Nando Third In European Player Of The Year

[Anfield Fox]

Winner was never in any doubt but credit to Torres for coming third.

 

Torres, meanwhile, enjoyed a phenomenal debut season in the Premier League following his big-money move from Atletico Madrid.

 

The 24-year-old scored 24 goals for Liverpool, the highest by a foreign player in their maiden season, and went on to score the winner for Spain in the Euro 2008 final.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/7758016.stm

 

*Don't click the link unless you want to read about the winker

[Stevie H]

paul doyle makes some good points.

 

 

Why the Ballon d'Or is stupid and quite possibly evil

If France Football's annual award wants credibility it needs to look beyond Cristiano Ronaldo and the usual suspects

Comments (…)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/...on-dor-football

 

The great Brazilian forward Jairzinho once told me that he was in such great shape during the 1970 World Cup that Fifa afterwards presented him with a "best body on the planet" trophy to go along with his winner's medal. I assumed this was rhetorical waggery so offered that obligatory journalistic reply: the sycophantic laugh. But he became quite cross and assured me he wasn't joking. I asked whether he was certain it was an official Fifa prize, and not awarded by some TV company or a housewives' magazine. He insisted it was indeed from the game's global federation. I've since asked Fifa about this, as well as other players and journalists who were at the tournament, but it seems only Jairzinho has any memory of it.

 

I'm not sure whether I want to believe Jairzinho. On one hand I don't, because then I can delight in the homely barminess of the fact that the only man in history to have scored in every match of the World Cup including the final feels the need to invent trivial boasts. It's a bit like if Neil Armstrong took every opportunity to tell the world that in 1969 he beat Buzz Aldrin in a belching contest.

 

On the other hand I hope Jairzinho's story is true. If he really did have a body so much more beautiful than all the other athletic ones on display that even the crusty old Fifacrats felt moved to celebrate it, then that's a lovely thing. Not having been around in those days, I can only regret that the videos I've seen of the tournament don't really bring out this singular gorgeousness.

 

All of which brings us on to the Ballon d'Or, the latest of which is due to be presented tomorrow. It's garbage, isn't it? Systematically singling out an individual in a team sport is stupid and possibly even evil. It's almost always impossible to reach an obviously fair and correct verdict. How often have you been so angered by Andy Gray's choice for man of the match that you've been driven to spewing Latin? Reductio Ad Absurdum.

 

Very occasionally comes a Jairzinho's body moment. Michel Platini was so wonderful in Euro '84 that you almost got to thinking he could have won the tournament by himself. Diego Maradona was even more exceptional in 1986. In these circumstances it might have been justified to commemorate their performances with spontaneous awards. But awarding such a trophy every year cheapens it: Zinedine Zidane was nowhere near as influential in 1998 as Platini had been in '84 but both were singled out for the same prize. Nonsense. Most years are no years for a Ballon d'Or. In 2001, for example, a Barn Door might have been more appropriate for Michael Owen.

 

By contrast, in 1986 France Football magazine should simply have torn up its Europeans-only rules and pleaded with Maradona to accept its Ballon (rather than give it to Igor Belanov).

 

It wasn't until 1995 that they decided to open up the award to non-Europeans, and not until 2007 did they make it truly global, including players who don't play their club football in Europe. Yet it still deserves only marginally more credibility than the Fifa World Player of the year award, which is voted for by every national team manager and captain in the world yet looks suspiciously like it has to go to the players who generate the most advertising revenue (David Beckham twice being runner-up!?).

 

Yet still the only player who comes close to matching the achievements of Platini and Maradona has not made France Football's 30-man shortlist.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo is the overwhelming favourite and yes, he had a tremendous 2007-08 season. In the Premier League he took full benefit of Sir Alex Ferguson's innovative formation to become top scorer from an attacking midfield berth. He was also the top scorer in the Champions League. Though Manchester United's triumph in both, particularly the latter, owed as much to the fortitude of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand as it did to Ronaldo, whose only contribution in the semi-final against Barcelona, for example, was to miss a penalty. He was also peripheral to Euro 2008.

 

Excelling in a major tournament doesn't appear to be mandatory to scoop the gong: the 1992 winner wasn't Danish and last year's laureate, Kaka, didn't even bother playing in the Copa America, which is why his victory was outrageous. Because while it may not be the decisive factor, the judges shouldn't simply ignore major national tournaments. Therefore Iker Casillas' superb performances for Spain last summer, allied to his heroics during Real Madrid's title winning season in La Liga, mean that, if there has to be a winner this year, he has as strong a claim as Ronaldo.

 

But for the strongest claim of all we should look to an inspirational player who is the creative fulcrum of both his club and his country, with whom he this season achieved everything he possibly could. He won his domestic championship and the African champions league with his club while taking the continental crown with his country, even scoring the winner in the final, his fourth goal of a tremendous tournament. Scandalously, the France Football editorial team who selected the 30 players for whom their worldwide panel of journalists are allowed to vote overlooked the Al Ahly and Egypt playmaker Mohamed Aboutrika.

 

Fifa won't compensate for this offensive anomaly. Their shortlist doesn't include Aboutrika either. Nor anyone else from Egypt's recent vintage. Hardly surprising given that Fifa doesn't even rank Egypt, winners of the last two African Cups of Nations, as the best team in Africa. Not enough Europe-based players, perhaps.

[Sion]

Messi coming 2nd is a joke. He was injured for a large part of the season

He should walk it this season though

[San Diego Red]

Messi coming 2nd is a joke. He was injured for a large part of the season

He should walk it this season though

The list in full:

 

2008 Ballon d'Or voting

 

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

 

 

How Arshavin got that high based is just beyond me.