Who was 2012's Golden Balls?

What a great 2012 it’s been. We’ve had the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, and for football lovers, Euro 2012, a dramatic Champions League, Real Madrid finally ousting Barcelona in la Liga, and probably the most exciting finish to a Premier League season ever.

 

Top banana

We have also been blessed with some prodigious individual performances over the last year, and these will be celebrated next week at the FIFA Ballon d’Or awards in Zurich. It’s pretty much impossible to be interested in football and not get drawn into the debate of who is the better player, Messi or Ronaldo. The Ballon d’Or gives us all an excuse to continue that debate, even if it does mean an opportunity for Sepp Blatter to make another messianic appearance and claim FIFA has significant relevance outside the World Cup.

FIFA is a clean organisation... honestly...

The Ballon d’Or was actually not a FIFA award until an aggressive takeover in 2010, when they bought the prize from the Amaury Publishing Group and merged it with its own World Player of the Year award. Apart from making the awards ceremony a horrible corporate event and an advert for FIFA, this change actually impacted the award itself. 

Unlike the old FIFA World Player of the Year award, which was voted by the coaches and captains of the international teams, the old Ballon d’Or, awarded between 1956 and 2009, was voted for exclusively by football journalists.

Journalists are naturally closer analysers of the game, and have more limited personal allegiances to the players involved. The FIFA award, therefore, always had an inherent bias towards the bigger name players and often had anomalies in the voting decisions.  

One example of this is the fact Paul Scholes, a player Zinedine Zidane described as ‘the complete footballer’, made the 50-man shortlist on five occasions (2000, 01, 03, 04 and 07), but never received a single vote. This wouldn’t seem that strange until you find out that Jan Koller, Papa Bouba Diop and Freddie Kanouté have. 

No idea who voted for me... oh maybe the Mali manager

In 1996, Matthias Sammer won the Ballon d’Or for his starting role in Germany’s triumph at Euro ’96 and a second successive Bundesliga title for Borussia Dortmund. The top 3 in the FIFA World Footballer of the Year, however, were Ronaldo, George Weah and Alan Shearer.

From humble sweeper to Ballon d'Or winner

Similarly, in 2003, Pavel Nedved won the Ballon d’Or for his instrumental role in Juventus winning Serie A and reaching the Champions League final. The top 3 in the FIFA award that year? Zidane, Thierry Henry and Ronaldo. 

Looking good

The electorate for the new FIFA Ballon d’Or is now a mix of journalists, national team coaches and national team captains. Has this altered the winner in the 2 years since FIFA bought the award?

Well, in 2010 Messi won the first new FIFA Ballon d’Or, ahead of Xavi and Iniesta. However, the journalists vote that year went to Wesley Sneijder, with Iniesta 2nd, Xavi 3rd, and Messi only in 4th place. 

Ha you guys win the World Cup but I'm still the best

 

Sneijder was truly outstanding in Inter’s treble winning campaign, and also scored 5 goals in driving Holland to the World Cup final in South Africa. For him to not even feature in the top 3 was bizarre to say the least, but points to the problem of the voting system.

What more do I have to do?

Messi, the Argentine captain, has a vote himself, and recently said, “I will vote for Xavi, Andres (Iniesta) and definitely one of my countrymen.” This is a clear admittance that votes from players and managers are clearly influenced by personal and political motives, and not purely an outside perspective on the best player for that year.   

What, I win all this just for being Argentinian?

Before I reveal my top 3 players of 2012 I should put down a few criteria for what I will base my selection on. Firstly, this is an individual not a team award, and therefore should go to the best player, not the player with the most medals in 2012. If that was the case Fernando Torres would have a case for winning the award given he won the Champions League, Euros and won the golden boot at the Euros. He also, however, spent most of 2012 unable to hit a barn door, so the Ballon d’Or will naturally be beyond his reach too.

Oh bugger, the goal's over there

Thus, an individual needs to be judged within the context of what they bring to their team, and how they have influenced its success. Their performance also needs to be judged in the context of the importance of the matches – big performances in big games, in high pressure situations, against tough opposition, should always carry more weight. Yes, consistency is also important, but it is those critical moments that are the difference between winning and losing, between great and very good.

For this reason, Lionel Messi does not feature in my top 3 players of 2012.

Don't worry Leo, I still love you

Messi is arguably the best player in the world currently, and potentially one of the greatest of all time. He has also had a superb 2012, scoring a record goals haul and breaking numerous individual records along the way. 

