The_Badger wrote:

MJGunner wrote:Teams already get their trophies for being the best team, the best player in the world doesn't necessarily have to play for the best team in the world for him to be the best.

Best.

George Best.

Leon Best.

Sadly, Platini is right, here.

It seems Blatter's intent is more focused on appeasing the masses with the Ronaldo vs Messi telenovela to remain popular and keep a lid on Fifa's mistakes under his jurisdiction, I suppose. I guess it wouldn't surprise me now if Blatter stays on a little longer as president.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:On the other hand, had the award always worked like this players like Raul and Henry might have won the award after all...

Instead the almighty non biased France football Balloon Door rest on the mantle of former Stoke legend Micheal Owen.

I would like to see a defender win it sometime in the next century.

France Football made 2 errors in 50 years (Keagan and Owen)... and probably 2-3 others that i would have gone another way, but not outrageous.

FIFA has had the award for 4 years... and got it wrong 3 times
-  2010 should have been Sneijder, Iniesta or Xavi... it went to Messi (outrageous category)
-  2011 went to Messi (deserved)
-  2012 went to Messi (should have gone to CR7; but not completely outrageous  given Barca won something and Messi broke Pele's record)
-  2013 should have been Ribery but went to CR7 (outrageous category)

It went from being off once every 10 years or so to being an absolute joke

I think UEFA Player of the Year is the traditional BdO while the FIFA BdO is the previous FIFA POY.  One is about footy, the other is about being the most fashionable.

sportsczy wrote:France Football made 2 errors in 50 years (Keagan and Owen)... and probably 2-3 others that i would have gone another way, but not outrageous.

FIFA has had the award for 4 years... and got it wrong 3 times
-  2010 should have been Sneijder, Iniesta or Xavi... it went to Messi (outrageous category)
-  2011 went to Messi (deserved)
-  2012 went to Messi (should have gone to CR7; but not completely outrageous  given Barca won something and Messi broke Pele's record)
-  2013 should have been Ribery but went to CR7 (outrageous category)

It went from being off once every 10 years or so to being an absolute joke

I think UEFA Player of the Year is the traditional BdO while the FIFA BdO is the previous FIFA POY.  One is about footy, the other is about being the most fashionable.

Completely agree. FIFA Balon D Or is actually more like the November player of the month award.

sportsczy wrote:France Football made 2 errors in 50 years (Keagan and Owen)... and probably 2-3 others that i would have gone another way, but not outrageous.

FIFA has had the award for 4 years... and got it wrong 3 times
-  2010 should have been Sneijder, Iniesta or Xavi... it went to Messi (outrageous category)
-  2011 went to Messi (deserved)
-  2012 went to Messi (should have gone to CR7; but not completely outrageous  given Barca won something and Messi broke Pele's record)
-  2013 should have been Ribery but went to CR7 (outrageous category)

It went from being off once every 10 years or so to being an absolute joke

I think UEFA Player of the Year is the traditional BdO while the FIFA BdO is the previous FIFA POY.  One is about footy, the other is about being the most fashionable.

Subjective to say the least.

Very liberal use of outrageous as well if I do say so myself. You'd think Pele called Lee Clattermole or Postiga's names last night.

only 3rd player ever to win the trophy without having a major trophy (Keagan and Owen being the others and owen had a cup at least) in 55 years.

So yeah, the term "outrageous" fits lol.

Ronaldo and Messi are better than Ribery. If the Ballon d'Or is about the best footballer in the world you can't give it to a player who isn't the best just because he plays in a team that won trophies.
It's really not that hard to understand.

The journalists voted for Messi in 2012. Everyone did. Ballon d'Or with the highest gap in history. Definitely doesn't come close to 'outrageous'.

Like i said BC, i didn't find the 2012 decision outrageous... but i did think CR7 deserved it more because his team was better than Messi's that CY. But Messi did beat that record and i understand how it would sway things...

I don't have much of a problem with 2012.

I thought Iniesta deserved it in 2012. I certainly thought it was outrageous.

sportsczy wrote:only 3rd player ever to win the trophy without having a major trophy (Keagan and Owen being the others and owen had a cup at least) in 55 years.

So yeah, the term "outrageous" fits lol.

