I am a rather shallow human being, so also my second blogging post is about football, though I may be forgiven since the Ballon d’Or was just given to an unexpected winner.
Thank God for Leo Messi! The Golden Ball, which usually does not end up with the best player of the year, went to the best player of the year. And it went to someone who did not win either a Champions League or a World Cup, which is also unusual.
Cristiano Ronaldo played extremely well both before and after the World Cup, but was invisible during the event, and won nothing. Wesley Sneijder was brilliant with Inter, with whom he won three trophees, and the Netherlands were so lucky during the World Cup that still nobody seems to have realized how badly they actually played, so he ended up being voted the 2nd best player of the tournament, also because of scoring 5 goals (at least two of which were extremely lucky), though never playing as he did for Inter.
Of the Spanish candidates Iniesta hardly played at all before the World Cup, and was nowhere near his usual brilliance during, but did score the winning goal in the final. Still, too little really, to be voted player of the year. Xavi played well all through 2010 and was the one I would have put my money on: Both Messi and he won the Spanish title wth Barcelona, but Messi’s Argentina failed in the World Cup (though Messi didn’t fail, he just didn’t score goals). Piquet would have been a contender too, but defenders never win, except when their team wins the World Cup and there is noone else to give it to (ciao, Fabio!).
Messi won less, but played better than anyone else almost through the entire year. In the match that all football lovers will cherish, Barcelona’s hammering of Real Madrid, Messi didn’t score, but he gave to brilliant Xavi-like assists to Villa. That means Messi can do a Xavi, but I have never seen Xavi do a Messi yet and don’t expect he will, either and that is the main reason Messi is the best player of 2010.
Another reason is that Messi (unlike several other mega-stars) also seems to like it when his team mates score goals and hardly ever dives, which means that he can also be seen as the “good guy” in a profession where the “bad guys” are taking over.
And now to Casillas and Van Bommel. Van Bommel lost the World Cup, Casillas won it. Van Bommel was hated by everybody, though I think he actually committed fewer fouls than usual (let’s say De Jong beat him to it) and generally played an excellent World Cup. So far, so good. Casillas and Van Bommel were also the captains of their respective national teams during the world championships and the captains get to vote for who will be the player of the year and win the Ballon d’Or.
Since it is forbidden to vote for players of your own national team, Casillas could not vote for Xavi or Iniesta, and Van Bommel could not vote for Sneijder or Robben. Casillas voted for Sneijder and for Robben, and guess what… ? Van Bommel did the same, thereby making his vote invalid, but also not giving it to Xavi or Iniesta, incidentally his ex-team mates at Barcelona.
Van Bommel is a bad, bad loser and Casillas is a graceful winner. Van Bommel’s father-in-law, and coach of the Dutch national team, is Bert van Marwijk, and he voted the same way Van Bommel did. Thanks, guys!
