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

Kamikaze692 wrote:

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?  

Exactly...i've never understood the sense in giving out awards months after the tournament, or in the case of balon d'or 5 plus months after the season ends, then claim its a calender year award. No, it should be awarded when real silverware and competition has been fought for. Uefa player of the year should be awarded imo a month after the last uefa champs league game or in july/august, in the event we are in a euro competition year....same with balon d'or. that way our memories of real triumphs are still fresh

by the way, uefa used to have an award for goalies when they had the uefa awards, before the invention of this uefa player of the year (i don't even understand why they created this). they would have 3 candidates each for best goalie, defender, midfielder, striker and mvp. and award the best in each of those positions with a little trophy...imo this was a very reliable award, it was based mainly on the champions league and was hardly a popularity contest, with players like the steffan effenberg, mendieta, and redondo winning the mvp awards in the past. even on occasions when the gala or voting wasn't held close to the end of the tournament, we all knew it was an award for the just concluded uefa champions league, thus the parameters for voting were quite clear and unambigous

Every time I look at this list it angers me.

titosantill wrote:by the way, uefa used to have an award for goalies when they had the uefa awards, before the invention of this uefa player of the year (i don't even understand why they created this). they would have 3 candidates each for best goalie, defender, midfielder, striker and mvp. and award the best in each of those positions with a little trophy.

Well, that was actually a sensible trophy as then the defensive players weren't outshone by the attackers only because the latter ones score the goals.

True, the lack of public appreciation for defenders is annoying as hell;
especially once you discuss with more casual fans than people that might register on a football internet forum.
F*ck me, I had people tell me that Ronaldo is better than Beckenbauer because of the amount of goals scored.

I'm pretty sure that wouldn't happen on here.

If you don't think that Ronaldo belongs in talks amongst the best players of all time I don't know what to tell you. Even if all he did was score goals he has put his name in that discussion.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote: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.

Again, that's not true. If not for a heroic performance from Mascherano (not to mention an obvious foul that should have been called) Robben could have had maybe 2 or 3 goals in that game. After the group stages he was double-marked all the time and could have had probably 2 penalties in the Mexico match. Against Costa Rica it was just one of those unlucky games where nothing was going in he was still causing havoc every time he had the ball.

It's like if a forward doesn't score people think they aren't being effective.

El Cujo wrote:If you don't think that Ronaldo belongs in talks amongst the best players of all time I don't know what to tell you. Even if all he did was score goals he has put his name in that discussion.

I think you misunderstood the point. It is the reasoning CR7 has more goals *therefore he is better* than a defender who is renowned as one of the very best players of all time which is so annoying. Why is Philipp Lahm never mentioned among the best players of all time, by the way? As Full Back he should get at least as much recognition in his own right, too!

Well I think the argument there is that fullback is probably the shallowest position in football. It has the feel of almost the 'leftover' position for players that aren't great anywhere else (I know, simplifying it a bit). I know Ajax used to scout attacking players and then convert them to wingbacks for example.

I would definitely say Lahm is amongst the best at his position of all time for sure, but not the best of all players.

Then again it's always hard to compare across different positions and eras to begin with. I agree though that scoring a lot of goals alone doesn't make anyone better than anyone necessarily.

Kamikaze692 wrote:

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

That statement does not contradict what I've written. I have already said to be eligible you have to play for a European club as was the case with the old ballon d'or awards, and that is what I took from that statement, it does not explicitly say the criteria for the award is for performance solely within UEFA competitions.