Owen won 3 trophies that year.... albeit minor ones compared to what people expect these days ( Uefa Cup, Fa Cup and League Cup)

I think that's why he won it, as well as the hype surrounding the WC.... not the correct decision none the less.

Lord Awesome wrote:I thought Iniesta deserved it in 2012. I certainly thought it was outrageous.

I don't understand why people keep on mentioning Iniesta. Look, he is my favorite player, but that does not mean that I am blind. At 2010(you didn't mention that year, but some have), Iniesta was injured for most part of the season with Barca ergo he did not deserve it. And in 2012, while much better than 2010, Iniesta was faaaaar to inconsistent with Barca for me to say that he deserved the ballon d'or, no matter how good he was at the Euro's(for me he was the best).

IMO, if Messi did not deserve the Ballon d'or that year, then for me it should have been Pirlo. Like C.Ronaldo, he was the main man at helping his team win the league while doing something historical i.e unbeaten, and helping Italy reach the final with him being the 2nd best player at the Euro.

Iniesta didn't deserve it any year tbh, there's always been at least one person better than him.

In 2010 he did nothing outside the WC, i can think of at least half a dozen people who were more deserving.

For 2010 it was Xavi or Snejder for me. Both accomplished incredible feats that year.

I think you're not giving Iniesta full credit here. Iniesta may have been inconsistant with Barca but winning the Euro's with him as the main protagonist for Spain certainly deserves more praise than Messi scoring against the, then laugbable, sides in La Liga. To be fair, at least, to Messi he did scored plenty in the CL but in the end I dont believe Messi was a desisive factor in Barca's run in the 2011-2012. That's my 2 cents, anyway.

Nice call on Pirlo as well, btw. I can defo agree with that.

Lord Awesome wrote:For 2010 it was Xavi or Snejder for me. Both accomplished incredible feats that year.

I think you're not giving Iniesta full credit here. Iniesta may have been inconsistant with Barca but winning the Euro's with him as the main protagonist for Spain certainly deserves more praise than Messi scoring against the, then laugbable, sides in La Liga. To be fair, at least, to Messi he did scored plenty in the CL but in the end I dont believe Messi was a desisive factor in Barca's run in the 2011-2012. That's my 2 cents, anyway.

Nice call on Pirlo as well, btw. I can defo agree with that.

Well, I did say that for me, Iniesta was the best player at the Euro. But I think that I am 100% correct on how I described Iniesta's performance for Barca that year. He was very inconsistent. In one game, everytime that he touches the ball, he makes magic, like in the first game against Real Madrid that season at the Bernabeu where he did that flick over Coentrao, but then for the next 5 games, he does nothing.

I just don't think that a player deserves the ballon d'or just because he played 8 good games at the WC/Euro, even though he might have had an awful season with his team, either because of injury or just because of bad form. That's why I don't agree with Ronaldo winning it in 02 or that Zidane was the big favorite to win it in 06(and then losing it because of his headbutt )

All I can say is that there isn't anything wrong with what you believe, like with most of the intellectual posters. It's just a case of apples and oranges.   Sometimes acheiving goals (metas) in less games is tougher to do than in 38 especially if those goals are done in a stage like the WC.

I thought Canna should've won it regardless of whether Italy or France won it. Khan for me in 2002.

Make two awards, best player on a successful team and than a most outstanding player award.. Simple

Meh players will have a chance to win the former, but the latter will only be reserved for the GOATS

As it is, this award will NEVER go to a non goal-scoring player.

IMO, Platini is right on this one.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:The problem is that they merged the BdO with the FIFA WPotY year award. BdO rewards achievement, WPotY is a popularity contest since the captain of Namibia doesn't really know or follow football any better than the average GL user. But since each vote counts equally and there are three categories (captains, coaches and media) the award is effectively 2/3 WPotY and 1/3 BdO. So it will always reward the popular option more.

To build on this, let's say, what if we were to change the structure of the award to make it 50% WPotY and 50% BdO? In order to do this we would have to make the journalists' vote count twice as much. Here's what the results would have been with this system in place:

1. Ronaldo 1759 points
2. Ribery 1651 points
3. Messi 1606 points

So Ronaldo would have still won with this system in place, but it would have been a closer race than this already close one, and Messi would've been third.