Good post Danny, I never thought of it that way. As for the next Ballon D'Or, it is going to be pretty tough to be honest, what with Barcelona winning La Liga, possibly Bayern to win their domestic titles yet again, and also the World Cup. Very few European players shine over in South America and I fully expect the likes of Aguero, Messi, Neymar et al to be in the running.
FIFA Ballon d’Or 2013
- Thread starter Balu
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Good post Danny, I never thought of it that way. As for the next Ballon D'Or, it is going to be pretty tough to be honest, what with Barcelona winning La Liga, possibly Bayern to win their domestic titles yet again, and also the World Cup. Very few European players shine over in South America and I fully expect the likes of Aguero, Messi, Neymar et al to be in the running.
Not sure if this has been posted yet, interesting read: http://www.phantis.com/blogs/midfie...errated-over-hyped-beneficiary-modern-globali
Is it fair to say so far this season Ronaldo has been the best performer among the list?
Don't think that's a fair assessment either. Argentina finishing at the top in the south american group without Brazil is just what's expected of them. France finishing 2nd behind Spain is just the same, so far, they did what was expected, nothing more nothing less. If they fail to qualify in the playoffs, then they fecked up. The only team that underperformed so far is Portugal, because they are imo individually on a higher level than Russia and really shouldn't fail to beat Israel twice. If Portugal still go through, everything is fine though, in the end only the qualification counts.
Basically big teams can't do something positively special outside of tournaments, they can do what's expected or feck up. I agree though that Messi's performances for Argentina were quite good, same goes for Ribery, imo, both turned it around after failing to perform on a high level for a few years and Messi might edge it right now. Ronaldo is the one who so far looked below his standards for Portugal but as usual he'll probably turn it around in the playoffs. It's been the same with Portugal for quite a while now.
He has looked below standards but he did score a hattrick against Northern Ireland if that counts for anything. The player that really has got Portugal through to the play-offs for me was Postiga, he has had a brilliant tournament.
System has changed from top three to top five, which shouldn't make a difference.
Pirlo on who he thinks should win the award:
Pirlo on who he thinks should win the award:
So who do you think top five will be?
My list (in no particular order):
Ronaldo
Messi
Ribery
Ibrahimovic
Robben
My list (in no particular order):
Ronaldo
Messi
Ribery
Ibrahimovic
Robben
Seems fair. I don't care much for this thing but I wouldn't mind Ribery getting it. Messi has his share of 'em already and his year has been sub-standard for him when you factor in his relatively "poor" start to this season. Wouldn't be a crime to give it to Ronaldo, but a significant contribution to winning trophies must count here - and Ribery clearly edges it there.
I pretty much agree with this. I didn't want to include Robben, but he's had a very good 2013, though I'm making the assumption he'll be on the list due to his role in the CL final more than anything.
Don't think Robben deserves to be in the top 5. Would love it, if Lahm finished 4th or 5th, if a 2nd Bayern player makes the top 5, he had an outstanding year. Anyone thinks that Neymar could make the top 5? Brilliant confed cup and good start to the season with a great classico performance?
I forgot about him - yes I'd definitely have him over Robben. I think the list isn't very endearing at all, when you look at it from a performance level. I could see Ozil making the list as well, again that's down to what he's done in the Premier League.
Yes - a hundred times yes. Every time I've seen him in action lately he has been brilliant. Not the sort of player who is seriously considered for these awards - which says more about the awards than anything. Lahm, for me, is - to use Fergie's term - a top, top player.
Hattrick for Zlatan against Nice.
I quoted your post from the Ronaldo thread in here, because I don't want to derail that thread anymore.
I'm pretty sure that it is actually mainly influenced by the run in of the last season and international football, the tournaments (Worldcup, Euro, Copa, to a lesser degree also Confed Cup) and probably also to a smaller degree tournament qualifications, which usually are over at the end of November when the voting takes place). Individual achievements like top scorer in the league or the CL are still present at the end of each season, so surely count as well. The calender year actually makes sense, if you look at it that way and ignore the fans who are now going overboard with performances during the least competitive and important period of the season. No one really thought about Ibrahimovich as a top 5 candidate before he scored 4 goals in a for the outcome of the season completely meaningless CL group game against Anderlecht, it's weird, but I doubt the voters are heavily influenced by the games right now.
I'm really interested in how the votes from the players, managers and journalists differ from each other.
In 2010 when many fans thought Sneijder deserves it, the journalists voted for Sneijder as the winner, Iniesta 2nd, Xavi 3rd and Messi only 4th. Messi clearly dominated the votes of players and managers though with Sneijder only 4th from their votes and therefore won the Ballon d'Or. Maybe we again see something like that this year, Ribery winning the UEFA player of the year award points towards the journalists favouring him, it might be tough for him to convince the players and managers though. Ribery is also a bit of a cnut, and his on the pitch behavior might count against him with players and managers.
Lahm would definitely deserve a top-5 finish IMO... from what I've seen of Javi Martínez he too had a sublime year, he's just so incredibly dominant in midfield, excellent all-roundedness.
