Ballon d'Or

[Marcos]

So the results of the Ballon d'Or have been published, and no surprise to anyone Cristiano Ronaldo won it, and by quite a margin too. For anyone unaware of what the Ballon d'Or, it is a French Magazine's award for the (supposed) best player in the world, with a panel of 96 journalists voting on who they want to win. The results of this years came back as such:

1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester Utd) 446 points

2 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 281 pts

3 Fernando Torres (Liverpool) 179 pts

4 Iker Casillas (Real Madrid) 133 pts

5 Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona) 97 pts

6 Andriy Arshavin (Zenit St-Petersburg) 64 pts

7 David Villa (Valencia) 55 pts

8 Kaka (AC Milan) 31 pts

9 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan) 30 pts

10 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) 28 pts

11 Marcos Senna (Villarreal) 16 pts

12 Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) 12 pts

13 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) 11 pts

14 Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid) 10 pts

15 Frank Lampard (Chelsea) 8 pts

16 Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich) 7 pts

17 Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona) 6 pts

18 Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus) 5 pts

19 Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal) 4 pts

21 Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United) 3 pts

24 Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), 2 pts

I know I'm going to piss some of you United/Premiership fans off here, but I don't believe the right man won the award. True, Ronaldo had a great season last year, well except for going missing at the Euro Championship, but 42 goals speaks for itself. However, having watched probably more La Liga football than Premiership games, having Messi in second and giving him half the points of Ronaldo is scandalous. In my opinion Messi is the best player in the world, and by quite a bit from Ronaldo. Seriously, on his day I would class Kaka as being better than Ronaldo. For one thing, Ronaldo doesn't turn up for the big games a la Barca in the semi's last season, games in the Euro's, games against Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. True he may have scored in some of these games, but scoring goals alone doesn't make you great.

So I await the abuse for that part and hope maybe a few of you agree that Messi is a better player.

Secondly, where on the list is Andreas Iniesta, cracking player who is the driving force of Barca, and makes Xavi twice the player he is.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Smeghead Marcos

[METALMAN]

I don't particularly like Ronaldo either but I suppose he is a deserving winner. It must be ages since a player based in England last won it though.

Some of the other Man Utd players featuring there seem a bit bizarre. Vidic? Rooney? Van Der Sar? They are good players but it seems a bit odd for them to be top 25. Wayne Rooney in particular. I thought it was regarded that he had had a pretty quiet year. Obviously they'll be bumped up a bit for winning the Champions League though.

I'd have perhaps put Fabregas a bit higher. Certainly higher than Adebayor. I'm surprised Arsenal have as many as two players in this actually.

It must be pretty rare for only one Italian and one French player to feature. Unless I've totally bypassed someone else.

[-A-]

Messi played better football, but Ronaldo played better. Messi's football is more attractive, but football's a sport and not an exhibition. Ronaldo consistently changed games more and was the prime reason his team won the Premiership and Champions League.

[Marcos]

Was he the reason they won the Champions league though, as I've said against Barca he didn't play well at all, which might be said about all the knock-out games (or "big games")? Last seasons Champions League I thought was a tale of defences, with the two best defences meeting in the final.

[-A-]

He won the Golden Boot, though - top scorer in the competition, scored United's goal in the Final too.

[Dan]

Ballon*

[The Future]

I don't particularly like Ronaldo either but I suppose he is a deserving winner. It must be ages since a player based in England last won it though.

Some of the other Man Utd players featuring there seem a bit bizarre. Vidic? Rooney? Van Der Sar? They are good players but it seems a bit odd for them to be top 25. Wayne Rooney in particular. I thought it was regarded that he had had a pretty quiet year. Obviously they'll be bumped up a bit for winning the Champions League though.

I'd have perhaps put Fabregas a bit higher. Certainly higher than Adebayor. I'm surprised Arsenal have as many as two players in this actually.

It must be pretty rare for only one Italian and one French player to feature. Unless I've totally bypassed someone else.