But, as brilliant and as consistent as he has been, he wasn’t able to raise his game when required and help Barcelona win a major trophy in 2012. And this is Barcelona team with a midfield of Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets and Fabregas controlling the ball and supplying the bullets for Messi to fire. A team described as potentially the greatest team of all time. 

I pass, he scores

  

In 2012 they lost their la Liga crown to Real Madrid by 9 points and crashed out of the Champions League to Chelsea in the semi-finals. While Messi scored numerous goals during the year, in Barcelona’s season defining games, the April Classico and those 2 semi-final matches against Chelsea, he failed to find the target, even missing a crucial penalty. 

Ouch

Yes he was the Champions League top scorer last season with 14 goals, but 5 of those goals came in a virtually dead last-16 2nd leg against Bayer Leverkusen and another 5 in group games against BATE Borisov and Viktoria Plzen. He was also the top scorer in la Liga with 50 goals, and had the 2nd most assists behind Mesut Ozil (16 to Ozil’s 17). 

High 5

But in the end, with all the talent in that Barcelona team, he wasn’t able to find raise his performance in those season-defining moments. 

The other reason Messi misses out on my list is because he didn’t have a major international tournament to participate in this year. If big game performances count more then every player in Euro 2012 had an edge – every game in a major international tournament is a big game.

His achievements in 2012, in the harsh light of day, end up being scoring a lot of goals against teams that are far weaker than his majestic Barcelona. Some of those performances were outstanding, but there were three even more outstanding players in the last 12 months.

3. Andrea Pirlo

For fans of midfield wizardry, there was no greater pleasure than watching Pirlo orchestrate the Italians towards the Euro 2012 final. In an era where athleticism and power are so prized, Pirlo showed that you didn’t need to have pace or be a great tackler to command the midfield zone. His range of passing was sublime and he effortlessly controlled the tempo of matches, while defending intelligently without needing to tear around the pitch.

Pirlo was central to almost everything good Italy did. He set up Di Natale’s goal in the opening game against Spain, he put Italy ahead in their next game against Croatia with a superb free-kick, and took the corner from which Cassano’s scored the opening goal in a tense final group game against Ireland. In the knock-out stages he totally ran the games against England and Germany, with a fine display of passing in both matches. Yes, he was overrun in the final but he was the tournament’s most consistent performer, and the reason Italy progressed much further than anyone had expected.

Try and get it lads

The Serie A season also came to be defined by Pirlo’s switch from Milan to Juventus. While Pirlo was obviously very highly rated at Milan, they preferred to move forward with industry, energy and youth. His consistency for Juventus was remarkable. With Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal closing down opponents higher up the pitch, Pirlo had time and space in deeper positions, and dictated nearly every match he played in. Juventus not only won their 28th scudetto, but they also did so unbeaten, only the 3rd time that has even been achieved, and the first in a 38 game season. Not just did Pirlo control those games, he also topped the Serie A assists charts with 13. 

2. Andrés Iniesta

Iniesta had another superb season for Barcelona and Spain. He has always been a brilliant talent and a joy to watch, but he previously had a tendency drift in and out of games, and not be a central figure in his team’s successes. In the last few years, however, his consistency and influence have moved him from being a brilliant player to an important player, for both club and country.  

The fact Iniesta was voted the player of the Champions League and Euro 2012 shows just how much of a big game player he has become. In the Euros he was Spain’s key player from game 1, combining superbly with Jordi Alba on Spain’s left, and providing an incisiveness and drive that was often lacking in other parts of the pitch. 

Hmm, how many players can I take out of the game?

 Although Spain didn’t truly light up the tournament as most neutrals had hoped, he was their brightest diamond, and the most influential player in their attacking play. Although he didn't score in the tournament and only produced one assist, he was man-of-the-match in three of Spain's six matches, including the final against Italy. 

There was nothing to split my top two choices and it was only a penalty shoot-out that was the difference between Spain and Portugal reaching the Euro final. But for pure individual brilliance and for producing some outstanding displays in critical matches - there can only by one winner.

1.   Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo is the complete footballer, the modern day machine. Big, strong, quick, he can dribble, he can shoot, has a powerful header, takes free-kicks. He drives through the pitch with the glide of a shark and the power of a bull, and then shimmies, faints and twinkles his restless toes like a flamenco dancer.  He is unmanufactured, a street footballer, producing explosive moments from nothing, with each moment in possession seemingly destined to result in a free-kick, a shot or a goal.  

Speed of a shark and looks like one too

Although Ronaldo has often been put in the shade by Messi’s achievements, it has been as much a case of Real Madrid being outshone by Barcelona. Ronaldo scored an outstanding 46 goals in la Liga last season to finally bring the title back to Madrid after 3 consecutive Barcelona triumphs. 

