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FIFA Player of the Year?

Saturday, 20 October 07, 11:18 PM

Every year, the infamous Fifa World Player of the Year Award comes out and every year I find myself wondering why I ever paid attention. Yes, if you’ve been living under a rock, or as I have suffering the after effects of jet lag and Barcelona, here’s the list. ‘ll join you after you read it.

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

See anything glaring? Now I won’t argue that Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruud or even Riquelme deserve to be on that list. Maybe Essien. They all had spectacular years. Kaka, Gerrard, Pirlo and Gattuso met in the Champions League final so you could also make a case for them as well. But the rest? How many of these are here because of reputation? Thuram and Viera are washed up has beens. Ribery hadn’t yet come into his own, and Torres had never lived up to his billing in Spain. Tevez spent most of the year on the bench at West Ham, Buffon most of the year in Serie B, and most everyone else spent a significant portion of the year injured; except for Deco who spent most of the year being confused with Iniesta and Xavi. Am I getting to my point yet?

I think I’m not arguing that these people shouldn’t be nominated, I’m not even worried so much with who will win because it’s obvious that one of these, Kaka, Drogba, C. Ronaldo, or Messi, deserve it just as much as any.

Yet, eternally injured Rafa Marquez gets nominated, over the Golden Boot winner in Europe- Francesco Totti?

I realize that I’m biased for Totti, but I’m trying to be objective here as well. Is Petr Cech more deserving of the award than Pepe Reina who got his club to the CL final? Is Miroslav Klose more deserving than Raul Tamudo or Daniel Alves who both met on the field in Scotland for the UEFA Cup final? God, even David Beckham deserves votes for inspiring his club to wins down the stretch for Real Madrid.

I realize this is a popularity contest, and Francesco Totti, who isn’t even liked by the majority in his own country (outside of Rome I guess) won’t be winning any, but there are glaring cases like this that completely underscore how stupid this award really is. Give it to Kaka, who seems the darling of Fifa anyway, and of Brazilian extraction which helps for starters but don’t come to me afterwards and tout a player by how many individual awards he’s won, because clearly don’t matter.

Mando from FF

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Beckham in MLS

Friday, 20 July 07, 12:34 AM

 

Alright, let me say that I was at the very public unveiling last week in Carson, California for David Beckham and his introduction to the American media. The media is skeptical about Beckham's place in this because they continue to compare him to Pele and if the "greatest player who ever lived" couldn't make this a top sport in America then how can a 32 year old middling midfielder who isn't even captaining his homeland anymore? I say Posh, or at least ptui. He has already done what he intended to do.

Whether the American media believes it or not, Beckham-mania has already changed how the sport is perceived in this country. In talk radio, as conservative a place as any in this country both politically and socially, the anecdotal evidence is astounding for me. People are talking about the sport and the player, some hosts are coming around to the idea that this may be a future talking point, and even some diehard haters like Jim Rome apparently have softened their tone against the sport. All this has been happening before Mr. Golden Balls hit.

No, he won't save the league on the field, and he probably won't save his team on the field from making the playoffs. For one he's still nursing an ankle injury that he suffered on the last day of the La Liga season, and he's just not the sort of player that can change the game like Cristiano Ronaldo or Leo Messi can in open play, but what he brought to Real Madrid in the last 12 matches of the season was immense. Diarra, Higuain, Reyes, or Van Nistelrooy may have scored those deciding goals, but it was David Beckham that inspired them with his leadership. It is no fluke that their fortunes turned when Capello brought him off the bench and started him on the wing. His crosses were deadly, his passing was efficient, but in a team of primadonnas Beckham was the one thing that people misunderstand the most about him in that while he may look like a Galactico, his play on the field is not. He makes others play better.

And yet, off the field his impact on the sport will be immeasurable. He may not be the greatest player who ever lived, despite Pele himself calling him one of the top 50 who did, and he might not even be the best player in his own midfield for England, but he brings something that Pele never had. Media cache, Q rating, friendships with actors, politicians and studio moguls.

In that regard, no one in the sport has ever had what David Beckham has. Real Madrid have seen their exposure in China and Japan grow because of the Beckham factor and years later Manchester United are still drawing from that well. People who never heard of the Galaxy or MLS globally are now focusing their attention while most every other league is on summer hiatus.

No, he surely isn't Pele. He won't single handedly change the sport, he won't make the level of play in the MLS overall all that much better, but I wouldn't underestimate his impact on the United States.

 

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