Fifa world player of the year

Here's the contenders for the FIFA WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR, Surely TH14 has a good chance of winning it. And no sign of Fabregas on the list?

An article from the guardian.com

Originally Posted by The Guardian

Where have all the great footballers gone?

Most of the names on Fifa's 30-man world player of the year shortlist aren't actually that good.

Scott Murray

October 13, 2006 11:35 AM
World-class players aren't really that world-class any more, are they? Actually, that's unfair: today's top stars have no peers when it comes to promoting Pringles, themselves, Adidas, themselves, themselves, EA Sports and themselves. But when they finally get round to pulling on their sponsored boots, there aren't too many of them who consistently deliver when it really matters. Here's that Fifa 2006 world player of the year shortlist in full:

Adriano (Internazionale, Brazil): This club-footed oaf spent the summer single-handedly dismantling the last vestiges of Brazil's tedious Mexico-70 samba-dancing joga-bonito Nike-advertising-agency nonsense once and for all. For that at least, the poor man's Emile Heskey has our thanks.

Michael Ballack (Chelsea, Germany): His only meaningful action in the World Cup saw him hoofing a free-kick three miles over the bar at the business end of Germany's semi-final against Italy. By the end of his Lampardesque year, the "best" all-action midfielder in the world was reduced to panicked two-footed lunges on the best all-action midfielder in the world, Momo Sissoko. Shame shame shame.

Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, Italy): Has spent an entire career behind defences which leave him with precious few crucial saves to make, so who really knows what he's capable of? Apart from Luis García? And Cesc Fábregas? Anyway, seeing that he makes Borat Sagdiyev look more hand-wringingly liberal than George Monbiot, even if he had six eight-fingered hands on extended springs he could eff off.

Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy): Wildly over-rated in the World Cup on account of having a) nothing really to do in any of the matches he was involved in other than saunter about, and b) nice hair. Currently in La Liga doing a passable impression of a slightly more confused Rio Ferdinand.

Petr Cech (Chelsea, Czech Republic): [/B]Dodgy on crosses, as the Greeks revealed in Euro 2004. Also, he's just let in a goal by Kevin Kilbane. Next!

Deco (Barcelona, Portugal): Sent off against Holland for the most idiotic ball-handling offence since the days of Claudio Caniggia. And that's about it.

Didier Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast): Finally he pays back a whack of that £24m fee with 16 goals in the calendar year to date. Not bad, but for the record, that's five less than Peter Crouch has managed in the same period.

Michael Essien (Chelsea, Ghana): Currently having the rumbustiousness sucked out of him by Jose Mourinho's careful-careful coaching plan. Makes list ahead of Arjen Robben and Damien Duff, you'll note.

Luis Figo (Internazionale, Portugal): The holder of the world's most over-rated player trophy for five consecutive years from 1999, Figo finally got a chance to make a bid for immortality in this year's World Cup semi-final. And was marginally less successful than he was with his "performance" in the Euro 2004 final.

Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan, Italy): Robbie Savage with a beard.

Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, England): A couple of timely goals in Cardiff, there, Stevie. Though seeing you're always banging on about how your best position is in centre midfield, aren't you slightly embarrassed that every single time your club manager relents and lets you play there, there's enough room down the middle to spin a few doughnuts into an articulated lorry?

Thierry Henry (Arsenal, France): Didn't show in World Cup 98. Outshone by Wiltord (!) and Trezeguet (!!!) in Euro 2000. Failed to step up to the plate in Korea/Japan or Euro 2004. Sulked like a baby after going missing in this year's Champions League final. Took a dive, though he is not a woman, against both Spain and Portugal in Germany. And in the final he went miss ... ah what the hell. One of the favourites, it says here!

Kaka (AC Milan, Brazil):Totally off form for the entire year.

Philippe Lahm (Bayern Munich, Germany): A purler to open the World Cup for the Germans; nowhere to be seen when Fabio Grosso closed it for them.

Frank Lampard (Chelsea, England): Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Jens Lehmann (Arsenal, Germany): Outstanding penalty save to help Arsenal reach the Champions League final; outstandingly poor decision-making in Paris to make them wish they hadn't bothered.

Juan Román Riquelme (Villarreal, Argentina): Have you ever seen anyone more nailed-on to miss a penalty than Riquelme in the last minute of that Champions League semi-final? Just look at those flickering eyes. If you're not blinded by the glistening beads of sweat forming on his forehead, that is. Nearly redeemed himself in the summer with a couple of fantastic displays for his country, but again went missing when it came to the crunch. José Pekerman wasn't the only Argentinian whose brain went into meltdown during the quarter-finals.

Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil): Those showreel flicks look real nice on Soccer AM's Skills Pedalo. But they don't seem to do the business very often in Champions League semi-finals, finals or crucial World Cup matches, do they?

Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, England): Has failed to score a goal in the Champions League or in international football for two years. For the record, that's 13 fewer than Peter Crouch has managed in the same period.

Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal, Czech Republic): Currently engaged in a heavyweight tussle with Dimitar Berbatov to be crowned the most lightweight player plying his trade in north London. This nomination also suggests he's had a better 12 months than Fábregas, doesn't it?

Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea, Ukraine): Currently having the rumbustiousness sucked out of him by Jose Mourinho's careful-careful coaching plan to such an extent that he's been reduced to diving against Scotland! Oh dear. How the mighty have fallen (with triple salchow and pike).

Lilian Thuram (Barcelona, France): Fantastic six years ago. Can we vote for Ronaldo, Laurent Blanc and Fernando Redondo as well?

Patrick Vieira (Internazionale, France): Arsène knows.

Zinédine Zidane (retired, France): For all his many faults, most of which were blatantly apparent before the World Cup final, Zizou has been the one "world-class" player in the last decade who's ever bothered himself enough to step it up a gear at the business end of tournaments. And now he's gone. Help! Someone's broken football!

You'll note I left out from Fifa's list Samuel Eto'o, Franck Ribéry, Miroslav Klose, Andrea Pirlo, Alessandro Nestaand the fantastic, adversity-shunning twinkletoes of Cristiano Ronaldo. All of whom were, well, not bad. And in any case, you can't be finding fault in everyone just to make a facile point, can you?

[zaphod]

What is it with you and those fonts?

[TA#6]

Originally Posted by zaphod

What is it with you and those fonts?

Sorted, its because he copied the formatting from whereever he cut and paste from.

Ah thats what it was...thanx for fixing it

[carrafan]

Doesnt this guy have any good thing to say bout anyone?

Well i think his point is that a lot of the players on the short list have not really been that good. Ballack, Figo, Rooney, Vieira and Zidane haven't exactly done anything special from what i can remember.

[gooner_fan]

Dont like what they said about lehman, he made 1 mistake may have made it difficult, dont see why its his fault to be the most overrated player when he seems to be the only few whus the most improved one all season if it werent for him we would be leaking goals and games that we lost would be thrashed if it not for him.

Personally majority said can be true to an extent, ronaldinho and hes skills very ineffective against arsenal in the final, just surprised why cristiano ronaldo's name not in the list, or even luis ronaldo

This is crape like you expect every single player to be good in every single games,in the last part where they said good things about their players did not see any Arsenal players............[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/AMRESH%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/AMRESH%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg[/IMG]

[carrafan]

Originally Posted by mckeith

Well i think his point is that a lot of the players on the short list have not really been that good. Ballack, Figo, Rooney, Vieira and Zidane haven't exactly done anything special from what i can remember.

If he does then its a fair point.


But if i were him, I would have said good things bout the other who DID have good seasons. the Lehmanns, the Riquelme's, The Cannavaros and the Gerrards.

C Ronaldo wasnt that great last season. This season he's been special but last season his performances werent anywhere near world class.

[Gooner-Wasp]

Originally Posted by carrafan

Doesnt this guy have any good thing to say bout anyone?

he's just pointing out what nonsense this award is.

[Windass10]

Kaka should win it for me he is the best footballer in the world.

[Blastoderm]

A big, sad update.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport...ll/6194874.stm

You might say I'm being biased but I think he got ripped off.

Especially with Zidane being the third nominee.

I mean Henry did a lot for Arsenal last season especially in the Champion's League. He was the better player against Zidane when they played Real Madrid and again in the final against Ronaldinho.
In the World Cup, his goals (I know it was only 3) and effort against teams like Brazil should have won him some merit.

True Zidane was the heart of France but he didn't do much in club football last season. Only his World Cup performance got everybody talking (especially the head-butt).


I don't think Henry will ever win this award. I think this was his last chance.

[Walsho]

Originally Posted by Windass10

Kaka should win it for me he is the best footballer in the world.

Thats your opinion, but it's garbage...

[Number8]

I'm sick and tired of how Henry keeps getting overlooked. The guys been top class for the past 6-7 years. Its obvious these fifa idiots don't know what they're doing, and its time for us to take matters into our own hands. I propose we start create a new award called "The Henry Award". And every year we give the award to the most deserving player, Henry.

[Thomas89]

I'm sick of pointless awards for single players in a team sport.

[Invincibles]

I know what you mean

But if Theirry doesnt win it in his career it will be a shame, even though it is pointless
He should be recognised