Ballon d'Or and FIFA WPOY 2008

[Saraesa]

With Manchester United winning the Champions League and EPL, Zenit winning UEFA Cup, Spain winning the EURO, Real Madrid and Inter winning their respective leagues, Argentina winning the Olympics, their star players have a good chance of taking the most important individual awards in the world of football. Players from Barcelona, Chelsea, Milan or Liverpool perhaps weren't crowned champions but always stand a shot. And of course, one can never write off the Germans.

With so many prestigious competitions and so many different winners the list of candidates is more colourful than ever. Bad boy Ronaldo, winner of UEFA CL and EPL or Arshavin, UEFA Cup winner? Golden Argentine Messi or golden Spaniard Casillas? The ever present Ballack or 'I show up once, but it's to score the winning goal' Torres? Maybe Serie A winner Ibrahimovic The Giant or tiny Xavi, EURO's MVP?

If I were asked to make a list of three players stand out the most, I'd name the following three in no particular order:

Cristiano Ronaldo for winning the UEFA CL, EPL and being the top scorer.

Iker Casillas for winning EURO, La Liga and being the Zamora of both tournaments.

Xavi for winning EURO and being named the best player of the tournament.

With all my respect to all league winners, runners up, UEFA Cup winners Zenit and Olympics champions Argentina, I think EURO and CL were this year's most important competitions and the most prestigious individual awards should go to players who won those competitions.

So, who's Kaka successor in your opinion?    



 
 

 

[♥ Majiek ♥]

I added a poll for you

[♥ Majiek ♥]

I voted Ronaldo for the obvious reasons, he is the clear winner in my opinion but it's not what i think that's important.

[azteca]

I voted Ronaldo, I don´t think Xavi was the best player of the Euro, Marcos Senna and Villa made much of a diference for Spain than Xavi

[footie_girl7]

CR7 indubitably

[*Black Rose*]

like i soo want Iker to win (it`s hard i know , but anything can happen )

Though i don`t like him much , but i think Messi is going to win it ^_^

[Samia]

Ronaldo DESERVES it...but who ends up winning it is a different matter i guess.

[Saraesa]

I voted Ronaldo, I don´t think Xavi was the best player of the Euro, Marcos Senna and Villa made much of a diference for Spain than Xavi

Of course we can have different views. I really don't think any player stood out in typical 'a la Ronaldo 2002' sense. Villa was the top scorer but he scored all his goals in two matches at group stage (you can say that he made difference against Sweden). Senna made difference in the sense that Spain never had a player like him before (I rate him higher than Albelda). He was Spain's Gattuso, a Gattuso every team needs to be competitive, a Gattuso who will make sure that those who's job is to make difference (Messi, C.Ronaldo etc.) make difference. Casillas replicated his Real Madrid form, Puyol and Senna held the back line, Xavi orchestrated in the midfield, Villa wasn't going through a goal drought. It was all team effort, they didn't need a 2002 Ronaldo to win matches. But Xavi is all Spain. They way he plays football is the way Spain played (plays) football and it was magnificent. That kind of football rarely wins international tournaments and that's why I think that it's successful protagonist deserves to be awarded.

As for Messi, I noticed he's also among the favourites but I don't think he deserves the award. That doesn't mean he won't be among the top three (though I don't think he deserves that either). But Olympics are nowhere near EURO and CL. And the stars of those two tournaments should take all the awards. Not to mention that Messi, as great as he may be, didn't win anything with Barca (third placed in La Liga last season) and even suffered a high 4-1 defeat to Casillas' Real Madrid. 

[Lucky*7*]

^ To be fair to Messi he was nowhere near fit when he played against Madrid. Personally i think Messi is the best player in the world, but unfortunatley injuries have ruled him out for far too many games to be a serious contender in this.

I think Cristiano is a a dead cert in this, he is consistently the most exciting player to watch and had a hugely succesful year last year. He fully deserves to win it. However in terms of importance to his team(s) Then i think both Xavi and Iker should be up their in the top 3/4. Xavi was huge for Spain at the euro's. He controlled everything, and completley dictated the pace of Spains games. The guy can see a pass 15 minutes before the other players have gotten on to the feild. He goes about his football quitely but hes immensely effective. Hes a great leader too. And Iker was once again outstanding for Madrid and Spain, hes started this season very un-Iker-like and a little shaky but last year he couldnt be faulted. But neither of those players are as eye catching as Cristiano, Messi et al..

