FIFA Ballon D'or - Who is your favourite among the 23?

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FIFA Ballon D'or - Who Is Your Favourite Among The 23?

Lifeguard (Bayern München)(Footytube Staff) 1 year ago

The men’s shortlist for the FIFA Ballon d’Or award has been revealed, with no fewer than 23 players making the candidates list. The final award winner will be determined by the captains and head coaches of the men’s national teams along with international media representatives selected by France Football, and will be announced at the second FIFA Ballon d’Or gala on 9 January 2012.

Which player is your favourite to win the award? Will Lionel Messi take the honours for a third successive year, or will one of his Barcelona team-mates deny him achieving that feat?

The following 23 men (in alphabetical order) are in contention for the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2011:
Eric Abidal (France), Sergio Aguero (Argentina), Karim Benzema (France), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Dani Alves (Brazil), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Muller (Germany), Nani (Portugal), Neymar (Brazil), Mesut Ozil (Germany), Gerard Pique (Spain), Wayne Rooney (England), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), Luis Suarez (Uruguay), David Villa (Spain), Xabi Alonso (Spain), Xavi (Spain)

By Team:
Barcelona - 8
Real Madrid - 5
Inter Milan - 2
Manchester United - 2
Bayern Munchen - 2
Liverpool - 1
Manchester City - 1
Santos - 1
FK Anzhi Makhachkala - 1

Edit: Thanks Ayyam

LumpOfCelery (Chelsea) 1 year ago

Actually its two for inter and one for Anzhi

Tony 1 year ago

Can't believe mario gomez is missing from the list, but theres only one winner.... Messi

Dgrant117 (Manchester United) 1 year ago

8 from Barcelona? Jeez, might as well nominate the whole team...

Dgrant117 (Manchester United) 1 year ago

8 from Barcelona? Jeez, might as well nominate the whole team...

LumpOfCelery (Chelsea) 1 year ago

Abidal, Alonso, Pique, Casillas. Only ones capable. Seriously though its going to be Messi.

Juno (AC Milan) 1 year ago

Agreed. Most are there just to split the votes and make up the numbers...

TheBarcaShow (Anims Tito) 1 year ago

Outside of Messi is goes to Schweinsteiger although I don't think Bayern had that great of a season last year Schweinsteiger was a shinning star for them

Hill (Arsenal) 1 year ago

I thought it was for the calendar year, not for a season

TheBarcaShow (Anims Tito) 1 year ago

Yeah it is calender year but there should be more weight put onto the first half of the year since the important matches are then. I do take back my comment about Schweini though, he was a difference maker for Bayern and I think it was more of a coaching failure for Bayern last season

LumpOfCelery (Chelsea) 1 year ago

I would have loved to see more people from Dortmund, Lille, and Porto. More so, I mean Gotze, Hazard, and Hulk respectively

Lifeguard (Bayern München)(Footytube Staff) 1 year ago

What if they limited it to one player from a team per year, so no more of this multiple players from the same team? That way more players from a wider variety of clubs would get some recognition

TheBarcaShow (Anims Tito) 1 year ago

I would think that would cause more controversy. For Barcelona and Real Madrid it is obvious who the star player is but how about for a team like United?

Rooney is obviously the star player but most people would agree that Vidic was the best player last season.

Maybe limiting the number of players from a league could help but that is kind of defeating the purpose of having an award for the best players in the world.

I think it would make much more sense to split the award into different categories depending on the players position. Of course there are lots of players which skim the line between two positions like Mascherano who is best known as a DM but is performing as a quality CB but I think that would cause less controversy than the lists that these fools come out with....

Anyways, the most prestigious award is now the UEFA Best Player in Europe award (crappy name I know) which is a direct replacement to the France Football Ballon D'or

Link: www.uefa.com/uefa/uefa-best-player-award/season=20...

Of course this one still has flaws like Sneijder being omitted from the top 10 but at least this one is pure football journalists and judges based on the season and not the calender year

Totaldribble 1 year ago

Its clearly going to be Messi but with Ronaldos form this season he could pip it

BoboRed (Leeds United) 1 year ago

Lionel Messi 1/7
Cristiano Ronaldo 7/1
Andres Iniesta 28/1
Xavi 28/1
Wayne Rooney 33/1
Luis Suarez 50/1
Cesc Fabregas 50/1
Iker Casillas 50/1
Sergio Aguero 66/1
David Villa 66/1
Gerard Pique 80/1
Mesut Ozil 125/1
Bastian Schweinsteiger 125/1
Thomas Muller 125/1
Xabi Alonso 125/1
Dani Alves 200/1
Karim Benzema 200/1
Eric Abidal 200/1
Neymar 200/1
Samuel Eto 200/1
Wesley Sneijder 250/1
Diego Forlan 400/1
Nani 400/1

LumpOfCelery (Chelsea) 1 year ago

How is Abidal more likely to win it than Nani and Forlan? I'm so confused

Jeroen (Barcelona) 1 year ago

Ayyam, Abi was our best defender last year. And I'm not exaggerating: people just don't realize how versatile and good he is. He's declining now, but in 2010 and 2011, he was awesome. It's a shame he was stuck by cancer (which he overcame in 50 days!) right in the middle of his great spell.

Abi deserves it FAR more than Forlán, who hasn't been the same since he did so well on the WC a year and a half ago, not even close really

Jeroen (Barcelona) 1 year ago

Also: if the odds are 1/7 for Messi, you might not win much, but I still think it's a sure thing he wins. So if I was a betting person, I'd bet half of my money on that for a quick boost.

