Ballon d'Or 2017 - Cristiano Ronaldo Wins

[RandoEFC+]

The Ballon D'Or is more interesting as a catalogue of the best football players in history. This annual Ronaldo v Messi contest every year is just boring and I don't see why people care aside from those who have their colours firmly pinned to one flag or the other i.e. fanboys.

I'll be interested again when a third party is good enough to blow them both out of the water.

[Cicero]

Is Neymar even ahead of Cavani in terms of duties? Doesn't the latter have more goals? 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, The Rebel CRS said:

 

This is a fair enough comment, but my beef with this is that in 2013, Robben did exactly the same as Ronaldo, he scored important goals in the champs league but was nowhere near the best player in the world over 12 months in all competitions(just like Ronaldo this year), yet Ronaldo, a player who won nothing that year, won the Ballon d'or. Then we look at last year's, the criteria was completely different again.

It seems like the criteria changes whenever he wins it. It's not consistent. Atleast on the 5 occasions when Messi has won it, he has been the best player in the world over that 12 months. The criteria used has been consistent in his case

It's become a daft award anyway, especially with the last 2.

I disagree slightly with this. There was no stand out player this year compared to the 2011-2014 era. Messi and Ronaldo were scoring hattricks for fun in those times, now they do more to influence their team and there is no player now that scored as much as they did. That grabbed FIFA's attention. 

Manuel Neuer won the World Cup for Germany in 2014 and without him it wasn't going to happen, which is why he was listed third in 2014. 

[Inverted]

28 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

The Ballon D'Or is more interesting as a catalogue of the best football players in history. This annual Ronaldo v Messi contest every year is just boring and I don't see why people care aside from those who have their colours firmly pinned to one flag or the other i.e. fanboys.

I'll be interested again when a third party is good enough to blow them both out of the water.

Its still barely even useful as a historical record. There's probably a few players that have won it that most of us have never heard of, and Maradona has none.

[Cicero]

5 minutes ago, Inverted said:

Its still barely even useful as a historical record. There's probably a few players that have won it that most of us have never heard of, and Maradona has none.

Wasn't that down to South Americans not being eligible to win it at the time? They only just gave one to Pele recently because he kept crying about never getting one, the nonse. 

[Inverted]

2 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Wasn't that down to South American's not being eligible to win it at the time? They only just gave one to Pele recently because he kept crying about never getting one the nonse. 

True, I never realised that they only changed it in the 1990s when Weah won it.

But still, there are a few Ballon d'Or winners that people would not have any idea about. I personally had never heard of Allan Simonsen until just now.

[SirBalon]

1 hour ago, Cicero said:

Wasn't that down to South Americans not being eligible to win it at the time? They only just gave one to Pele recently because he kept crying about never getting one, the nonse. 

The FIFA award has always gone hand in hand historically with the Ballon d’Or because of it’s influence on European football. He (Maradona) was never recognised by FIFA because of the influence both authorities have on the media. At least this is the way Maradona sees it and has said it many times before. 

All the same, the Ballon d’Or pre-2000s tended to be a serious award for the footballing connoisseurs due to the fact it was voted on by seasoned experienced football journalists. Journalists that at the time had to roam the world of football to observe games and individuals due to no internet and not network international tv coverage. They (those journalists) were honest people plying their trade and informing back in their country of the amazing footballers that were doing great deeds elsewhere.

Now it’s all marketing in the same way someone sells you what you need to buy this season in terms of clothes and style, they sell you with all sorts of manners what’s hip and what’s not. 

[Asura]

18 hours ago, Spike said:

Ngolo Kante has to be one of the most influential and irreplaceable players in the last few years. Real would win without Ronaldo, I don't think the same would have happened for Leicester and Chelsea....

I said this last year when Leicester won the league, but sadly no one in FIFA cared my opinion 

[Asura]

6 hours ago, Inverted said:

Ronaldo seems to be a lot more popular in parts of the world more isolated from football culture, and less thoroughly exposed to top level football.