I think I'd have Schweinsteiger over Martinez, he had imo a bigger influence on our game, but both were a brilliant partnership, complemented each other perfectly and I know a few Bayern fans who also think Martinez was the better player. Really sad that so far they started only one game together, both are struggling with injuries and now that Schweinsteiger has to have surgery on his ankle again and is out for at least two month, it's questionable if we see them play together a lot during this season.
Its hard to ignore them because they are so damn loud. Everywhere you turn its all Ronnie for ballon d'or. Something that wasn't really being mentioned at the business end of last season. This will surely have an influence especially to voters in the parts of the world where media has more influence because they aren't following the game closely. In africa for example votes are going to come from people who aren't watching the bundesliga almost at all.
August to may is all that should count. Unless its a year of a big int tournament. That should cut out all these inconvenient that were facing atm. It would include all the games, but nip out the flaming starts of seasons.
Is the Ronaldo for Ballon d'Or hype really that load outside of this board? German football boards and German media are obviously biased towards Ribery so I honestly can't tell how much the rest of the world pushes for Ronaldo because of his form right now.
You have to remember that footballers and managers vote and they often pick the biggest name irregardless of actual performance.
The main names I've heard from casual watches are Ronaldo and ibrahimovic. People who actually watch regularly and know what they're talking about, then Ribery and Ronaldo. Strangely enough, there's pretty much nobody who is saying messi (rightfully so IMO, he's been below par).
FWIW I saw a poll that took place on the website 101greatgoals and Ibrahimovic won by a landslide, Ronaldo second.
Okay, but those are fanvotes, which obviously are more influenced by performances at the moment. Was more thinking about actual opinions by players, managers or articles by journalists? Someone quoted Pirlo for example, who said that he'd give his vote to Ribery. That's more interesting in regard to what we have to expect in January.
Official: The captain of Germany (Lahm): 1. Ribery - 2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 3. Messi - for the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
That's the results?
Ignore me, silly moment, I was going to say I didn't think the official results were yet...
Official: The manager of Azerbaijan (Berti Vogts) has voted for 1. Cristiano Ronaldo - 2. Lahm - 3. Lewandowski - for the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
You really should not be able to vote for a club or national team mate.
Pretty sure you can't for a national team mate, could be wrong though. Maybe its just managers can't choose their own players.
Edit: Actually apparently both managers and captains can pick whoever. Kind of stupid.
Official: The captain of Vietnam (Le Tan Tai) has voted for 1. Messi - 2. Ribery - 3. Cristiano Ronaldo - for the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
Official: The captain of Ireland (Keane) has voted for 1. Cristiano Ronaldo - 2. Messi - 3. Gareth Bale - for the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
Official: The manager of El Salvador (Castillo) has voted for 1. Ribery - 2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 3. Messi - for the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
Official: The captain of Peru (Pizarro) has voted for 1. Ribery - 2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 3. Messi - for the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
Official: The captain of Ireland (Keane) has voted for 1. Cristiano Ronaldo - 2. Messi - 3. Gareth Bale - for the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
Official: The manager of El Salvador (Castillo) has voted for 1. Ribery - 2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 3. Messi - for the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
Official: The captain of Peru (Pizarro) has voted for 1. Ribery - 2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 3. Messi - for the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
Ridiculous how some are voting for Ribery.
Conspiracy and bias innit?
Looks like it'll be very close between the three this year.
Two of those are ribery's teammates.
You can't only vote for yourself. So Argentina's captain Lionel Messi let his vice-captain Mascherano to vote instead of him. Guess who voted Mascherano?
Maybe not ridiculous considering that a lot of people agree that Ribery should win.
unless you know a bit about football, in which case it's perfectly understandable
The betting is apparently responding to a leak from FIFA, published by one of the news agencies, and odds on Messi's 5th in a row have fallen dramatically. The same agency is said to have got the top 5 voting right last year. It's supposed to be coming from a Spanish news agency called rather boringly Agencia News. I've not managed to track it back to source but that may just be because it's on their subscription service.
So here are the results, allegedly.
Messi
Ronaldo
Ribery
Iniesta
Zlatan
The rumours were that Ribery was (just) leading over Messi before the vote was reopened, but the votes that came in after the vote reopened went to Mess and Ronaldo.
Agencia News also say (on their Twitter account) that the manager votes went:
Heynckes
Scolari
Del Bosque
So here are the results, allegedly.
Messi
Ronaldo
Ribery
Iniesta
Zlatan
The rumours were that Ribery was (just) leading over Messi before the vote was reopened, but the votes that came in after the vote reopened went to Mess and Ronaldo.
Agencia News also say (on their Twitter account) that the manager votes went:
Heynckes
Scolari
Del Bosque
I think it'll be Ronaldo, then Ribery, then messi, but I don't thin you Should be allowed to vote for team mates, both club and national.
Del bosque? The only thing he did all year was get thrashed 3-0 to brazil in the final of the confed cup. Ridiculous that he's even nominated.