Because they actually had a great season unlike the general who was apparently saving himself for the WC only to save himself for the next game and so on until the final. Also WC must be a factor or else James wouldn't even be in the top hundred forget in THAT list

Suarez played an unreal Premier League but he pays that bite ... James ahead to him is ridicoulous anyway

What a farce.

Yet to receive the accolade since it was given for the first time in 2011, Ronaldo is among the final nominees for the fourth successive year. The Real Madrid forward enjoyed another stellar season last term, breaking the record for most goals in a single UEFA Champions League campaign. His 17th and last strike came from the penalty spot in the final against Club Atlético de Madrid, sealing the Whites' long-awaited tenth European title.

Cronaldo flopped in La Liga, Copa Del Rey and in World Cup, so their argument for him is 17 goals in CL, and particular penalty in final?   

UCL knockout phase goals

3-0, 6-0, 7-1, 8-2 goals against Shalke
3-0 goal against Dortmund
4-0, 5-0 goals against Bayern
4-1 dived penalty against Atletico

That's an ultimate statpadder performance after your teammates have mowed the way, if I ever saw one.

Arjen Robben shone for the Dutch in Brazil
Robben, meanwhile, was on target three times in the Netherlands' run to the last four of the World Cup, a total that included a double in the Oranje's 5-1 group stage defeat of Spain. At club level, only attackers Thomas Müller and Mario Mandžukić found the net more times for Bayern in all competitions than the 21-goal winger.

World Cup best player, 1. Messi, 2. Muller, 3. Robben. World Cup goals Messi 4, Robben 3. Club goals Messi 41 goals, Robben 21. And the reason for him being there?  

What a corrupt garbage.

Robben has never been a guy who scores many goals but the reason why Bayern always make semis and finals of CL is because they are a team not individual. Are you really going to sit there and convince us Messi had a good season?????????!!!!???????

halamadrid2 wrote:Robben has never been a guy who scores many goals but the reason why Bayern always make semis and finals of CL is because they are a team not individual. Are you really going to sit there and convince us Messi had a good season?????????!!!!???????

That's his goal. I mean he still truely believes messi was the best player in the World Cup.

Did you see how he tore it up against Nigeria and Iran?

I stopped caring about these individual awards a long time ago.

No point fussing over obviously stupid choices as it will never change

Will be Ronaldo, does the most stepovers, so will win the popularity contest.

Ronaldo will most likely (and should) win it.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Not a lot of people want to say this....

But Robben was extremely average in the KO stage of the WC, had zero impact on any of the games other than a dive against Mexico.

People questioned Messi's performance and rightly so in some cases but Robben was no better and arguably worse.

This isn't true at all.

What a ridiculous list...

This should be for European achievements, this isn't the ballon d'or (which has always been heavily influenced by the World Cup)

So you say, he did nothing against Costa Rica and Argentina.

If Ronaldo and Messi did the same there would be 20 page threads on the subject of how they flopped.

Tomwin Lannister wrote:I stopped caring about these individual awards a long time ago.

No point fussing over obviously stupid choices as it will never change

THIS.
Too much debate and attention is put into this these days.

Yohan Modric wrote:My system got hacked, don't remember making this thread.

I thought the topic was worthy of a thread after all

CR will win.

What a farce doe, Di Maria is easily in the top 3 contenders. Better than Neuer and Robben imo

No one of the current selection is better than Manu Neuer

Neuer in top 3 ? No Messi in top 3 ? No Suarez ? this is more of a joke than the bdor

FFS

UEFA WEBSITE wrote:Players are judged on their performances during the 2013/14 campaign – in all competitions and at club and national team level – by a jury of renowned sports journalists representing each of the UEFA member national associations.

Is there any particular reason why nearly everyone in this thread has been acting like this does not include the world cup???????

The fact messi isn't shortlisted, just rams home how awful that golden ball was

Also

UEFA WEBSITE wrote:The UEFA Best Player in Europe Award, given for the first time in 2011, was born of an initiative by Michel Platini to revive the spirit of the old European Footballer of the Year prize.

