A lot of folks are still surprise there was no big debate in the football world why Luis Suraez didn’t make the FIFA 23 man shortlist for the Ballon D’Or award for 2014. The list was completely made up of players who ply their trades in the European leagues and for Suraez who shared the European Golden Boot award for the highest goal scorer across all European leagues with Cristiano Ronaldo not to make the final shortlist definitely had absolutely nothing to do with footballing reasons.
Looking at the twenty three man FIFA player shortlist for the awards only six players Mario Gotze, Manuel Nuer, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Muller and Toni Kroos won the World cup with Germany and all were Bayern Munich players at the time of winning the Mundial. The rest on the list has no World Cup winner’s medals and obviously must have made the shortlist exclusively from their performances at club level with all of them plying their trades in European clubs. But how each and every one of the rest on the 23 player shortlist had the nod ahead of Suraez who plays in the same European leagues as the rest and even has a European golden boot to show for his performances beats every neutral football fan imagination across the globe. A good guess for many must be Suarez biting incident at the last world cup, but again the awards were supposed to be for footballing achievements on the pitch and not one’s failings including what players do in the pubs on Friday night. French player ZInedineZidane head-butted Italian Player Marco Materrazzi at the 2006 World cup and even still walked away with the FIFA Golden ball of the tournament, and was still shortlisted for the FIFA Player of the year award where he came second behind Fabio Cannavaro. Therefore why Luis Suarez shouldn’t be recognized exclusively for his footballing achievements just like Zidane has some smack of hypocrisy laced all over it.
The awards proper will be announced January 12th 2015, and many pundits have already placed Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo who had a poor world cup performance and couldn’t even lead Portugal out of the group stage ahead of every other contender to clinch the award for the second time in a row. But history seems to favour players who won the world cup to clinch the award in a Mundial year. Respected voices in the game including UEFA President Michel Platini has voiced his support in seeing a German player takes this year edition of the Ballon D’Or as he believes that a world cup winner should be most deserving of such an honour in a Mundial year. Also Manchester United coach Louis Van Gaal who led Holland to the world cup semi-finals even abandoned his star player at the Mundial ArjenRobben and joined his voice in seeing a German player deservedly take the honour.
As the days go by many top personalities in football are joining the growing crowd of opinions who voices their preference not to see this year’s award go to either of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi who have exclusively turned the award to a race between themselves since 2008 but a German player. It wouldn’t be unfitting to see Germany and Bayern Munich goalie Manuel Nuer lifts the award as he had a scintillating world cup and club football. Same scenario plays out for his club and country teammate Thomas Muller who put in a memorable performance at the Mundial and equally had an impressive club success in a double winning season for Bayern Munich.
It is totally understandable but completely unnecessary seeing Cristiano Ronaldo’s club and country teammates, coaches and club officials queue up each day to voice their support why their star man deserves the award more than any other player and should take the award for the second time running as he had won the UEFA champions league and ended as the competition’s highest goal scorer. The continued subjection of the FIFA Ballon D’Or award to a mere club level achievement without recourse to performance at the biggest showpiece in the world will continue to erode the excitement and significance of the world cup which should heavily weigh in on who should lift the coveted individual honour in a Mundial year. For all intents and purposes the FIFA world cup should influence who wins a FIFA Ballon D’Or award as European club performance weighs in heavily on who wins the UEFA player of the year award, and on this theory Cristiano Ronaldo is deemed to have been properly compensated as he has already clinched the 2014 UEFA Best Player in Europe award based on his impressive performance on the European football stage. A huge section of the football world quickly forget that Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo had a brilliant individual milestone in 2010 where he scored an equally huge number of goals comparable to this year but all his goals that year didn’t earn him a place in the final 3 man player shortlist for the inaugural 2010 FIFA Ballon D’Or award. Though many expect him to make it to the final 3 player shortlist for this year’s award, very few will be genuinely surprise if he fails to clinch the highly coveted top player’s award in early next year.
Were the two perennial top runners for the FIFA Ballon D’Or Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to miss out on this year’s award despite their impressive individual record breaking performances, it will no doubt further reemphasise the unquestionable importance of the honours contenders’ performances at the world cup in any Mundial year. It sums up the whispered theory that once in every four years isn’t too much for a winner of FIFA’s top award to go to a player who won a FIFA’s top and most exclusive tournament. The heavily insatiable CR7 and Messi fan base can take satisfaction in seeing their idols jostle for the award thrice in every four years without having to grapple with the big question mark surrounding their consistent inability to rise to the occasion at football’s biggest and most watched showpiece: THE FIFA WORLD CUP.
Diana-Abasi Alphonsus Udoh is a commentator and analyst based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Follow him on Twitter: @dian4real
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