[toni01]

I aint voted in this, and yet it says I have There is an imposter toni01 stealing my vote, its a bloody conspiracy I tell thee....I am unamused!   

[Roxxie]

i voted for ron he deserves it for many reasons

[GEMMABABE]

Cristiano Ronaldo has had a great two season?s, for a player that is not a striker to have scored 70 plus goals in that time it is an amazing personal feat. He has been consistently good over the whole year, He was part of a team that won both their domestic league and won the champions league, these are played over a period of nine months, to be consistent for that amount of time is amazing he was not just good in a single tournament, he was good the whole season. I would vote for Ronaldo to be player of the year.

I have never really agreed with the player of a single two/three week tournament (Xavi in this case, Fabio Cannavaro the other year) winning an award that should recognise the work that a player has produced over a whole year/season week in, week out, the reason they have a player of the tournament award is so they can reward that player for the football he has produced in that tournament.

Iker Casillas has been so underrated at these awards for seasons now, god knows why Gianluigi Buffon who played Serie B football the season before last made the shortlist for this award and Casillas didn?t?? Never made any sense that, Casillas has saved Madrid?s ass again and again, by pulling off save after save, over several seasons and is their most important player for me. The teams he has played in won the domestic league and he also was part of the team that won the Euros. Maybe it takes a major international tournament to get him some recognition I don?t know but he deserves to be in the top five. I would vote for him to come second.

Leo Messi will make the top three, he did last season when he was injured he will again; he will take a large chunk of the South American vote. He is great to watch, he has great dribbling ability, great ball control, sets many chances up for other players, his play recently in La Liga has made him look like the best player in the world. I wouldn?t vote for him, just due to the fact Barca played rubbish last season and won nothing. He was also injured for a bulk of the season, though I wouldn?t be in the least bit surprised if Messi was crowned the winner. 

Fernando Torres could be in with a shout of making top three, he had an amazing first season for Liverpool, he scored a couple of goals in the Euros including the goal that won the tournament, he has come back to Liverpool this season and carried on putting the ball in the net. This guy has played under 60 times for Liverpool and scored 38 goals. I would vote for him third place.

I really do want Cristiano to win this, I hope Cristiano wins this, I have watched him play some brilliant football over the past two seasons, there hasn?t been a player who has been in the form he has but I don?t think he will win it. My top three would be Ronaldo, Casillas and Torres. The FIFA top three will probably be, Messi, Xavi and Ronaldo.

[Lucky*7*]

To be fair to Xavi, he did play welll for the majority of last season, when Barca were sliding on their asses Xavi was often one of the few players putting a good shift in. Obviously his play got overshadowed by the fact that the players around him - Deco, Dinho, Edmilson ect were having shocking seasons. Xavi was still there doing his thing, and doing the work of others...in some games last year Xavi was covering three midfeild positions because the other players didnt want to play their, or simply wern't up to it. Xavi was there to help the back four, then he was passing the ball through the midfeild, sometimes he'd even pop up to finish everything he started. For that reason he'd be in my top 3.

[LFCbabe717]

I voted other - I am, quite obviously, backing Fernando Torres. I don't think I really have to justify why. His quality is there for the world to see and I think he's only going to get better and better. He's shown everyone just what he's capable of and to have achieved so much is just one year makes him a worthy winner in my opinion. Not only is he a fantastic player, he also seems to be an amazing person too. But chances are, he'll get fuck all. I honestly don't believe he's given enough recognition for what he does. He deserves so much more.

Plus, he's beautiful. That's got to count for something, right? j/k

[ftlorenacr]

I'm also def for fernando Torres. he's shown consistency in how he plays, i mean he was freakin' fantastic on his debut season at liverpool and he's doing well in the epl so far this year as well. not to mention he scored the winning goal for spain at euro 2008! and yes his beatifulness does count too plus he doesn't get him self in lots of trouble in the tabloids like some others do, he keeps his private life private and he seems like a pretty decent guy!!!! Our man Nando deserves to win! and as LFCBabe717 says he doesn't get as much recognition as he deserves!