This award IS the old ballon d'or from between 1995 and 2007. From 1995 non European players were eligible, but not until 2007 were non European BASED players/journalists eligible to be nominated/vote. That is exactly what this award is, the ballon d'or from 95-07.

DuringTheWar wrote:FFS

UEFA WEBSITE wrote:Players are judged on their performances during the 2013/14 campaign – in all competitions and at club and national team level – by a jury of renowned sports journalists representing each of the UEFA member national associations.

Is there any particular reason why nearly everyone in this thread has been acting like this does not include the world cup???????

The fact messi isn't shortlisted, just rams home how awful that golden ball was

Also

UEFA WEBSITE wrote:The UEFA Best Player in Europe Award, given for the first time in 2011, was born of an initiative by Michel Platini to revive the spirit of the old European Footballer of the Year prize.

This award IS the old ballon d'or from between 1995 and 2007. From 1995 non European players were eligible, but not until 2007 were non European BASED players/journalists eligible to be nominated/vote. That is exactly what this award is, the ballon d'or from 95-07.

UEFA Website wrote:The new accolade will recognise the best player, irrespective of his nationality, playing for a football club within the territory of a UEFA member association during the previous season.

Hope that clears your confusion, WC is a FIFA competition, not under UEFA jurisdiction. The award is for the best in any UEFA Member League, UEFA CL, Europa League and the Euros

http://www.uefa.com/uefasupercup/news/newsid=1651354.html#uefa+best+player+europe+award+launchedFor

who cares what the website says, explain how the hell james is apparently voted more then suarez/di maria/diego costa/ibra

clearly the worldcup holds effects if the kid who didn't even play in champions league or europa somehow gets there.

Ah, another award. I'm of the opinion that, rather than uefa and fifa creating new awards (the uefa best player of the year was created two yrs ago, so its new; the fifa fifpro awards were created in 06 i believe, so its relatively new as well), they should present some sort of well thought out criteria for voting on these awards, that rewards meritocracy rather than a popularity contest.

I don't even understand why they scrapped the former uefa awards system; at least, in that instance we knew what competition was being measured, and it rewarded a best goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, striker and an mvp award as well.

I don't mind journalists voting for these awards, in fact, i prefer that to the ballon d'or style that included coaches and captains, however there needs to be a set criteria; who can/cannot be voted for, what competition is being looked at, man of the match performances, etc.....i won't even get into the problems associated with balon d'or, that one is a whole different chapter on its own.

Donuts wrote:who cares what the website says, explain how the hell james is apparently voted more then suarez/di maria/diego costa/ibra

clearly the worldcup holds effects if the kid who didn't even play in champions league or europa somehow gets there.

Thats exactly what im saying lol. The award is a joke coz the journos voting in this have totally bungled on which competitions are actually relevant for them to make their judgement on. They just went with whoever performed better in the last few games they saw (Neuer   )

A lot of this has to do with the shitty timing of these awards. Why cant they just give it a week after the end of the regular season?? Why wait till months have passed since the end of the judging period?

There shouldn't be any official individual awards. They are bs and if fans feel the need for them they should make their own ones but UEFA and FIFA just shouldn't care about it.

Top three should have been Ronado, Bale and Ramos imo

Anyway Ronaldo should win by a landslide this but journalists don't like him for whatever reason so it will probably be a lot closer than it should be.

Kamikaze692 wrote:Why wait till months have passed since the end of the judging period?  

They need some time to get the bribes in place?

zigra wrote:There shouldn't be any official individual awards. They are bs and if fans feel the need for them they should make their own ones but UEFA and FIFA just shouldn't care about it.

Well, *if* there are football players who could get an individual award in football, they should be the goalies. After all, they can better impress individually than the outfield players who need to play as team.

Keepers should have their own separate awards. Calling a keeper the best football player in Europe when he mostly uses his hands is kind of silly lol

They even wear different kits ffs

Well, I would all for an award for the best keeper, but for some reason they are mostly dissed by everybody