In my opinion Vidic deserves to be on the list, he was solid throughout the entire campaign and part of a defense which conceded the least amount of goals. Some of the nominations were strange though for example Drogba, he managed to get sent off in the Champions League final, was injured for a long time and only scored like 8 goals in the league. Eto'o too wasn't he only fit for the last two months of the season?

[TheArsenal]

So the results of the Ballon d'Or have been published, and no surprise to anyone Cristiano Ronaldo won it, and by quite a margin too. For anyone unaware of what the Ballon d'Or, it is a French Magazine's award for the (supposed) best player in the world, with a panel of 96 journalists voting on who they want to win. The results of this years came back as such:

Actually, it's traditionally awarded to the European Footballer of the Year (that is, any player playing in a country under the jurisdiction of UEFA). So it isn't necessarily the best player, it's just the player that has performed at a higher consistency than any other over the last year. I believe this is why Henry never won it, because he missed too much time through injuries.

For those interested, in 2005 (and onwards) the eligibility of players was opened up to those played under the jurisdiction of UEFA or those playing in Qatar, the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

I don't particularly like Ronaldo either but I suppose he is a deserving winner. It must be ages since a player based in England last won it though.

Michael Owen in 2001.

Edited December 3, 2008 by TheArsenal

[METALMAN]

Ah obviously, sorry. I was getting mixed up with World Player of the Year.

[TheArsenal]

I was surprised when I saw it. But then he was at Liverpool and they won that mickey mouse treble that year. And he did that bastard-scoring-two-late-goals against Arsenal in the FA Cup final. Little shite.

Edited December 3, 2008 by TheArsenal

[Anderson]

Ronaldo deserves the award. And Vidic deserves to be at least in the list ... but Van Der Sar? He really wasn't very good last season (or this one at that). Rooney and Adebayor that high up is comical.

[Dynamite]

They couldn't have awarded it to anyone but Ronaldo to be honest. He won the double and was the top scorer in both. On current form I doubt he'd win the 2009 award but for 2008 there really wasn't anyone better.

[Grounded Wingman]

Lots of players get in on name and reputation. I don't think Gerrard or Kaka should be as high, based on last season's performances.

Can't argue with Ronaldo winning. Messi played well but in a Barcelona team that was falling to bits and didn't win anything - he didn't score nearly as many goals as Ronaldo either, Torres was blinding for Liverpool but not Spain's star man in the European Championships (despite the goal in the final).

Xavi was the player of the tournament at the European Championships. Arshavin, Casillas and Villa deserve to be in as well. Senna should be higher than Gerrard and Kaka.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Van Der Sar? I like him a lot and all, but he had some terrible games at times. Amazing ones too, but it wasn't his best season or anything. Vidic is deserving, I still feel he was one of the best defenders all season and formed arguably the best partnership in European football alongside Ferdinand. Although Buffon should be higher, plays an immense role in keeping Juventus going when they need it most, just like Casillas does for Madrid.

That all said, too much hype over Messi. Great player, I'm not as high on him as everybody else though. Amazing at times, but I still don't rate him as the best, if even in my top three for that matter. And Ronaldo was always going to win, because he was the best player of the entire season. A main remembering moment which is weird but is the game against Fulham when he snatched the win for United right at the end, turning point of the entire season IMO.

[The Future]

Wasn't that the season before last? We did Fulham over pretty comfortably last season I remember cause Hargreaves scored a sweet free kick and John O Shea scored

[britneyspearsisgod]

I think the list is generally alright. Given his earlier form, Ronaldo has been a deserved winner. Messi was out injured for part of the last season, thus why his impact was that little bit less than Ronaldo. You have to forget the start of this season when taking this into account - Ronaldo isn't the same this year and Messi is kicking ass. But, last season, give or take a few months, Ronaldo was on fire and definitely the best player in the game at the time.

Also surprised to see Van der Saar, but a list like that will always divide opinion.