This is a lot true, our country has the highest number of fans for Ronaldo and Man Utd, we are the biggest manchester outside the actual manchester

[SirBalon]

1 minute ago, Asura said:

I said this last year when Leicester won the league, but sadly no one in FIFA cared my opinion 

FIFA don't vote on it mate... Infact the Ballon d'Or has returned home and has nothing whatsoever to do with FIFA anymore and they just concern themselves with "The Best" award. France Football now control the Ballon d'Or and they don't vote on it. 

[Asura]

3 hours ago, Cicero said:

Is Neymar even ahead of Cavani in terms of duties? Doesn't the latter have more goals? 

For me, cavani is a faster giroud who doesnt score as many headers

[Asura]

Just now, SirBalon said:

FIFA don't vote on it mate... Infact the Ballon d'Or has returned home and has nothing whatsoever to do with FIFA anymore and they just concern themselves with "The Best" award. France Football now control the Ballon d'Or and they don't vote on it. 

true, I read about that few months ago although I dont know what that means and how it changes anything.

[SirBalon]

3 minutes ago, Asura said:

true, I read about that few months ago although I dont know what that means and how it changes anything.

You're right in that it changes nothing.  There is a directive without a specific target as long as it settles within the requirements that sells football at a good price for all involved. That's why people like Busquets, Kanté or Modrić won't be winning the award anytime soon.

[Asura]

1 minute ago, SirBalon said:

You're right in that it changes nothing.  There is a directive without a specific target as long as it settles within the requirements that sells football at a good price for all involved. That's why people like Busquets, Kanté or Modrić won't be winning the award anytime soon.

I consider myself as a decent english speaker and can understand the language fair enough. But I have no idea what that sentence means.Please explain to me in simpler words  

[ScoRoss]

2 hours ago, SirBalon said:

The FIFA award has always gone hand in hand historically with the Ballon d’Or because of it’s influence on European football. He (Maradona) was never recognised by FIFA because of the influence both authorities have on the media. At least this is the way Maradona sees it and has said it many times before. 

All the same, the Ballon d’Or pre-2000s tended to be a serious award for the footballing connoisseurs due to the fact it was voted on by seasoned experienced football journalists. Journalists that at the time had to roam the world of football to observe games and individuals due to no internet and not network international tv coverage. They (those journalists) were honest people plying their trade and informing back in their country of the amazing footballers that were doing great deeds elsewhere.

Now it’s all marketing in the same way someone sells you what you need to buy this season in terms of clothes and style, they sell you with all sorts of manners what’s hip and what’s not. 

4

The FIFA World Player of the Year only began in 1991, whilst Maradona's career was beginning to freefall. They can hardly be blamed for not giving him the award.

[Pep Talk]

It’s always been a champions league winner award or has been in recent years 

[SirBalon]

28 minutes ago, Asura said:

I consider myself as a decent english speaker and can understand the language fair enough. But I have no idea what that sentence means.Please explain to me in simpler words  

At least you’re not accusing me of writing in prose like Shakespeare... There’s only on other member that seems to have problems in this area. 

I’ll try to explain what I meant by that which you’ve highlighted.

There are times in the world of marketing where someone else gets promoted and awarded a lot more than you although you may feel you offer or have been offering a product as good as or maybe even better than the one that’s being rewarded publicly. The thing is that most of the time, if not, all of the time, that actually benefits you on the long run and makes you as competitive if not more than those being put out there in lights. Remember that most of the time in that type of scenario, it’s the ones that make more of an effort to be a “Spot King” with all of the financial sacrifices it encompasses, actually goes on to help others that don’t as much as those that do dig deep (or not so deep for the more fuller pockets) into their pockets.

That inclusive (what I’ve just written)k but not aside... Football is now a business.  Look at how the Premier League has been selling itself for two decades.  They were the artificents of this football phenomenon that has now reached almost unsustainable levels.  That’s why they can cash on more than anyone else and it’s not because they sell a better quality product, but because they played the field early and knowing their was a beneficial field to play for in the first place.  Certain clubs saw it from the outset and employed the sort of people that had never before been employed by football clubs. Marketing gurus that understood the scene and who to bring in on the side to help the product.  That was all the early days, the days other leagues are now mastering and in their early days.

