Subject: Ballon d'Or

Platini didn't choose the nominees - blame the coaches, players and journalists, they were the ones who voted.

Rly? Who the hell know what Platini had done with their votes?

Otherwise, why small countries like Jamaica, Campuchia.. etc. had the same situation to Spain, Germany, Italy.. with their votes? No, I doubt it.

UEFA is a Football organization that somehow most likely belongs to FIFA ( Platini himself tried to won FIFA President but failed).

Since Sneijder 2009-2010, I have doubt about..
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alu-hat on
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Guardiola basically got a team to play the best football ever seen in history. OK, he didn´t get in in 2012, but he still got the best football played by anyone in 2012. He may not win, but still he's an obvious contender for the title...
The thing is, all this golden ball talk always begins right after the season is over, and most people thinks in terms of the whole season (2011-2012) rather than the calendar year (which is not even finished). So, on one hand, Guardiola hasn't been there for half the year, so why to nominate him? (But then the same applies to, say Drogba). In fact, anyone with a great start of the season should be as good a candidate as someone with a great end of last season. On the other hand, if this is going to be about the season ending in 2012 after all, then Drogba, Guardiola, etc make sense and we should ignore whatever players are doing now. But it would be great for France Football to make it clear :P

Guardiola basically got a team to play the best football ever seen in history. OK, he didn´t get in in 2012, but he still got the best football played by anyone in 2012. He may not win, but still he's an obvious contender for the title...

A coach should be judged by the impact he makes on the team. In my opinion Klopp, Bielsa, Conte had MUCH bigger impact on their teams than Guardiola had on Barca.

Mmm.. hard to say. I think he proved to have a big impact back in 2009. Then he just kept the effect constant :P
Anyway, in cases like Bielsa, the size of his impact is undeniable... the question is its sign XD

I think it's just a popularity contest, more than a prize that you really deserve to win; shame for not even putting Conte to the short-list; Pirlo is not even in the top five, this is just a farce.

It is, in the sense that it is decided by vote :P
Then, if the most popular wins it, it is a deserved win, as it was about popularity :P

Jokes aside, I see your point, but, what else can such a prize be? Football is one of the most team-based team sports there are, what's the meaning of "the best player" anyway? ;)

Yes, it's based by votes, but as such you should vote who really had a standout season, not who scored most goals (half or more of them useless anyway) or who has a more shiny name; Messi didn't win much and certainly didn't carry his team to great achievements, other than scoring a impressive amount of goals (again, half or more of them useless); Guardiola the same, but is probably a tribute to his career so far or a mere shiny name selection; Conte take a team who seemed completely in disarray from previous disaster management and turn it to a powerhouse again, yet is not even in the short-list! Pirlo take Juve to win a Scudetto unbeaten and carried his national team to Euro final, being in beastly form all the way long, yet is not even in top five; Drogba deserves it more than the three in my point of view, he almost won single-handedly the Champions league in a team who had almost no chance of winning it, nor arrive to the final; the only debatable is Iniesta who at least had a good Euro, but his season was nothing special too; Ronaldo only won the league, other than scoring plenty of goals; so, if you take as a popularity contest, it's ok, but if you use it to determine who was the most decisive player of the season, therefore "the best", you may be seriously wrong.

The prize, it doesn't worth it named. Thats why Messi not even care if he would win it, the hattrick ballon d'Or!

Probably it will be soon his third consecutive, fourth if we consider the past edition of the prize; this is just ridicolous... I have nothing against the player, but in a couple of editions he didn't really deserved it, it just appears to be a popularity contest or a marketing product.

Yup. Kind of boring. I was right about the last two ballon d'Or, am I a genius? :P

Messi didn't win much and certainly didn't carry his team to great achievements

lol

do you count Copa del Rey as winning much and achieving something great?

The title belongs the best footballer of the world. So I don't get why you really want to argue against Messi. No matter how good or important other players have been for their respective teams, the title belongs to Messi because is and was the best player this year and the years before as well. Of course, you can have a different opinion on this but I guess most people would agree.

I would understand this discussion if this was a MVP (most valuable player) kind of title. In that case the question is quite different and I actually like these kinds of titles more because they are more about impact. However, that's not what this title is about.

As for trainers I think it's not really observable how good a trainer really is. Maybe football players themselves should vote on this because they should have the best impression. But then again they might not know that many trainers personally :)

Is Messi really better than Ronaldo? I would say that they are at same level.

And 4 years ago when Messi won his 1st ballon, Sniejder was a better player...