Mario Balotelli

Raskolnikov

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/21/mario-balotelli-wilshere-fabregas-rooney

Mario Balotelli has been named the best young player in Europe – and has taken a swipe at Jack Wilshere, Cesc Fábregas and Wayne Rooney in the process.

The Manchester City striker won the Golden Boy trophy, organised by the Turin newspaper Tuttosport and voted for by European journalists to honour the most talented footballer under the age of 21. The 20-year-old beat the 18-year-old Wilshere into second place – and then claimed he did not even know who the Arsenal midfielder was.

"What's his name? Wil ... ? No, I don't know him, but the next time I play against Arsenal I will keep a close eye on him," Balotelli said. "Perhaps I can show him the Golden Boy trophy and remind him that I won it."

The Italy international then had a dig at previous winners of the award, including Fábregas, Rooney and Rafael van der Vaart, insisting only one past recipient could claim to be better than him. "There's only one that is a little stronger than me: Messi. All the others are behind me.

"I am delighted to receive the award, but who should have won it but me? Two years ago I finished sixth and then fourth in 2009. It was finally my turn. My aim is that this prize will transform itself into the Ballon d'Or. To have won this award is a good omen to achieve that."

Aside from personal prizes, Balotelli also seems confident of helping his team win the Premier League title this season. "For 2011 I want the Premier League, in order to continue with the tradition I had at Inter of winning three consecutive titles, and to clinch the Europa League, a trophy I have not yet won and a competition where we are considered favourites."

Good player - but completely deluded if he thinks he's better than all others, and only a "little less stronger" than Messi.

kippy

Best young player in Europe?
Who votes for these awards.

monkey9

kippy wrote: »

Best young player in Europe?
Who votes for these awards.

European journalists in this case.

~Rebel~

Nutcase of a young'fella. Entertaining though!

gooch2k9

Thats a joke aye?

kippy

monkey9 wrote: »

European journalists in this case.

Donkeys.
Poor aul Andy Carrol was absolutely shafted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Carroll

Mars Bar

And the fact that SKy Sports News are racing around Manchester trying to find a copy of that stupid looking glove hat is not going to help deflate that ego of his.

Bounty Hunter

Is the rest of the list anywhere, would be interestiing to see who is after him & JW on it

Bodhisopha

Lol, i like him.

Pinturicchio

The full list of nominees is as follows:

André - Dinamo Kiev
Mario Balotelli - Manchester City
Bebé - Manchester United
Yacine Brahimi - Stade Rennes
Sergio Canales - Real Madrid
Diego Contento - Bayern München
Philippe Coutinho - Internazionale
David de Gea - Atlético Madrid
Luuk de Jong - FC Twente
Nathan Delfouneso - Aston Villa
Mattia Destro – Genoa
Douglas Costa - Shakhtar Donetsk
lan Dzagoev - CSKA Moskou
Christian Eriksen – Ajax
Mario Gotze - Borussia Dortmund
Eden Hazard - Lille OSC
Abel Hernandez - Palermo
Gaël Kakuta - Chelsea
Bojan Krkic - FC Barcelona
Toni Kroos - Bayern München
Adem Ljajic - Fiorentina
Romelu Lukaku - Anderlecht
Federico Macheda - Manchester United
Joël Matip - Schalke 04
Fran Mérida - Atlético Madrid
Ezequiel Muñoz - Palermo
Musacchio - Villareal
Yann M'Vila - Rennes
Sotirios Ninis - Panathinaikos
Dani Pacheco - Liverpool
Marcus Pedersen - Vitesse
Miralem Pjanic - Olympique Lyon
Rafael - Manchester United
Gastón Ramírez - Bologna
Riviere - Saint Etienne
James Rodríguez - FC Porto
Mamadou Sakho - Paris Saint-Germain
Eduardo Salvio - Benfica
André Schürrle - FSV Mainz
Jack Wilshere - Arsenal



PAST WINNERS
2003 Rafael Van der Vaart (Hol) Ajax
2004 Wayne Rooney (Eng) Manchester U
2005 Lionel Messi (Arg) Barcelona 2005
2006 Francesc Fábregas (Spa) Arsenal
2007 Sergio Agüero (Arg) Atletico Madrid
2008 Luís Anderson (Bra) Manchester U
2009 Alexandre Pato (Bra) AC Milan

Seaneh

kippy wrote: »

Donkeys.
Poor aul Andy Carrol was absolutely shafted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Carroll

Carrol isn't one tenth the player Balotelli is.