On from there...

That no longer needs to be a massive investment either for national domestic league products or anything of the sort.  It’s about maintenance now because whereas before you had to hard sell and get it all out there for doubtful eyes, now it’s a prosperous market and it’s all about waiting for the auction to begin two or three years before your present deal runs out.

You may be asking yourself where one simple sentence you’ve questioned me on is actually going.  First of all you asked SirBalon and SirBalon doesn’t buy into cheap off the shelf Lidl products...  SirBalon gives you what he thinks in primertime. 

Remember you’re not paying for this!

So considering where we’re at now... All other sectors of football have profited from this and are doing so at a larger scale now.  Nowadays the national products don’t see their “adversaries” across the seas as competitors anymore.  On the contrary... Everything that promotes football, a football that all are inclusive in (like the Champions League Which is Club football’s premier competition) terms of what’s good for you, benefits me because Imincluded in what you compete in.

It obviously helps to have the big names in your league, but it helps a lot more to have enterprises playing with those that have that than having the individuals that sell.  As long as you’re competitive, as long as you’re in with a shout or believed to be in there by giving that sensation, then what they sells helps the global product which is football and it also filters down to you in the same amounts as it does for them.

Right now (and for a number of years) the two biggest names are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.  Everyone knows who’s the best but nobody speaks out against it,  or even the two clubs that possess both stars within their ranks.  They feed off it because it brings in all the sponsors and hits that they want, it also brings in the hits for the league clubs that play against the, week in week out and finally all those that play in the world’s premium club competition that is The a Champions League.  Not only that... Because those two names are so massive and that they transcend anything to do with football in the social media world, then it benefits football as a whole anyway.  It puts football out there and that means everyone connected to the world of professional football gets a piece of the pie even if it’s a small slice.  It’s better this way on this sense than it was before when everyone cared about their own and everyone was so insular...  That’s why Brexit is a bad idea (Oops, gone off the scope there... Back online). The world is a big community, communities live within communities and it’s unuons that helps each other out even when one is being the protagonist.  Better this way than being a loner who nobody knows and has to hold out his hand to make peo0e believe he has something to offer.  

[SirBalon]

25 minutes ago, ScoRoss said:

The FIFA World Player of the Year only began in 1991, whilst Maradona's career was beginning to freefall. They can hardly be blamed for not giving him the award.

I didn’t say anything about the FIFA award mate.  I’m talking about recognition from FIFA on Maradona.  He accused FIFA and continues to do so, in that he was the black sheep, something that hurt football and they always dissacociated themselves from him. Only in recent years have they in some way reconciled themselves with him which is why he’s started to appear at international events.  To be honest, I don’t blame the, for trying to dissacociate the,selves from a man that was connected to the mafia, involved in extortion, shooting journalists, associating with dictators, outspoken and foul mouthed in public, a drug addict and someone that didn’t show responasibility for children he had made with various other women.  All of that isn’t exactly the idol for younger people the football authorities can use in promotions. 

[SirBalon]

90s Barça star Julio Salinas attacks Cristiano’s “I’m the greatest ever” jibe

Ex Athletic Bilbao and FC Barcelona star of the early 90s Julio Salinas attacked Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest moment of fantasy arrogance where the Real Madrid told the Ballon d’Or organisers France Football in an interview that as far as he’s concerned he’s the greatest footballer in the history of the game.

Theres been various outspoken comments from ex footballers in the media but none have yet gone so public and been so damning like Julio Salinas who left this pearl on his Twitter account;

 

Salinas’ comment has caused a storm which has had a raging debate going on by thousands of Twitter users.

I’ll translate what Salinas said;

“The fact you’ve been a very good footballer it doesn’t mean you’re the best because you’ve been unlucky to have coincided in the same era as the greatest of all time Messi. And to be honest I wouldn’t even have you on a podium of the greatest of all time because there are quite a number of names that come before you. Resign yourself and be happy you have been awarded those Ballon d’Or (some of which you haven’t even merited)”