Does anyone take the Balon D'Or seriously?

‏@barcastuff

Hristo Stoichkov (Ballon d'Or 1994): "Michel Platini has 3 Ballons d'Or. Maybe Messi won't win this year because he'd overtake him."

I don't have a problem with it, its pretty obvious Cristiano or Messi will win it so that's fair.. What else matters? Who cares about third place and everything else?

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Ronaldo in 02

It's better than having nothing.

I guess I take it seriously for as long as I agree that the right player won

jibers wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Ronaldo in 02

One of the biggest joke. Cannavaro, ROnaldo, Zidane in 98 etc. Clowns. Eveytime I hear the word Balon D'or I suffer silently

Wait!? What!? How did Ronaldo not deserve it in 2002? Did you see the World Cup?

He came back from a terrible injury scored 7 in 10 in the league for Inter, and then blitzed the World Cup, 8 goals in 1 tournament after having his knee completely reconstructed! 8! Including the only 2 goals in the final. People go mad over Muller when he scores 5, nevermind 8. And then he was on fire at the start of the following season. Who should have won it instead?

aford92 wrote:

jibers wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Ronaldo in 02

One of the biggest joke. Cannavaro, ROnaldo, Zidane in 98 etc. Clowns. Eveytime I hear the word Balon D'or I suffer silently

Wait!? What!? How did Ronaldo not deserve it in 2002? Did you see the World Cup?

He came back from a terrible injury scored 7 in 10 in the league for Inter, and then blitzed the World Cup, 8 goals in 1 tournament after having his knee completely reconstructed! 8! Including the only 2 goals in the final. People go mad over Muller when he scores 5, nevermind 8. And then he was on fire at the start of the following season. Who should have won it instead?

You just answered your own question.....

He played 10 league games all season and then shows up at the WC armed with the best wing backs in the world and perhaps of all time and 2 of the best forwards of that generation in Ronaldinho and Rivaldo and unsurprisingly they raped shit.

I know Ronaldo scored a lot of goals at that tournament but to me Rivaldo was player of the tournament.

It's just hard in an era like this when Messi is the best player by a pretty wide margin now.

I think they need to define what the trophy stands for as everyone knows I'm a huge Messi fan but IMO it's criminal no one from Spain's national team has won it while they have the longest winning streak in history and won the last 3 major international trophies.

So that's why Iniesta and Xavi are up in the top 5 or 3 because they have the international and club success with Messi and Barca as well.

While if I'm to be honest I think Messi is much better for Argentina then some want to give him credit for but outside that Gold Medal he has won nothing yet with them but he's still the best player in the world.

I just think someone from Spain needs to win this award at least once as they will go down as one of the best national teams ever. And this is probably the last year to honor someone from this generation of Spanish players that have accomplished so much internationally and domestically.

In short Messi is the best player hands down but IMO this year it's time Xavi or Iniesta win it as they have been a driving force behind so many records and trophies.

IT's kind of like when the NBA gave Barkley and Malone the MVP award when everyone knew Jordan was better then them because they just couldn't give it to Jordan every year. Then Jordan would meet them in the finals and tear them to pieces.

For the people saying they don't take the award seriously anymore I can see where there coming from BUT the best player in the world has won it the last 3 years so if that's what they want then they got it right.

If what they want is the best mix of international and domestic form in one season by a player they know isn't the best in the world then they have gotten it wrong.

IT's a joke because they don't stick to either principal.

NO. It is meaningless.

Ibrahimovic (PSG): "Ballon d'Or? Messi won already 3. If they want to give him a 4th, ok, but it'd be fair to give it to someone else"

gondov wrote:Ibrahimovic (PSG): "Ballon d'Or? Messi won already 3. If they want to give him a 4th, ok, but it'd be fair to give it to someone else"

The ironical thing about this is that it comes from a man who has won guldbollen(best swedish player award) 7 times, and 6 in a row. He didnt seem to have a problem then with a player winning it alot of times

Someone are like '' it's a joke that they give it to [ insert a name here ] ''

or '' [ insert a name here ] should win it ''


But after all , how is the winner chosen ? Caps , managers and journalists vote right ? So it's kinda a democatric thing ...

Democracy is not perfect . As someone said some of the winners were not the best choice but when a president is elected with 52% (and his opponent gets 48) does someone call it in qestion ?

gondov wrote:Ibrahimovic (PSG): "Ballon d'Or? Messi won already 3. If they want to give him a 4th, ok, but it'd be fair to give it to someone else"

It'd be fair to give it to the best player, not just snub Messi because someone else thinks its fair. He's had the game in a chokehold for a while now. Deal with it.

At the same time it's kind of bullshit that a player like Ibra will never win it in his career - in spite of carrying teams on his back for nearly a decade (bar Barca, where his season there is still underrated). Henry never won it either. Yet Owen did. That's the thing about the Ballon D'Or, it's not an assessment of player quality but of who was best during a certain year.

Also, a lot of club captains and coaches don't have much more in depth knowledge of the sport than some people who post in this forum. There are famous cases of captains of small nations (in a footballing sense) voting for 3 players because they're fans of the team they play for. Or even if you go higher up you still get people like Messi who vote for Xavi, Iniesta and Aguero. Are these the 3 best players of the last season? No, but they're his friends. Is that the best criteria to choose this award? No, but everyone does it. There's a lot of politics in play (remember the Marca journalist that voted Cristiano instead of Iniesta for best footballer, as if he had the obligation to vote for Iniesta since he is Spanish). My point is that the people who vote for this in an objective manner are the minority, as many of them are influenced by non-objective criteria. Journalists would've given the award to Sneyder on 2010, for instance.

who's on next cover of fifa > Ballon d'Or