Ballon d'Or 2014

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ADL9798

ADL9798

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Aug 18, 2009
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Shortlist for Player and Coach of the Year has just been announced by FIFA:

The following 23 men (in alphabetical order) are in contention for the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2014:

Gareth Bale (Wales), Karim Benzema (France), Diego Costa (Spain), Thibaut Courtois (Belgium), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Angel Di Maria (Argentina), Mario Goetze (Germany), Eden Hazard (Belgium), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Toni Kroos (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Javier Mascherano (Argentina), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Mueller (Germany), Manuel Neuer (Germany), Neymar (Brazil), Paul Pogba (France), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), James Rodriguez (Colombia), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Yaya Toure (Côte d’Ivoire).

The following ten coaches (in alphabetical order, first nationality and then team) are in contention for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football 2014:

Carlo Ancelotti (Italy/Real Madrid CF), Antonio Conte (Italy/Juventus FC/Italy national team), Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Bayern Munich), Juergen Klinsmann (Germany/ USA national team), Joachim Loew (Germany/Germany national team), Jose Mourinho (Portugal/Chelsea FC), Manuel Pellegrini (Chile/Manchester City FC), Alejandro Sabella (Argentina/Argentina national team), Diego Simeone (Argentina/Atletico Madrid), Louis van Gaal (Netherlands/Netherlands national team/Manchester United FC).

http://www.fifa.com/ballon-dor/news...r-fifa-ballon-d-or-2014-revealed-2462547.html

- Not sure whether I'm surprised or not that Suarez has been omitted! Clearly the best player in the EPL last season, even taking into account it being a World Cup year and the impact that has on voting I would have had him top 5-6, let alone missing out on the 23 man shortlist.
- Ronaldo the unbackable favourite to win the player of the year, I'd probably go with Diego Simeone for the coaches award. Klinsmann is an odd inclusion.
 

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NFGKizza said:
not surprised whatsoever at suarez being kept off the bill. was always going to happen
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Yeah I'm not surprised either, but that doesn't make it right. Zidane finished 5th the year he headbutted Materazzi in the World Cup final, but again the footballing community are going to pick and choose when and for whom they want to add a 'fairest' component to these awards. If it is a best & fairest, great, but be consistent with it or do a separate 'nicest guy' award that they can hand out to Vinny Kompany every year.

It just takes away some of the legitimacy of these awards if you ask me. When people look back 10 years from now at who the FIFA committee nominated for this year's Ballon d'Or and see that Suarez isn't even in the top 20 available to vote on, they'll say well the process is obviously flawed because he was clearly in the top 5 best players in the world at the time.
 
SM said:
How is Mourinho on the list for last season?

Rodgers surely robbed.
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CL semi and 3rd in the Prem vs 2nd in the Prem with an albeit weaker squad.

No European commitments and a spectacular choke will be what lost Rodgers a spot.
 
Tulip said:
CL semi and 3rd in the Prem vs 2nd in the Prem with an albeit weaker squad.

No European commitments and a spectacular choke will be what lost Rodgers a spot.
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Mourinho definitely deserves to be on the list, Rodgers should probably be there ahead of Klinsmann in my opinion.

pieman123 said:
Modric a bit stiff
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Definitely had a better season than Gotze, who I assume is probably nominated largely on the basis of the goal in the WC final.
 

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Latro said:
Zidane got excused from the headbutt at the time and Materazzi was blamed for inciting him.
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Mmmm.. I don't buy that, there's almost always provocation to some degree but violent conduct is violent conduct. You either condemn it or you don't. In any case, Zizou was also voted 9th in the Ballon d'Or in 2001 despite this incident:


Like I said, I can sort of understand the logic behind not including Suarez on the short list this year, but if FIFA are inconsistent in how and who they apply their moral standards to with respect to these nominations then the legitimacy of the award is going to be diminished.

Similar to the PFA and FWA awards from 2 seasons ago I guess, you can understand players and journalists not wanting to vote for Suarez because of the Ivanovic bite, but then you have to ask why that standard had not been applied to the likes of Giggs, Rooney, Terry, Gerrard, Keane, Cantona as they were covered with individual honours despite some pretty questionable behaviour both on and off field over the journey.
 
Really, who cares about anyone other than the top 2 anyway. I couldn't even tell you who finished 3rd last year.

Nobody will remember the other 21 players nominated in 2 weeks anyway.
 
Always found it odd they vote based on the calendar year, instead of the actual season.

Anyway, Ronaldo and Simeone should win.
 
Be happy with Lahm/Robben & Löw/Simeone. Robben cops a bad wrap for diving (which i do not condone) but has a had a phenomenal calendar year, best player in Munich this year & carried an extremely poor Netherlands side (Schneider & van Persie are finished) through the world cup with some breathtaking performances, but people love to hate him. Lahm is simply amazing player, never loses the ball provides so much in attack and is rock solid defensively (and so versatile). Löw is world cup winning coach who was flexible and had to deal with arguably best attacking player in Reus being injured for tournament as well as a number of players coming back from injuries. Simeone had a wonderful season with atletico, truly outthinking the financial heavyweights in spain.
 
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