Ballon D'Or shortlist

Ronaldo's face !

Mr.Nice Guy

Well done, Messi. Thoroughly deserved.

Not sure about the suit though.

Nailz

Messi's suit is a crime against taste!

Dempsey

He must of lost a bet to be wearing a suit like that!

Turtyturd

rarnes1 wrote: »

Ronaldo's face !

??????

RandolphEsq

Is that Gerard Depardieu in the crowd?

MD1990

i though Messi's speech was poor
not even a mention of Ronaldo
fully deserved award though

dfx-

Not a good suit, but a good haircut.

He seems to be in favour of a short look this season.

Andersonisgod

Messi! Messi! Messi!

Extraordinary achievement. Hail Messi, surely the greatest footballer ever.

Mr.Nice Guy

RandolphEsq wrote: »

Is that Gerard Depardieu in the crowd?

Yeah it looked like that famous Russian actor.

RandolphEsq

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Yeah it looked like that famous Russian actor.

hahaha

RandolphEsq

RandolphEsq wrote: »

Is that Gerard Depardieu in the crowd?

Looks like he ate a few Ballon D'Ors. Size of him!

Rezident

Had to happened, well deserved. The others are very good and had great seasons but Messi's on a different level.

eagle eye

TheComeUp wrote: »

Not trying to be a biased City fan here but honestly Hart and Kompany deserved places tbh... And Marcelo at left back is highly questionable too. It's really hard to pick a team though that will include Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Ronaldo every year. And Falcao looks set to keep his name on the team too. Such a shame for players like Van Persie, Pirlo, Silva, Hazard etc.

The City players only did it at domestic level besides Silva. He is the only one you could give a place too and its hard to pick even with him being part of the Spanish Euro winning team.

ahnowbrowncow

Aha Shake wrote: »

Exact same team as last year except Vidic>Marcelo and Rooney>Falcao.

Anyone know if the formation was fixed at 4-3-3 or could it have been 3-4-3?

Are you serious?

MD1990

Top-10 Ballon d'or vote: 1Messi- 2 Ronaldo - 3 Iniesta - 4 Xavi - 5 Falcao - 6 Casillas - 7 Pirlo - 8 Drogba - 9 Van Persie - 10 Ibrahimovic

miralize

Two things.

1) People need to stop saying Messi needs to win a world cup to be considered the greatest ever. He already is.
2) Ronaldo has to be the greatest second best player ever.

Thecon21

Bravo Messi. Thoroughly deserved after the year he has had.

Great competition in Ronaldo and Iniesta it's just unfortunate that they have peaked in the presence of the greatest player of all time..

God knows what'll happen next year!

Jimmy Iovine

Drogba got more votes than Van Persie?

I know he did well in the Champions League but that was about it and he moved to China for the other half of the year. Some laugh.

super_furry

miralize wrote: »

1) People need to stop saying Messi needs to win a world cup to be considered the greatest ever. He already is.
2) Ronaldo has to be the greatest second best player ever.

Impossible to argue with that - it's a golden age for footballing talent right now. It's not that long ago that the likes of Michael Owen (who has won it as many times as Ronaldo) were winning the Ballon D'Or

miralize

super_furry

Better suit at least.

Turtwig

MD1990 wrote: »

Top-10 Ballon d'or vote: 1Messi- 2 Ronaldo - 3 Iniesta - 4 Xavi - 5 Falcao - 6 Casillas - 7 Pirlo - 8 Drogba - 9 Van Persie - 10 Ibrahimovic

I feel sorry of sorts for Ronaldo and Iniesta but how many times now has Xavi been in the top five, let alone top ten? That guy deserves some lifetime achievement or something.

On Messi's speech. It was good enough, I don't think it's fair to suggest he has to acknowledge Ronaldo.

"To tell you the truth this is really quite unbelievable. The fourth award that I have had is just too great for words.
I would like to recognise my other colleagues from Barcelona; Andres it has been great to train and play alongside you.
I would also like to recognise all of my friends in the Argentinian national team, everyone that has worked with me, coaches and staff and my family and my friends. Also my wife and my son. Thank you."

MD1990

Ballon D'or Votes
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/ballond%27or/general/01/98/08/52/fboawards-byrank.pdf

Andersonisgod

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

Drogba got more votes than Van Persie?

I know he did well in the Champions League but that was about it and he moved to China for the other half of the year. Some laugh.

While Van Persie did well he won nothing. Drogba on the other hand powered Chelsea, at times almost single handedly, to a historic Champions League victory. It's hardly a huge surprise.

Courtesy Flush

Messi is miles the best player, I dont think anyone can argue with the result

Patsy fyre

There's no way real Madrid should have 5 players in the world 11.
United have one of their poorest teams in a long time but I'd fancy them to beat real.

Legwinski

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

Are you serious?

I wasn't saying they were "greater than", I was showing the change between last years team and this years team.

Giggsy11

Andersonisgod wrote: »

While Van Persie did well he won nothing. Drogba on the other hand powered Chelsea, at times almost single handedly, to a historic Champions League victory. It's hardly a huge surprise.

Meanwhile Messi won just only Copa whereas Ronaldo won League?

Winning a cup is team effort, awards should be for individual performance not for being part of winning team.

Mr.Nice Guy

miralize wrote: »

I didn't know Falcao and Neymar were the good and bad angels on Ronaldo's shoulders.

Turtwig

Courtesy Flush wrote: »

Messi is miles the best player, I dont think anyone can argue with the result

Agree. It's terrifying though to think he could have played for Spain! :eek:
(Probably would have ended the international merits "controversy" though.:))

Andersonisgod

Patsy fyre wrote: »

There's no way real Madrid should have 5 players in the world 11.
United have one of their poorest teams in a long time but I'd fancy them to beat real.

