Messi the best player during 2010-11 season
Last January there was all sorts of grumbling about there being three Barca players short-listed for the 2010 FIFA Ballon d’Or and about the selection of the eventual winner, Lionel Messi.
Many people thought that the award should have gone to Wesley Sneijder for leading Inter Milan to the 2010 Champions League trophy and Holland to within a goal of the World Cup. Some were also annoyed that Wayne Rooney, who had a fantastic 2009-10 season for Manchester United in the Premier League, was not even selected to the 23-man short-list for the Ballon. Those critics pointed to the fact that several players seemed to out-perform Messi within the context of a season, either with their play or their trophies and wondered why FIFA insisted on judging players according to the calendar year.
As a result, we decided to launch a poll at the beginning of the Premier League season and close that poll with the end of the Champions League, asking soccer people, simply: “Who is the best player in the world?”
Below are the results:
Our 2010-11 soccer poll
Our poll reflects what I think we were hearing throughout the season, that Messi is indeed the best player. In fact, in our poll of 1500 respondents, he is the best with a whopping 45% of the vote.
Cristiano Ronaldo received 15% of the season-long vote, while the wonderful Mesut Ozil and Xavi Hernandez followed up with 6% each.
I would love to see FIFA target seasons instead of the calendar year when awarding the Ballon. I did sympathize with fans of Sneijder and Rooney in the 2010 voting.
Teams play for seasons, players play in seasons and fans enjoy those teams and players within the context of a season. Aren’t seasons what we all live for? So why can’t we put one of soccer’s biggest prizes into that context as well?
Why can’t FIFA simply award the Ballon sometime this summer, before the next season begins?
Isn’t it clearest now who the best player in the world is?
And shouldn’t that player be able to enjoy that status immediately after a gruelling season and while he perhaps suns and heals his battered body on a sandy beach somewhere?
Doesn’t that sound normal? Doesn’t that sound human? Doesn’t that seem right?
I know that there is little chance that Lionel Messi won’t win his third straight Ballon next January 2012 but FIFA should just give it to him now any way.
He deserves it and the fans of the world do too.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I feel Messi is the best of all.
There is no question Messi is the best!!!!.