than him.

Blog: No disgrace in Sneijder snub

Antonio Labbate writes on where he feels Inter star Wesley Sneijder lost out in the Golden Ball race
Javier Zanetti called it absurd. Massimo Moratti unjust. But was it really that much of a surprise that Inter’s Wesley Sneijder didn’t even make the three-man shortlist for the 2010 Golden Ball?

It’s no secret that the Dutchman had his eye on Ballon d’Or glory after an almost perfect year from a results point of view. A crucial element in Jose Mourinho’s treble winning Nerazzurri side and a World Cup runner-up, after helping his nation to the Final with five goals, Sneijder was justified in believing that he would soon be crowned king.

That now won’t happen, at least not in 2010, and it’s that South African defeat to a Spanish side which included Andres Iniesta and Xavi – who along with Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi are in the running to win the France Football honour – that ultimately cost him. A list of the most recent Ballon d’Or winners and Diego Milito will tell you as much.

For the past 28 years, it has become clear that if you want to be crowned the continent’s best player then you have to get your hands on the World Cup. Paolo Rossi did it in 1982, Lothar Matthaus in 1990, Zinedine Zidane eight years later, Ronaldo after an injury hit 2002 and Fabio Cannavaro four years ago.

The only recent exceptions were in 1986 and 1994 when Argentina’s Diego Maradona and Brazil’s Romario, although based in Europe, were not eligible to win the prize given that non-Europeans were only permitted for consideration from 1995 onwards.

Of course Wesley’s club form in the past 12 months, or at least the first half of the year, should have been enough for a podium finish given Inter’s unprecedented simultaneous victories of the Scudetto, the Champions League and the Coppa Italia. Yet if those triumphs were not enough for Milito to even make the 23-man long-list, why would it be enough for the former Real Madrid man to win it?

Sneijder’s critics can argue that, although he had an impressive 2009-10 campaign, he’s hardly made an impact for Inter under Rafa Benitez since. And for those jurors who don’t religiously follow Serie A, the statistic that he hasn’t scored for Inter in open play since a 2-1 win over Udinese, back in October 2009, may weigh more heavily than it should do.

Without having the wow factor of Messi, the 26-year-old was also penalised for being part of more robust outfits built to win rather than teams who have the rare ability of being able to entertain as well as succeed.

Mourinho’s Inter were a ruthless, workmanlike side who got the job done, while it wasn’t hard for a not totally convincing summer Sneijder to stand-out for a Holland team that were one of the ugliest in living memory.

Still, it’s hard to deny that Sneijder’s omission yesterday was absurd and unjust, but it was in keeping with how the Ballon d’Or works. If Paolo Maldini was deemed to have not done enough in 1994 to get his hands on the coveted award, then there is no disgrace in Inter’s midfield inspiration not capping his golden 2010 with the ultimate recognition from France Football.

http://www.football-italia.net/blogs/al169.html

IMO its definitely a disgrace. Messi doesnt deserve to be anywhere near the podium. If its for the whole year then Iniesta and Xavi should battle it for the award but sneijder still deserves at least 3rd place. Maybe its irrelevant but he still deserves a mention for what he achieved with printer last season.

This is as bad as Milito getting snubbed while mediocrity like Gyan and Klose got nominated.

Not surprised by this at all though. Seems to be more about popularity than what the players achieved on the pitch.

Ballon D'Or Should Go To Barcelona's Andres Iniesta - 2004 Winner Andriy Shevchenko
By Salvatore Landolina
Dec 7, 2010

Barcelona and Spain hero Andres Iniesta would be deserving of the Ballon D'Or award if he wins it when the victor is announced in January.

Iniesta leads a trio of Barcelona players for the final three nominations with Xavi and Lionel Messi on the podium.

His goal in the World Cup final, which was just one part of a big jigsaw in Spain's success, is the convincer for 'Sheva'.

"I would give it to Iniesta, his goal in the final was decisive," Shevchenko told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Inter midfielder Wesley Sneijder's exclusion from the final three was for some, including Goal.coma's Kris Voakes, controversial. And Shevchenko agrees.

"Without a doubt the Inter man deserved to be up there [in the final three]," he said.


Click to expand...

Illadro80 said:

IMO its definitely a disgrace. Messi doesnt deserve to be anywhere near the podium. If its for the whole year then Iniesta and Xavi should battle it for the award but sneijder still deserves at least 3rd place. Maybe its irrelevant but he still deserves a mention for what he achieved with printer last season.

This is as bad as Milito getting snubbed while mediocrity like Gyan and Klose got nominated.

Not surprised by this at all though. Seems to be more about popularity than what the players achieved on the pitch.

Click to expand...

Messi has outperformed Xavi, Iniesta and Sneijder in the individual category in the year 2010. Granted Sneijder should be on the podium but i guess because of the WC its Xavi and Iniesta instead.

If Robben had scored that goal and Holland had won the WC then we would probably see Sneijder, Messi and X. Point being that Messi would and should be there.

acmilan4ever said:

Messi has outperformed Xavi, Iniesta and Sneijder in the individual category in the year 2010. Granted Sneijder should be on the podium but i guess because of the WC its Xavi and Iniesta instead.

