Ballon Dor 2010

FIFA Ballon d'Or

Ozren Podnar

Barcelona trio absorb the spotlight

This has been a clear triumph for FC Barcelona. All three top spots in the first unified annual award have gone to members of Josep Guardiola's magical team - Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez. The rumours had it that Iniesta would take the FIFA Ballon d'Or on account of his goal that gave Spain the world title in South Africa.

The prospect of Iniesta landing the gold irritated many, since the diminutive player from Albacete (well, all three are equally diminutive) had spent five months on the sidelines in the run-up to the World Cup, as Jose Mourinho pointed out nicely.

Xavi Hernandez, the brains behind both Barca and Spain, would have seemed the more legitimate choice, but in the end all the bets were off as Leo Messi ran away with the ultimate prize.

Although undoubtedly the most decisive player in contemporary soccer, Messi had a mediocre World Cup, failing to score in five appearances for Argentina, who after a promising start crashed to 4-0 to Germany in the quarterfinals. The outcome of the voting slightly angered Cristiano Ronaldo, who exclaimed that "it seems as if the World Cup had not been played at all". Surely he was not protesting over his own position in the ranking, since his performances in South Africa were inferior to Messi's, let alone those of Xavi and Iniesta.

The World Cup medals were not decisive in the choice of the top coaches either. Jose Mourinho deservedly collected the top prize, since his role in Inter Milan's perfect season was more conspicuous than Vicente del Bosque's in Spain's triumph. After all, Del Bosque had in his team Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Casillas, Ramos, Fabregas and other sensational individuals, who might have conquered the world under any number of coaches. Well, maybe not Steve McClaren. In fact, Spain won the European Championship in 2008 with Luis Aragones on the bench, but with virtually the same players (minus Pique and Busquets).

The laureate Messi has not mentioned this, but he could be disgruntled over one little issue: he could have won two major individual trophies like last year, but unfortunately for him, the FIFA World Player of the Year and France Football's Ballon d'or awards were unified into one award.

Perhaps the unification is a good thing. Since 2000, six Ballon d'Or winners were also given the FIFA World Player award for the same year, five of them between 2005 and 2009. In the previous three years, the same players took the podium in both competitions, the only difference being Messi's and Cristiano's order in 2007: Messi was second as per FIFA, and third in France Football's poll, while Cristiano occupied the third and the second positions, respectively.

In the last two years before the merging of the awards, the top three positions were exactly the same in both surveys. So, it was only logical that the two awards should have fused into one mega-award, destined to gain even greater prestige than two separate ones.

Still, UEFA chairman Michel Platini has hinted at the possibility of his organization instituting its own separate award, only it is not clear whether it would involve only European players, or every player competing in the European leagues. If the latter is true, it is likely that we would see the same players taking the podium in both cases, just as in good old days of the FIFA-France Football division.

For comparison, let us take a look at the top three places in both major annual polls between 2000 through 2009.

FIFA World Player of the Year vs. France Football Ballon d'Or

FIFA Ballon d'Or 2010

Players

1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
2. Andres Iniesta (Barcelona)
3. Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona)

Coaches

1. Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid)
2. Vicente del Bosque (Spain)
3. Josep Guardiola (Barcelona)

Advertise | RSS | Category RSS | Bookmark & Share | Soccerphile on FACEBOOK
The Onside In-Site Copyright © From 2000 - All rights reserved Soccerphile Ltd
Powered by Neologix CMS