The names of the three players who have made the final short-list for Fifa’s much-coveted Ballon d’Or world player of the year award will have come as a surprise to very few devotees of the beautiful game...
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Andrés Iniesta will do battle for the prestigious honour with Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, with the winner due to be announced in Switzerland on January 7th.
Any rational assessment of the three players’ qualities would conclude that each is there on merit, and has a sound claim to be crowned as the best player on the planet over the past twelve months.
Messi, of course, is no stranger to this particular gong, and, should the little Argentinian win it, he will become the first player to win it on four occasions. To date, his three awards matches him with the former Brazil striker Ronaldo, and French legend Zinedine Zidane (when it was known as FIFA's World Player of the Year).
Messi’s exploits in recent seasons have long since exhausted the list of available superlatives, and little wonder. In terms of goals – and it must be acknowledged there’s much more to his game than goalscoring – quality and quantity are anything but mutually exclusive.
A brace at the weekend in Barca’s rout of Athletic Bilbao means Messi is on 84 goals for this calendar year, just one shy of Gerd Müller’s record set back in 1972. Should he overtake the German striker’s tally – with a month yet remaining of the year, he surely will – that alone would, in all likelihood, ensure Messi deserves to have cause to be celebrating at the prize-giving ceremony.
For many, Messi’s CV would be adorned with ‘greatest player to grace the game’ were he to hang up his boots tomorrow. However, the suspicion remains that, for others, his place at the head of the pantheon of football greats will only be considered beyond reasonable doubt if and when he stamps his authority upon a world cup finals.
He needs, they would argue, a ‘Maradona ‘86’ tournament, and you wouldn’t bet against him doing precisely that in Brazil in two years’ time.
As for Cristiano Ronaldo, he too can boast a goal-haul from the heavens. Last season alone, the Portuguese scored 46 times for Real Madrid, and despite his team’s stuttering form so far this season, his name is never far from the score sheet.
It can be suggested that Ronaldo the player isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, as his somewhat narcissistic approach fails to endear him to many. That said, it would be churlish – and plainly ridiculous – to counter the claim that he more than anyone ensured the La Liga trophy made its way from the Nou Camp to the Bernabéu last summer.
One man doesn’t make a great team, but whether Real Madrid would have wrested the league title from their great rivals without their superstar forward is highly improbable.
And what of Iniesta, Messi’s team-mate at Barca? Here we have a true footballing artist, a player who, given he’s part of a star-studded side, doesn’t get the recognition he always deserves. However, Barca without Iniesta would be seriously diminished, and his midfield partnership with Xavi Hernández is a joy to behold for club and country.
On the latter point, of course, Iniesta has already transcended club hostilities in Spain thanks to his winning goal in the world cup final two years ago. And, just to prove he’s the man for the big occasion, he followed that up with performances over last summer that led many to claim he was the European Championships’ stand-out performer.
Whoever your choice, Messi, Ronaldo and Iniesta are worthy of their status in the top three. Of the twenty players who didn’t make the cut, 8 currently ply their trade in Spain, demonstrating quite starkly which country continues to dominate European and world football.
The likes of Robin Van Persie and the aforementioned Xavi could lay claim to have been within touching distance of the top trio. Although you suspect the inclusion of other names, such as the likes of Wayne Rooney and Mario Balotelli, said more about football’s dalliance with celebrity culture than actual achievement on the pitch over the previous twelve months.