Xavi is the fans choice at Barcelona
You might ask, “How can that be? How can Messi be the best player in the world, be the two-time – soon to be three-time Ballon d’Or winner – and still not be the best player at Champions League winners FC Barcelona?”
The answer could be something as vague as: “Well, that’s just the crazy, old world of football” or “You know how strange fan voting can get”.
But I think the answer is not that fan voting can be “strange” but that Barcelona fans in particular are a unique bunch who also happen to be very astute observers of footballing talent.
Go ahead, talk to a Barca fan. Ask them who their best player is. More than one out of every two of them will tell you that that player is midfield maestro Xavi Hernandez. Some will even scoff at you if you mention Messi. Yes – scoff! Not that they don’t think highly of Messi. They do, they do. But they believe that Xavi is the better player, the more important player to their team.
The above image links to the results of the FCBfans season-long fan poll that crowned Xavi their best player.
Our own fan poll crowned Messi the 2010-11 Best Player in the World by a whopping 45%. Second place went to Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo with 15%, while Xavi received a mere 6% to finish in a third-place tie with Real’s Mesut Ozil.
As you can see, our poll is very much at odds with the Barca fan poll. While it was a close vote, Barca’s fans have Xavi as their best player with 379,885 votes, while Messi is their second best player with 360, 403.
That’s right, Messi – second best.
Fascinating. Love it.
I love Messi. But I also love that Barca fans are smart enough and bold enough and willing to say, “Yes, Messi is great but Xavi is greater.”
Tagged as:
Lionel Messi,
Xavi Hernandez