The boy gets ahead of himself but he is a special player.

kippy

Pinturicchio wrote: »

The full list of nominees is as follows:

André - Dinamo Kiev
Mario Balotelli - Manchester City
Bebé - Manchester United
Yacine Brahimi - Stade Rennes
Sergio Canales - Real Madrid
Diego Contento - Bayern München
Philippe Coutinho - Internazionale
David de Gea - Atlético Madrid
Luuk de Jong - FC Twente
Nathan Delfouneso - Aston Villa
Mattia Destro – Genoa
Douglas Costa - Shakhtar Donetsk
lan Dzagoev - CSKA Moskou
Christian Eriksen – Ajax
Mario Gotze - Borussia Dortmund
Eden Hazard - Lille OSC
Abel Hernandez - Palermo
Gaël Kakuta - Chelsea
Bojan Krkic - FC Barcelona
Toni Kroos - Bayern München
Adem Ljajic - Fiorentina
Romelu Lukaku - Anderlecht
Federico Macheda - Manchester United
Joël Matip - Schalke 04
Fran Mérida - Atlético Madrid
Ezequiel Muñoz - Palermo
Musacchio - Villareal
Yann M'Vila - Rennes
Sotirios Ninis - Panathinaikos
Dani Pacheco - Liverpool
Marcus Pedersen - Vitesse
Miralem Pjanic - Olympique Lyon
Rafael - Manchester United
Gastón Ramírez - Bologna
Riviere - Saint Etienne
James Rodríguez - FC Porto
Mamadou Sakho - Paris Saint-Germain
Eduardo Salvio - Benfica
André Schürrle - FSV Mainz
Jack Wilshere - Arsenal

Not a great list of nominees in fairness.

Pinturicchio

I've just seen who this award is organised by, Tuttosport. It's an absolute rag of a paper from Turin.

kippy

Seaneh wrote: »

Carrol isn't one tenth the player Balotelli is.

The boy gets ahead of himself but he is a special player.

Young player of the year 2010.
Doesnt matter how good you are potentially, who has done more for his team in that period is the key, for me anyway.

Seaneh

How the hell is Bebe on there?!?

EI111

i would imagine most of the voters have never seen more than one match played by the majority of these players
No further point to make, just saying

DOC09UNAM

Pinturicchio wrote: »

The full list of nominees is as follows:

André - Dinamo Kiev
Mario Balotelli - Manchester City
Bebé - Manchester United
Yacine Brahimi - Stade Rennes
Sergio Canales - Real Madrid
Diego Contento - Bayern München
Philippe Coutinho - Internazionale
David de Gea - Atlético Madrid
Luuk de Jong - FC Twente
Nathan Delfouneso - Aston Villa
Mattia Destro – Genoa
Douglas Costa - Shakhtar Donetsk
lan Dzagoev - CSKA Moskou
Christian Eriksen – Ajax
Mario Gotze - Borussia Dortmund
Eden Hazard - Lille OSC
Abel Hernandez - Palermo
Gaël Kakuta - Chelsea
Bojan Krkic - FC Barcelona
Toni Kroos - Bayern München
Adem Ljajic - Fiorentina
Romelu Lukaku - Anderlecht
Federico Macheda - Manchester United
Joël Matip - Schalke 04
Fran Mérida - Atlético Madrid
Ezequiel Muñoz - Palermo
Musacchio - Villareal
Yann M'Vila - Rennes
Sotirios Ninis - Panathinaikos
Dani Pacheco - Liverpool
Marcus Pedersen - Vitesse
Miralem Pjanic - Olympique Lyon
Rafael - Manchester United
Gastón Ramírez - Bologna
Riviere - Saint Etienne
James Rodríguez - FC Porto
Mamadou Sakho - Paris Saint-Germain
Eduardo Salvio - Benfica
André Schürrle - FSV Mainz
Jack Wilshere - Arsenal



PAST WINNERS
2003 Rafael Van der Vaart (Hol) Ajax
2004 Wayne Rooney (Eng) Manchester U
2005 Lionel Messi (Arg) Barcelona 2005
2006 Francesc Fábregas (Spa) Arsenal
2007 Sergio Agüero (Arg) Atletico Madrid
2008 Luís Anderson (Bra) Manchester U
2009 Alexandre Pato (Bra) AC Milan

From that list, I'd give it to Bojan imo.