He has previously been described as a ‘flat-track bully’ for not contributing enough in bigger games, especially El Classico. However, in 2012, in matches against Barcelona, he scored in both legs of the Copa del Rey quarter finals, both legs of the Spanish Super Cup and both matches in la Liga, including the crucial title decider in April. That’s goals in 6 consecutive classicos, the first player ever to achieve that feat.

It's my time

What makes his achievements more astonishing is that his Real Madrid team is undoubtedly not the perfectly formed creative unit that Messi’s Barcelona is. As Jose Mourinho put it, "It is harder to be Cristiano than Messi. Messi grew up in the team where he plays, with the players with whom he plays. Not Cristiano. He was in England, then they put him here in a losing team. He had to grow over the last two years with this team which has been forming."

This is what I say to people who think Messi is best... He's no.2...

The whole Barcelona team is set up to maximize Messi’s genius and just about every player is creatively inclined, Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid are built on the foundations of organisation and strength. This has doomed Ronaldo, unfairly in my opinion, to be seen as the inferior player, who plays a less attractive brand of football.

Remarkably Ronaldo has also achieved his incredible goal scoring record while playing from the left wing. While he scored an outstanding 60 goals for Real Madrid last season, their 2 central strikers, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain also contributed 32 and 26 goals respectively. The Barcelona team, however is built around Messi, so while he scored a remarkable 73 goals for Barcelona last season, their second highest scorers where Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas with only 15 goals apiece.   

As the special one said, "One (Messi) plays as a 9 and roams around in those 50 square metres where the distance to goal is smaller and defence less intense. The other (Ronaldo) plays as a winger. How does a winger score as many goals as a number 9?”

...and Ronaldo is no.1

While Real got knocked out at the semi-finals stage of the Champions League, Ronaldo was in superb goal scoring form, netting 3 times in the last 16, twice in the quarter-finals and twice again in the semi-finals. His only blemish was missing his spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out that saw them fall to Bayern Munich.  

And he faced déjà vu in Euro 2012, as his Portugal team fell at the semi-final stage after a penalty shoot-out, this time Ronaldo not even making it to the spot. Although he was largely disappointing in Portugal’s first two matches of that tournament, he produced an outstanding performance in their last crucial group match again Holland, and then scored a fantastic winning goal in the Quarter-final against the Czech Republic. While Portugal threatened Spain for large parts of their semi-final, they were unable to find the killer blow, and Ronaldo missed out on what could have been a career defining moment.

Oh crap I should've taken the first one

Nevertheless, it has been a remarkable year for Ronaldo. For individual brilliance, for contribution to team success, for incredible levels of consistency and for big performances in big matches, he truly deserves his year to be capped off by being acknowledged as the best performer of 2012. 

Unfortunately, because everyone loves Messi, it probably won’t happen. Should a personal affection for someone or a dislike of another influence the result? 

Ronaldo isn’t a dirty footballer. His disciplinary record is exemplary; he works unbelievable hard in training, and gives everything in matches. He shakes hands with his opponents after the game, win or lose, respects his managers, and you rarely see him arguing with a referee even when he’s being kicked from every angle. 

So yes he does pout a lot, use what seems an excessive amount of hair product, and likes to concentrate intensely before he’s taking a free kick. Are these reasons not to vote for someone as a footballer? 

Missile armed and ready to fire sir

If Ronaldo loses we know he’s going to look furious and sulky, we know he wants people to recognise his brilliance, we know he wants to win for the sake of winning, for the sake of ego and so he can shove the Ballon d’Or in Messi’s face (or other bodily part). But really isn’t that what we would all do, isn’t this just normal competitive human behaviour?

If Messi loses we’ll have to deal with magnanimous congratulations, transcendent niceness and child-like angelic congeniality. If he wins he will most likely say it was all because of his team-mates, his coaches, his school teachers, his sponsors, and the doctors who injected him with growth hormones as a kid.

Less hair product = more friends = more votes

In the highly corporatized, politically correct world we live in, Messi is the footballer an elite team of FIFA and Adidas engineers would programme into a system to design their perfect brand-conscious footballer. Equally, Barcelona with their fetish for possession and their good football that keeps telling you that it’s good football, is equally attractive to purist and casual fan alike. 

Barca will likely go down as the best team of this generation, Messi its best player, and in tendem maybe the best ever. Does this mean Messi was the best player of 2012? Not to me. But he wasn’t the best player in 2010 either so don’t be surprised if he wins this one too.