Prepare to be shocked.

Andersonisgod

Giggsy11 wrote: »

Meanwhile Messi won just only Copa whereas Ronaldo won League?

Winning a cup is team effort, awards should be for individual performance not for being part of winning team.

Messi did score a couple goals though didn't he? Oh and his team have made the greatest start to a La Liga season ever this season. I think we will let him off.

On the other hand there is no arguing Drogba's European performances last season, he more than merits his place on the list.

ahnowbrowncow

How did xabi alonso get in the world team when pirlo has more votes?

MD1990

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/ballond%27or/playeroftheyear%28men%29/01/98/07/84/fboawardmenplayer2012-bycountry.pdf

Manager & Captains votes

Giggsy11

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Messi did score a couple goals though didn't he? Oh and his team have made the greatest start to a La Liga season ever this season. I think we will let him off.

On the other hand there is no arguing Drogba's European performances last season, he more than merits his place on the list.

RVP scored more goals than Drogba in calendar year. Drogba played half a season in China whereas RVP is leading goal scorer in PL and top of the league with 7 point lead.

Edit: Didn't say Messi didn't deserve the award, he surely did but if team winning league/cup is considered then Ronaldo should have won it.

Dohnny Jepp

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

How did xabi alonso get in the world team when pirlo has more votes?

I was just about to say its unbelievable that xabi didn't get any votes. He's more important to Real that Ronaldo is, and in my opinion he is the best midfielder in the world.

JP Liz V1

Even in that suit Messi looks hot deserving winner

Andersonisgod

Giggsy11 wrote: »

RVP scored more goals than Drogba in calendar year. Drogba played half a season in China whereas RVP is leading goal scorer in PL and top of the league with 7 point lead.

Edit: Didn't say Messi didn't deserve the award, he surely did but if team winning league/cup is considered then Ronaldo should have won it.

Anyone who saw the campaign knows full well that Drogba was more than a cog in the wheel of Chelsea's European victory. While Van Persie's Arsenal ( who finished ahead of Chelsea in the league which would suggest that both players were working with players of fairly similar quality) crashed out against AC Milan, Drogba was driving Chelsea to huge victories over Valencia, Napoli, Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the final. Again, hardly a surprising result, it is after all the biggest club competition around.

darced

This post has been deleted.

Paul Tergat

darced wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

how bitter you are




Messi deserved winner. The team though is pretty stupid

Rekop dog

Ronaldo didn't even make Messi's top 3 in his balot. Haters gonna hate

764dak

Rekop dog wrote: »

Ronaldo didn't even make Messi's top 3 in his balot. Haters gonna hate

Ronaldo didn't vote. Messi didn't even make Ronaldo top 3 in his ballot.

marbless

In Messi's 3 most important matches of the year he made absolutely no impact. He was anonymous when Barca lost at home to Real in La Liga last season (when Ronaldo was brilliant) and failed to damage Chelsea in the semi-final matches of the Champions League, including a missed penalty.

Great players used to be judged on their productivity in the most difficult matches. By that standard Ronaldo deserved the prize.

Rekop dog

764dak wrote: »

Ronaldo didn't vote. Messi didn't even make Ronaldo top 3 in his ballot.

That's what I said.

764dak

Rekop dog wrote: »

That's what I said.

Woops, still bitter from all of this.

764dak

Rekop dog wrote: »

Ronaldo didn't even make Messi's top 3 in his balot. Haters gonna hate

Kompany also didn't vote for Ronaldo. It might have something to do with the Champions League.

Turtyturd

marbless wrote: »

In Messi's 3 most important matches of the year he made absolutely no impact. He was anonymous when Barca lost at home to Real in La Liga last season (when Ronaldo was brilliant) and failed to damage Chelsea in the semi-final matches of the Champions League, including a missed penalty.

Great players used to be judged on their productivity in the most difficult matches. By that standard Ronaldo deserved the prize.

So if Messi had only played those 3 games all year and produced world class performances in each he would deserve the award?

super_furry

Just seen there on twitter that Gareth Bale has won the Fallon F'loor.

Turtwig

marbless wrote: »

In Messi's 3 most important matches of the year he made absolutely no impact. He was anonymous when Barca lost at home to Real in La Liga last season (when Ronaldo was brilliant) and failed to damage Chelsea in the semi-final matches of the Champions League, including a missed penalty.

Great players used to be judged on their productivity in the most difficult matches. By that standard Ronaldo deserved the prize.

Normally I defend Ronaldo from the "not a big game player" remarks so I guess this is a change. Actually no it's bizarre! Ever player has off days, I can't really recall the Barca Real game at the Camp Nou last season. All I remember is Puyol's howler. I do however remember Barca's visit to Stamford bridge. Messi was after being slightly injured and was dispossessed by Lampard which subsequently led to Drogba's goal. Although, if we're being honest Pique and Mascherano are more at fault and more so the latter. (He'd also cost them a goal against AC Milan.) Messi provided "assists" to both Cesc and Alexis that should have been really have been converted. The little genius also hit the post. In fact over the two ties with Chelsea I think he hit the woodwork on at least 3 occasions. Cech made some fantastic saves. He provided the assist to Iniesta at Camp Nou. It really beggars belief that you can claim he was anonymous in that series of games. Unless of course you mean anonymous by Messi's standards which in his last eight la Liga games of 2012 meant scoring at least two goals. Anything less was untypical of him. 2013 got off to a disappointing start he only scored one goal.