I had a lot of headaches when I started thinking about this. After such a marvellous season it seems a shame to single out one player as being better than the others. If truth be told I would like to give the award to the top three players who have all had exceptionally good seasons. But as I didn't want to cop out on a decision I decided to make a choice anyway and then you can all argue amongst yourselves.

After considering long and hard I have decided that Barça's best player of the 2008/9 season should go to Leo Messi. He may not have been as consistant as his two closest challengers but overall I think Messi was the one who showed up when we most needed it. In the first half of the season especially he was responsible for many late...

There may be an exellent relationship between Pep Guardiola and his players, as shown in the celebrations after winning the Copa del Rey on Wednesday night, but Guardiola showed no let-up in his strict regime by fining six first team players for arriving late for this morning's training session. Leo Messi, Samuel Eto'o, Eider Gudjohnsen, Xavi Hernandez, Toure Yaya and Dani Alves will all have to pay a fine of €500 after turning up after the agreed time this morning. The players were only ten minutes late and one or two of them arrived just one minute late, but...

I just found this article by Simon Kuper on Xavi and Iniesta in the UK's Financial Times no less. It's worth a read, nice to know they are appreciated in such places - LINK.

The latest poll on Fcbnews asked who was Barça's next best player after Leo Messi. I have to admit I think this was one of the most enjoyable polls on this blog with Xavi and Iniesta battling it out for the honour. Both players held the lead at times but at the moment Iniesta just wins with 31% of the vote compared to Xavi's 29%. It's an interesting one: I think Xavi probably wins on consistency and efficiency, he scores more goals and also creates more; however, if I have to chose which of the two I would rather watch it would have to be Iniesta, he combines great passing with excellent close control and he is certainly better than Xavi when it comes to dribbling past defenders and he is also more versatile. At the end of the day we should just be grateful to have two such...

Apologies for the lack of activity on the blog this week, there's so little going on this week with the break for meaningless international friendlies that I thought it was a good time for a mini-break to recharge my batteries for the intense nine weeks that we have in front of us. Just a quick post today to announce the Fcbnews Player of the Month for March 2009. It was a close call this month and any of four players could have won it, but in the end the award goes to Andres Iniesta for the second month going. He may not score the goals or in fact give as many assists as some other players but he has been a joy to watch and I believe it is no coincidence that we started winning again when he returned to the team. His pass for Dani...

Spain's national team coach Vicente Del Bosque has included Sergio Busquets and Gerard Piqué in the squad for the friendly game against England in Seville on February 11th. This is the first call-up to the full squad for both players and is recognition for the form shown this season. Also in the squad are regulars Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol and Andres Iniesta which means Barça together with Liverpool are the most represented team with five players each. The full squad is as follows:

Iker Casillas (Real Madrid),...

It's been another superb month for Barça: four wins out of four in La Liga plus we are through to the Copa del Rey semi-finals after knocking out Atletico Madrid and Espanyol. The level of some players continues to be very high which makes choosing a player of the month very difficult. However, the player of the month for January 2009 has to go to Dani Alves whose progression in recent weeks has been exceptional. We all knew that Alves had great talent and never-ending resources of energy, but his adaptation to his new team has impressed us all and the combination with Leo Messi on the right wing has surpassed all expectations. In January alone Alves has notched up five assists...

Fifa have announced their ideal team according to votes made on their internet page and Barça are the only club to have as many as three players chosen in the best XI. Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol and Leo Messi have all had their efforts recognised by Fifa's readers. However, playing the way we are at the moment I think there would be a good case for Alves, Eto'o, Iniesta and Toure to also be included. The full Fifa team is: Iker Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Terry, Puyol, Lahm; Xavi, Gerrard, Kaká, Ribery; Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo.

What do you think?

No great surprise I suppose that Fifa named Cristiano Ronaldo their World Player for 2008. Leo Messi came a creditable second with Xavi finishing fifth behing Fernando Torres and Kaka. While it would be nice to see Messi win one of these individual awards, I feel it may just be better for Barça that he doesn't win. In the past players such Stoichkov, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and more recently Ronaldinho have all struggled to maintain their level after winning either the Fifa award or the Ballon d'Or. Maybe it is better to keep the player hungry. Whatever the case, the way things are going I think it is going to take something special to stop Messi cleaning up with the awards next year.

There may be a touch of bias here of course but readers of this blog clearly believe that Leo Messi deserved to win this year's Ballon d'Or. With 256 votes (62%) the little Argentinian blew away his rivals. Xavi Hernandez was second with 39 votes pipping Cristiano Ronaldo into third place (37 votes) and Samuel Eto'o was fourth with 34 votes. Apart from the players listed on the poll there were also three votes each for Steven Gerrard and Ronaldinho, and there was also a vote each for "my girlfriend for her ball skills" and for "Nic for his hard work on this blog". Cheers!

I've stuck up another poll now to see who you think is most likely to stop Barça in this season's Champions...