Andres Iniesta missed last week’s first-leg Champions League match vs. Real Madrid with a calf strain. Thankfully, he was declared fit for today’s second-leg match, as he was the sublime provider for Pedro’s tasty second-half goal.
As you can see from the video it is a pass that absolutely slices the Real defence wide-open and sends Pedro in all alone.
It is (it’s) a vintage Iniesta pass.
Remember Andres Iniesta? We spend a lot of time here talking about Messi and Ronaldo but it is worth remembering that not only was this man one of three finalists for the Ballon d’Or that Messi won but he also scored the winning goal for Spain in last summer’s World Cup.
As that pass shows, Iniesta is still one of the best players in the world and we will be watching him closely when Barcelona meet Manchester United in the Champions League Final, set for May 28th at legendary Wembley Stadium.
When the world meets in Zurich on January 10, 2011 to witness the crowning of the 2010 FIFA Ballon d’Or winner, they will have only Barcelona players to look at.
Three of them: Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Lionel Messi.
It’s going to be a rare and wonderful moment for that great club.
There is no doubt that a good part of the world is confused that a player like Wesley Sneijder did not make it to the final three. After all Sneijder was magical in leading Inter Milan to three trophies and led Holland to within one goal of the World Cup.
But the managers and captains and journalists have decided.
If we are to assume that FIFA had no hand in the final selections and it was simply down to the numbers of popular opinion among managers, captains and journalists, then we can maybe now conclude that the Ballon d’Or winner no longer needs to have won the most trophies.
That will especially prove to be true if Messi wins in January.
After all Messi did not win a big trophy last year – like Sneijder, Xavi or Iniesta.
I would be fine with this I think – given that I have long thought the award should be presented more for individual ability and not be dependent on a final outcome – like a World Cup or a Champions League – which can be hard to achieve.
I really think the award should go to the player who is clearly the Best Player in the World.
And that’s why – apart from Sneijder – I am more concerned that Cristiano Ronaldo did not get more mention for the award. For me, when you are talking about the best players in football, the conversation has to start with Messi and Ronaldo.
But I’ll have to return to this subject later because it needs more thought…
And perhaps that – the lack of clarity with this award – is why we ask you, the Fans of the World, to…
Yesterday in La Liga action both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo scored hattricks. Messi scored three in Barcelona’s 8-0 destruction of Almeria , while Ronaldo scored three in Real Madrid’s 5-1 pasting of Athletic Bilbao.
That was quite a freekick by Ronaldo, huh? Reminds me of Ronaldo at United when he WAS the Best Player In The World.
So what do we do with all of this in terms of the Ballon d’Or that FIFA will award to the best football player of 2010? Many people believe that the Ballon needs to go to a major trophy winner. So, most people are focusing on Wesley Sneijder who led Inter to the Champions League and either Xavi or Iniesta who led Spain to the World Cup.
But I don’t know if I can buy that. When you watch football day in and day out the way I do, and you see what Messi and Ronaldo do on a regular basis, you just can’t say that Sneijder or Xavi are the best. They are great players, great for their teams, but they are not on the same level as yesterday’s hattrick heros in La Liga.
And the big thing for me is that these guys are scoring goals. Lots of them.
Paul Logothetis of the Associated Press recently stated that “Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are turning the Spanish league title chase into a shootout between Europe’s most prolific goal-scorers.”
While Rob Hughes of the New York Times said: “They transcend the league in which they play. Barely a match goes by in which they fail to pull off a trick that makes watching them a joy. But beyond that, they actually outscore the goal scorers on their teams.”
And it’s because of what Hughes says – that these two players can be as brilliant and creative as Xavi and Sneijder PLUS score goals – that there are really only two players who deserve to call themselves the Best Player In The World.
