Miscellaneous
Ballon d’Or up for grabs
Football’s top individual honour is set to divide fans into two camps, againSarin Ghimire
It’s that time of the year. FIFA, football’s international governing body, will be handing out the best football player award for this calendar year amid a star-studded ceremony in Zurich on January 11. The award is considered to be the highest individual recognition received by a player for his performance on the pitch.
The award started in 2010 as the merger of France’s Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year. Officially called the FIFA Ballon d’Or, the Golden Ball is awarded based on votes from journalists from around the world, in addition to national team captains and coaches.
Three players were shortlisted for this year’s gong. We will see a newcomer, Neymar, competing with two of the biggest rivals in modern day football—Messi and Ronaldo.
Samba kid
Twenty-three-year-old Neymar is the captain of Brazil’s national team and currently plies his trade at FC Barcelona. Known for his dribbling skills, finishing, speed and the ability to use both his feet, Neymar has been compared to the likes of Pele—who he says has always been his role model.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2011, he was voted the South American Footballer of the Year at the tender age of 19. He followed it up by winning the same award in 2012 again. Considered a “true phenomenon” by many, Neymar finally fulfilled his dream of transferring to Barcelona for a fee of £€57.1 million in 2013.
When the news broke out that Neymar would be playing alongside the likes of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta for the Catalans, the legendary Ronaldinho tipped him to become the best player in the world some day. “Neymar is young, and I can’t explain how special he will become. In the next two or three seasons he will become the best player in the world,” Barcelona’s most successful Brazilian said.
After a rather ordinary 2014-14 debut season, where FC Barcelona failed to win a single trophy, Neymar improved leaps and bounds to help his club win a treble the following year. After the arrival of Luis Suarez from Liverpool, Barcelona once again conquered the world by winning every trophy they participated in. The MNS strike force of Messi, Neymar, Suarez has been rightly dubbed the most lethal combination in football today.
However, even though Neymar scored a staggering number of goals overall, the embarrassing drubbing of Brazil at home by the mighty Germans at the World Cup put a stain on his otherwise perfect breakthrough season. For the record, Neymar scored 41 goals and made 12 assists in 51 games in club competition in 2015.
Old Rivals
This is the eighth consecutive year that Messi and Ronaldo will go head-to-head for football’s top individual award. Having each won the World Player of the Year award once, Messi went on to receive the Ballon d’Or for three consecutive years in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Ronaldo then hit back by bagging the award for the years 2013 and 2014 thereafter.
Regularly compared to the bitter boxing rivalry between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, the duo have scored in two Champion League finals, quite often broken the 50-goal barrier in a season and have managed to score 400 goals each in their careers. Ronaldo once said, “I think we push each other sometimes in the competition, this is why the competition is so high.” While critics point out their differing physiques and playing styles, their contrasting personalities make the rivalry equally intriguing. The Portuguese is seen as an arrogant and theatrical show-off, while the Argentine is considered a shy and humble character.
The standoff comes down to records and personal reputations, and both have had a fascinating year. While Ronaldo continued his unabated goalscoring form into the year—goals flew right, left and centre—bagging 49 goals and 15 assists in 53 games for both club and country. Battling arguably the finest club team ever in Barcelona, he managed to be the top scorer both in Europe and in the La Liga for the past season. And even though Madrid failed to win any trophies, Ronaldo had a career-high year in terms of personal numbers.
Messi, on the other hand, had an extraordinary season. Having won the treble—UEFA Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey—the little genius had a career-defining year. Proving his critics wrong, he captained his national team to the finals of the World Cup last summer. He also made the difference in the biggest games, as Barcelona went on to knock out the champions of England, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands on their way to a fourth Champions League title. His glittering season saw 48 goals and 25 assists in 57 games.
King of the year
Ronaldo is a true professional. He continued to be a better overall player with his persistent dedication to improving on all fronts. He continued with his solo runs on the wings to score all type of goals.
Messi, too, vastly improved this year. Blessed with a natural gift of balance and control, he showed that he could turn and twist and still accelerate with the ball at his feet. He also regularly took matters onto his own hands by building up attacks to bring his teammates into play, and on more than one occasion, split the tightest of defenses with his killer passes.
But unfortunately there will can be one winner, and Messi might just scoop the award this time around—as even though both players bagged tons of goals and racked up the assists, his season will have to be defined by how he led his club to winning all possible trophies and reaching the finals of the World Cup with Argentina.