Those three will contest this year's FIFA and France Football Magazine Ballon d'Or in Zurich on January 10th.
Wesley Sneijder must feel a bit aggrieved not to have made the short list, which begs the question: In lieu of which of the finalists should Sneijder have made the list?
It would have to have been La Pulga. The Argentinean flea is undoubtedly prolific but it can't be denied that Sneijder had a more successful year than Messi, both domestically and internationally. That being said, nobody is going to argue with Messi's inclusion based purely on the merit of his technique and goals ratio. Add to that Messi's glittering form in the latter half of 2010, and the small matter of his being the reigning world player of the year, and the argument for poor Wesley fizzles.
This will be the first year that the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA awards have been merged (whether it's an austerity measure or FIFA wielding its power unethically once again is a topic for another debate), and with the world's football journalists, national team coaches and captains all voting we will have just one undisputed winner. That winner should be Xavi Hernandez. If Xavi does not win the award this year then he is destined never to win it given that he will turn 31 shortly after the FIFA gala.
Xavi has been on the 23-man shortlist for three years running. In 2008, despite his masterminding Spain's European Championship and being named tournament MVP, Cristiano Ronaldo carrying Manchester United to the EPL and Champions League trophies proved to be greater accomplishments in the eyes of the voters. In 2009 everyone decided Messi was the major reason Barcelona won the Treble and Xavi finished third in the voting (the closest he has ever gotten). This year those snubs, and the fact he has been the common-denominator in Barcelona's successes over the last decade, should work in his favor.
The man is a five-time Spanish league champion, two-time Champions League winner and reigning European and world champion. Hernandez finished the World Cup with an 89% completion rate of an incredibly high volume of passes that kept Spain's offense ticking. And did I mention that the guy can play defense? Despite this impressive resume, which includes a number of other team and individual honors, Xavi has yet to be named world player of the year.
The dilemma that most voters will face this year is that Andrés Iniesta has also been instrumental in Barcelona and Spain's recent successes. Iniesta, like Xavi, exhibits intelligence, vision and poise to match his technique and raw ability that very few players in the history of the game can be said to possess or have possessed. The two players have an understanding on the pitch that borders on telepathy, and their sickening degree of humility on and off the field only serves to endear them to fans of the game even more.
People are going blue in the face arguing the tangibles and intangibles in support of who should win the Ballon d'Or. Sadly, the only certainty is that only one person can lift the award, and that someone should be Spanish. Xavi Hernandez holds the trump card as the heart and soul of two of the most dynamic teams world soccer has ever seen. But no matter who is given the golden ball in Zurich, the true winner has already been shown to be Barcelona's youth academy.
No comments:
Post a Comment