RasTa

I do like him as well, although wouldn't want him at my club.

EI111

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

From that list, I'd give it to Bojan imo.

What about the 20 or so you have probably never seen play?

Raskolnikov

kippy wrote: »

Donkeys.
Poor aul Andy Carrol was absolutely shafted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Carroll

What are you on about? Andy Carroll is already 21, going on 22. This is an award for players under 21.

RasTa

How the f*ck did Bebe get a nomination?

Bounty Hunter

Interesting to see The Fonz there for Villa guess he is still only 19 and was very highly rated (still is im sure). tbh though I'm more of a fan of Albrighton but i guess at 21 he's old for this list. Seems to be only one player from ever side in that list, wonder is only the highest rated young player at the club considerd for the list so the overall order may not actually be meant as an indication of best apart from the top few as some clubs could have a few exceptional yooungsters.

side question looking at his name on the list, is Bojan likely to be on the move? might not be getting too much time at Barca considering the talent they have available to them.

edit: scrath that just noticed a few teams have more than one but they arent always who youd expect.

DOC09UNAM

EI111 wrote: »

What about the 20 or so you have probably never seen play?

I was unemployed for six months, all I did was watch football.

I have seen the majority of them play a wee bit.

Nemanja91

He is a Pr!ck

Pinturicchio

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

From that list, I'd give it to Bojan imo.

He's not even playing first team football. What about the ones who play key roles for their clubs (and even their national teams in some cases) like Lukaku, Balotelli, Hazard, De Gea, Pjanic, M'Vila, Eriksen.

Raskolnikov

I would have thought that Pjanic would have been in with a shout to be honest. Certainly played at a higher level than Wilshire in the last year. Having said that, you can't really argue with Balotelli. Has a Serie A, a Champions League, a decent amount of appearances and influence in getting Inter their success.

~Rebel~

How is Pedro not on that list, while Bebe is?
<edit> Im a retard, Pedro is much older than I thought! </edit>


From the list, would find it hard enough to pick, with the following the best of the bunch imo;


Hazard, Wilshere, Pjanic, Bojan and Balotelli.

Have heard lots about others on the list, but not really seen em so cant comment.

curry-muff

Rafael ftw!!!

Seaneh

The stand outs on the list from what I've seen are,

Balotelli
Wilshire
Hazard
Pjanic
Hernandez
Ljajic

out of those I'd give it to Balotelli every time.



Lukaku is a def future winner, he's still only 17, has a lot of developing to go, but he's going to be scary good.

Bjoan isn't all that and a bag of chips, will never be world class imo.

Pinturicchio

Just spotted that Ezequiel Munoz is on the list. I'd never realised how young he is! He has always impressed my when I've seen him play for Palermo. He plays with maturity beyond his years.

Pinturicchio

Seaneh wrote: »

The stand outs on the list from what I've seen are,

Balotelli
Wilshire
Hazard
Pjanic
Hernandez
Ljajic

out of those I'd give it to Balotelli every time.



Lukaku is a def future winner, he's still only 17, has a lot of developing to go, but he's going to be scary good.

Bjoan isn't all that and a bag of chips, will never be world class imo.

I've never really gotten the hype surrounding Abel Hernandez. I've never seen him do anything special really.

I completely agree about Bojan though.

kippy

Didnt realise carroll was so old.
Fair enough.

That list of nominees is straight from the "wonderkids" list on Football Manager 2011.

Handsome Bob

He's a nutjob, even a liability at times on the pitch. I was watching the City game against West Ham a few weeks back and Mancini took him off after he got a yellow. He had blown a gasket, and was definitely going to get himself sent off, Mancini had no choice but to haul him off.

Raskolnikov

Seaneh wrote: »

The stand outs on the list from what I've seen are,

Balotelli
Wilshire
Hazard
Pjanic
Hernandez
Ljajic

I've only ever watched him twice, but I'd have Sakho in that list too. For a kid, he looked frighteningly comfortable captaining PSG.

