Uefa player of the year (1 Viewer)

chester

chester

Too busy to bother
#1
May 20, 2006
15,055
#1
Trio in shock FIFA snub Wednesday 10 October, 2007

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Francesco Totti, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Luca Toni have been astonishingly omitted from the shortlist for the FIFA World Player of the Year award.

Coaches and captains of national sides cast their votes for the top three stars from the list of nominees.

Despite an outstanding year for Totti, Ibrahimovic and Toni, none of the three are included in the vote for this year’s award.

The peninsula’s five representatives are Azzurri custodian Gigi Buffon, stoppers Alessandro Nesta and Fabio Cannavaro and midfielders Andrea Prilo and Gennaro Gattuso.

Inter midfielder Patrick Vieira has received a nomination despite recent injury problems.

Milan’s Brazilian ace Kaka is also on the list and the Ballon d’Or favourite is believed to be amongst the front-runners.

“I would love to win the award, but I will be voting for Cristiano Ronaldo who was decisive in Manchester United’s Premier League triumph,” he insisted.

The full list of nominees:

Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gennaro Gattuso, Alessandro Nesta, Andrea Pirlo
Argentina: Lionel Messi, Juan Roman Riquelme, Carlos Tevez
Brazil: Juninho, Kaka, Ronaldinho
Cameroon: Samuel Eto’o
Czech Republic: Petr Cech
England: Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, John Terry
France: Thierry Henry, Franck Ribery, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira
Germany: Miroslav Klose, Philipp Lahm
Ghana: Michael Essien
Holland: Ruud Van Nistelrooy
Ivory Coast: Didier Drogba
Mexico: Rafael Marquez
Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo, Deco
Spain: Fernando Torres
 

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OP
chester

chester

Too busy to bother
Thread Starter #7
May 20, 2006
15,055
  • Thread Starter
    • Thread Starter #7
    It will be either Messi, Kaka or C. Ronaldo that will take this one.
     
    Red

    Red

    -------
    Moderator
    #11
    Nov 26, 2006
    47,024
    #11
    10/10/2007 3:30 PM


    Is The FIFA World Player Of The Year Award A Worthless Trophy?

    Today FIFA drew up a 30-man shortlist to compete for the 2007 FIFA World Player of the Year award. Astonishingly both Francesco Totti and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were missing from those nominated. Goal.com asks whether the award has now become worthless…



    zoom - galleria The FIFA World Player of the Year award has been littered with controversy and criticism ever since its creation in 1991. The system, for those of you who are not familiar, works as follows. First of all FIFA draws up a list of nominations, before Coaches and Captains of the national sides then cast votes for their top three stars.

    The player voted first gets five points, second gets three points, and third earns one point. The winner of the prize is naturally the player who earns the most points.

    Until 2004, there was no list of nominations, thus in theory any player in the world could be voted for. This led to some quite farcical voting, which some may argue rendered the prize virtually valueless.

    To give you an example, in 2001, the likes of Iran’s Ali Daei, South Africa’s Sibusiso Zuma and Honduras’ Carlos Pavon all received votes.

    FIFA hoped to prevent ridiculous voting such as this by introducing a shortlist system in 2004. Only players on the list could be voted for by the Captains and Coaches.

    However on the evidence of the 30 players FIFA have chosen to compete for this year’s prize, one has to wonder if these changes have made any difference.

    The absence of Francesco Totti from the list of nominations is an absolute disgrace. It is an insult and I can say for one that I now could not care less who wins the award because if the Roma captain’s performances did not merit his inclusion then I must be going insane.

    Totti was top-scorer in Serie A, he was European Golden Boot Winner and was outstanding as he led Roma to the Champions League quarter-final.

    Then of course there is the omission of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was a key protagonist in Inter winning the Scudetto last year, and has been the best player in Serie A this season.

    Furthermore, where is Bayern Munich goal-machine Luca Toni? What about Valencia’s David Villa? Then of course there is the phenomenal Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal, who has undoubtedly been the best player in the Premiership this year, and the Gunners’ star-man last campaign.

    Either FIFA is full of clueless idiots who have never watched football in their life, or more than likely their list of choices is dictated by politics.

    Gianluigi Buffon was playing in Serie B last year, while Fabio Cannavaro, a player I have worshipped for the past decade and still believe to be a world-class defender, had an awful season at Real Madrid.

    Juan Roman Riquelme was frozen out of the Villarreal squad and shipped off to Boca Juniors mid-season, Barcelona’s Samuel Etoo ruptured his cartilage and missed six months of the last campaign, while Inter’s Patrick Vieira also missed half of the season through injury.

    What football were these FIFA bureaucrats watching last season? How on earth can these players be picked ahead of the likes of Totti, Ibrahimovic, Toni and Villa?

    It is a disgrace. The FIFA World Player of the Year award is a Mickey Mouse Prize with no value whatsoever. :agree:
     
    Alen

    Alen

    Ѕenior Аdmin
    #13
    Apr 2, 2007
    53,891
    #13
    Maybe they can find an excuse why they didn't pick Toni, but what's their excuse for not picking European golden boot and champions league quarterfinalist and not picking arguably the best player in the world at the moment, Zlatan Ibrahimovic ?

    They have Thuram, who spent 2/3 of the season on the bench and instead of picking Ibra or Totti they picked an attacker called Torres whose only achievment this year is a transfer from la liga to EPL.
     
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