If Robben had scored that goal and Holland had won the WC then we would probably see Sneijder, Messi and X. Point being that Messi would and should be there.

Click to expand...

Based on what? If you mean goals, assists and other stats, that's only part of the picture. A very small part.

Xavi has outperformed both Messi and Iniesta in the year 2010. This includes parts of both club seasons and the world cup.

necromancer said:

Based on what? If you mean goals, assists and other stats, that's only part of the picture. A very small part.

Xavi has outperformed both Messi and Iniesta in the year 2010. This includes parts of both club seasons and the world cup.

Click to expand...

Based on what?

Btw, dont think that the fist half of last season counts. Only the whole of 2010.

messi doesnt deserve to be top 3,really are u mad?? u want to ignore a player who scored 47 goals, top scorer in spain and cl with 14( i think assists) who has carried on his form to the new season and had a decent wc.

the only reason iniesta is in the top 3 is because he scored in the final, it should have being xavi,messi and sneijder as the last 3.

akewander said:

messi doesnt deserve to be top 3,really are u mad?? u want to ignore a player who scored 47 goals, top scorer in spain and cl with 14( i think assists) who has carried on his form to the new season and had a decent wc.

the only reason iniesta is in the top 3 is because he scored in the final, it should have being xavi,messi and sneijder as the last 3.

Click to expand...

+1

Exactly, finally someone gets the point.

necromancer said:

Based on what? If you mean goals, assists and other stats, that's only part of the picture. A very small part.

Xavi has outperformed both Messi and Iniesta in the year 2010. This includes parts of both club seasons and the world cup.

Click to expand...

That is false.

Messi carried Barca from midseason on. From about the point where Zlatan had problem..... Iniesta was non exisistent (injuries and indifference) for barca in 09/10 second half, Xavi was definitely great BUT much more influencial in 2008/9. Messi seriously the one who made it all work

A bad world cup doesn't change the fact he is a lock for podium.

Give him del bosque as a coach and spain maradona and see what happens

Sneijder should have won it, and its a disgrace he isnt in the final three.

He (and Milito, another huge disgrace to be left out of the final 23) was the driving factor to Inter winning the treble, and in the WC he won Silver Ball (all three finalists did not make the top 3) and Bronze Boot (again, none of the finalists did) and he was Robben being able to finish from likely winning the WC. He was the best, and its total bullshit he isnt there

Forza Milan!

Messi should be in the top 3 of course, but not the winner.

acmilan4ever said:

Based on what?

Btw, dont think that the fist half of last season counts. Only the whole of 2010.

Click to expand...

Exactly my point. You might choose to count merely goals and assists. Someone else might choose to count pass percentage, at the end of the day, it'll always be a subjective selection for each one of those voters.

Xavi had a better year than Messi as far as I'm concerned. And won the world cup while Messi flopped over there.

No one counted the first half of last season.

Senatore_M84 said:

Give him del bosque as a coach and spain maradona and see what happens

Click to expand...

So? Del Bosque wasnt his coach and Spain wasnt his team...

No one denies that Messi might be a better player than Xavi. But given the set of tools and circumstances given to them and given the proportional weight of the world cup in a world cup year, Xavi had a better year than Messi

zZ[-_-]Zz said:

FIFA must have realized how Inter bought those trophies and are making their achievement seem insignificant.

Click to expand...

Amen! agree 100%

Reports in Catalunya also believe Iniesta is the winner but for example, polls for fans still point towards Xavi. People voting for who they want really. In one poll for example Xavi has 61%, Iniesta 20%, Messi 19%.

Media Sources Claim Vicente Del Bosque Favourite For 2010 Coach Of The Year

La Gazzetta Dello Sport claims that Vicente Del Bosque is favourite to win 2010 coach of the year.

Spain national team boss Vicente del Bosque has emerged as the favourite to win the 2010 coach of the year award, according to media reports.

Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport comments that the tactician, who led Spain to World Cup glory in South Africa during the summer, has been voted for by the majority of the European coaches and captains of the member associations of UEFA.

Del Bosque is also thought to have huge backing from the South American (CONMEBOL) and American (CONCACAF) regions.

As a result, the former Real Madrid boss will see off the challenge of Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho to be presented the prize by FIFA.

Mourinho, who achieved an unprecedented treble with Inter last season including his second Champions League, will be awarded second place, while Guardiola’s league title in Spain will see him awarded third spot.

dev1L said:

Media Sources Claim Vicente Del Bosque Favourite For 2010 Coach Of The Year

Click to expand...

hmmmm, he probably deserves it. He used posession as a defensive tactic and fooled media into thinking he was playing attacking football.

That alone- balon d'or.

Senatore_M84 said:

hmmmm, he probably deserves it. He used posession as a defensive tactic and fooled media into thinking he was playing attacking football.

That alone- balon d'or.

Click to expand...

lol true.

poor Mourinho tho, won the treble in the worst year possible, when theres a WC whose winning coach will obviously get it

Madridista said:

lol true.

poor Mourinho tho, won the treble in the worst year possible, when theres a WC whose winning coach will obviously get it

Click to expand...

Cmon, let's be fair... inter didn't play football the way it is suppose to be played . King Chavi confirmed it. There victory over bartha... not football


wet ones i'm waiting for you