Mirth wrote:Well, that's fundamentally not true. Ribery was third in the rankings in 12/13 - that's pretty close if you ask me.
Point was that he didn't win during a season where he was the most important player in the team that won everything in Europe, and it's down to a fundamental flaw in the voting system. When you make it a popularity contest instead of having a selective jury you're always gonna get results more in line with the commercial profiles of the players than their actual achievements during said timeframe.
Another example would be Spain. I think it was Cruyff who pointed out that Spanish football dominated Europe for a decade, won one world cups and two Euros, and yet not a single player from that generation has ever gotten close to the award. Guys like Iniesta and Xavi have never gotten more than a third of the votes Messi and Ronaldo get.
Quincy Abeyie wrote:
The reason I think he won't win is because he isn't the best football player in the world. 🙂
Always a question of how you measure it, innit. In terms of talent we could just give the award to Messi each year until he retires because the second best player in the world is about half as talented as he is. On a good day.
Personally I think a better barometer is to look at how important a player is to his team's success. It doesn't tell me much that Barca and Real Madrid have a bunch of players who almost average a goal a game, for instance. They're all top tier, but the nature of modern football means that whoever lines up for them will score an absurd amount of goals. Guys like Pedro have had 30 goal seasons in the past. Stats become bloated when you have super clubs who are that much better than anyone else.