Thanks for those odds Bobo

ManUK (Manchester United) 1 year ago

It's going to be Messi, Ronaldo, and Xavi and Iniesta, with a possible surprise from Rooney. But I doubt it Uefa seems to love Spanish players

Lifeguard (Bayern München)(Footytube Staff) 1 year ago

I'd like to see someone other than Messi, i've seen Ronaldo really transformed his game, not as selfish as he used to be, a ton more playmaking and assists rather than strikes on goal, and he just score his 100th goal in 105 games (I know this year doesn't count) but really its just a continuation of all last year for him.

Not to say there are no other good players on that list, but Ronaldo and Messi are the two that stand out the most; Messi, top goal scorer in the world, great feet, quick, all around super striker, and Ronaldo, accurate on free kicks, amazing speed with the ball, spot on passing, and another set of lightning feet with the ball. Both the best in their own ways

LumpOfCelery (Chelsea) 1 year ago

They are both phenomenal players breaking records left and right and scoring a hattrick every game or so

ManUK (Manchester United) 1 year ago

I would like to see Ronaldo win it, he's really stood out many times even when his team isn't working well together.

And he has changed his game, while still managing to score an incredible amount

LumpOfCelery (Chelsea) 1 year ago

Is anyone else a little annoyed that Wenger is on the managers list?

I mean aside from the last month and the prior to the CC Final (So like 6 weeks) he hasnt been winning that much. I'm sorry wenger you shouldn't be on it

TheBarcaShow (Anims Tito) 1 year ago

I agree. Wenger has had a terrible year as a manager. He lost out on 3(?) titles in a span of 4 weeks or something and was bottom half of the table as long as he has been in the top half this season.

A good manager doesn't give up a lead in the league easily and well.... Arsenal went from title contenders to battling for 4th place in nearly an instant

JulioFC (Inter Milan) 1 year ago

I love how they included Neymar into the list. If Santos somehow pull an upset in the Club World cup against Barcelona, I'd for sure give it to Neymar. If this is based on last season's performances then I honestly don't understand how Benzema, Abidal, Muller & Aguero got nominated. I would've nominated Hulk, Falcao, G. Rossi & J. Hernandez

TheBarcaShow (Anims Tito) 1 year ago

I agree with you on all accounts although Abidal was a great solid defender for Barcelona. I wouldn't say Abidal doesn't deserve to be on the list but defenders like Vidic and Kompany deserve it more.

Actually I might be the only one but if we were to compare Abidal and Pique's seasons so far this calender year I'd say Abidal had the better one (on the pitch).

Pique deserves the "Golden Balls" award for what he does off of it hands down

Aguero was pretty anonymous last season (so was Forlan) and did only average at Copa America

JulioFC (Inter Milan) 1 year ago

I honestly think FIFA is runned by a bunch of greedy, dumbass executives who are only interested in money instead of the actual sport. They choose players based on their fame and not on their actual performance. They need to get some real experts to be in charge of this award

Jeroen (Barcelona) 1 year ago

Yeah, a bunch of these players don't really deserve it. I absolutely agree Forlán doesn't deserve it, Agüero does though. He scored 20 league goals for Atlético last season and 33 or something in total. Other players that shouldn't be there are Sneijder, Müller, Villa (sorry David) and Benzema (he's been great this season so far though).

I'd have put Kompany, Vidic, Thiago Silva, Mats Hummels, Busquets and Hazard there instead. Attacking players tend to get overrated IMHO

Lifeguard (Bayern München)(Footytube Staff) 1 year ago

I agree Jeroen - from a bundesliga view, Hummels should most definitely be in there. Dortmund after all did win the bundesliga last year and were solid throughout the entire season

JulioFC (Inter Milan) 1 year ago

If anyone from the Bundesliga deserves to be there its Manuel Neuer. I would also consider Nuri Sahin from Borussia Dortmund. I don't think any Man City player should be there if its based on last season. I agree that Thiago Silva deserves to be there. He was the best Defender last season

Pragathish (AC Milan) 1 year ago

I'm amazed how Thiago Silva is not even in the list. (Milan are the scudetto champs + most number of clean sheets in top 5 leagues in Europe)

LumpOfCelery (Chelsea) 1 year ago

Its terrible defensive wise. Kompany, Silva, Vidic, and Hummels, all should have made it

Adenn (Bayern München) 1 year ago

The list is quite useless. They might aswell call it "the messi and the rest who popped into our head first list". I mean honestly remember when robben single handed took bayern to the champions league final and also toped it off with a good world cup and nearly won it for the dutch I might add, uefa didn't even put him into the top 3. That year for me it should have been robben, schinder and milito getting the honours

Jeroen (Barcelona) 1 year ago

Schinder? If you're talking about Sneijder, then I get your point. But to say Sneijder, Robben and Milito were the 3 best players that season, is ridiculous. Messi and Ronaldo clearly have been the best two each year for 5 years straight now. And Messi just keeps on getting better, even when he was already the best 3 years ago.

This year though, it's clear a few players don't deserve to be in that top list, and I do agree that this list looks like (the inevitable winner) Messi paired with a few other famous footballers. Neuer, Hummels, Sahin (if it wasn't for his long spell of injury), Kompany, Vidic, Thiago Silva, .... There are quite a few players who deserved to make it a lot more than half of the listed ones.

The biggest joke must be that the best player in England, David Silva, isn't even in there. I can't believe that. He would make my top 3 this year, along with Messi and Ronaldo, of course