Seaneh

Raskolnikov wrote: »

I've only ever watched him twice, but I'd have Sakho in that list too. For a kid, he looked frighteningly comfortable captaining PSG.

He's the big centre back? He's good alright , but I haven't seen a whole lot of him to be honest. The young CB on the list from villareal, the Argentinia lad, forget his name, is the other CB on the list that looks looks like he might be world class.

M'Vila is also probably close the the little short list I did but again, only seen bits and pieces of him.


@Pinturicchio, he hasn't seemed to played a whole lot this year, but last season he was fantastic for Palermo. One thing Palermo seem to do properly is find amazing young players and bring them to Serie A. Kjaer, Cavani, Iličić, Hernández, Pastore, Muñoz and Bačinović to name but a few in the last 4 years!

For all Maurizio Zamparini lunacy and weirdness, he does something right.

Pinturicchio

Seaneh wrote: »

@Pinturicchio, he hasn't seemed to played a whole lot this year, but last season he was fantastic for Palermo. One thing Palermo seem to do properly is find amazing young players and bring them to Serie A. Kjaer, Cavani, Iličić, Hernández, Pastore, Muñoz and Bačinović to name but a few in the last 4 years!

For all Maurizio Zamparini lunacy and weirdness, he does something right.

Yeah, I'd love if Juve could take a leaf out of their book in that regard. Ilicic is a very exciting prospect.

the untitled user

Didn't follow him too much in the last year, but what I've seen of Hazard I really like. He's my personal pick of that list.

dagdha

What about Thomas Muller, he only turned 21 in September so he was still 20 when playing great at the World Cup and Bayern got to the Champions League final.

jesus_thats_gre

Pinturicchio wrote: »

2007 Sergio Agüero (Arg) Atletico Madrid
2008 Luís Anderson (Bra) Manchester U
2009 Alexandre Pato (Bra) AC Milan

Wait there.. WTF???

Raskolnikov

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Wait there.. WTF???

Don't see a problem. He won a league title and a Champions League that year, also looked to be a cracking prospect at the time.

bigred100

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

Wait there.. WTF???

I'm guessing that would have been based on his debut season and hype.

keane2097

bigred100 wrote: »

I'm guessing that would have been based on his debut season and hype.

lol try again there kid

bigred100

keane2097 wrote: »

lol try again there kid

Debut season for Man Utd...I rate him highly so any opinion I have on the lad is biased beyond all reason.

BERBA

bigred100 wrote: »

Debut season for Man Utd...I rate him highly so any opinion I have on the lad is biased beyond all reason.

better off with viv anderson imo

keane2097

bigred100 wrote: »

Debut season for Man Utd...I rate him highly so any opinion I have on the lad is biased beyond all reason.

Just on the idea that he won it because of hype:

Team Honours:
FIFA Club World Cup: 2008
UEFA Champions League: 2007/08
Premier League: 2007/08, 2008/09
League Cup: 2008/09

bigred100

keane2097 wrote: »

Just on the idea that he won it because of hype:

Team Honours:
FIFA Club World Cup: 2008
UEFA Champions League: 2007/08
Premier League: 2007/08, 2008/09
League Cup: 2008/09

Ah yeah that's fair enough, wasn't really considering it was based on team awards and rather player talent, but I suppose it makes sense.

keane2097

I would guess it's the young player who has achieved the most in the year.

redzerdrog

its a nothing award really it would be like voted the daily mail young player of the year

Saying that, balotelli certainly deserved it looking at the list of players he was up against

monkey9

BERBA wrote: »

better off with viv anderson imo

No i don't agree. Viv Anderson is in his fifties now and wouldn't have the energy to cover the ground that Anderson can.

Plus, Viv Anderson was a right back and i'm not sure he would want to come out of retirement.

After selling him in 1991, i really can't see Ferguson trying to get Viv Anderson back. So, i really have to disagree with your opinion.

redzerdrog

lol

u140acro3xs7dm

David de Gea for me out of that list!!

If Muller was/is eligible he should have walked it, Balotelli was not first choice under Mourinho last year he was left out quite often (mostly because of his big mouth). Muller scored alot more goals(19) from midfield than Balotelli (11) did up front.