FOOTBALL: BACK TO BUSINESS!

finally, i will have a serious first post on football for 2005. before we even debate who is deserving the awards handed out by fifa or uefa or whoever else, who do you think is the best performing player of 2004? this will mean an overall performance. it is too hard to give a single answer because i could be biased since i did not watch every match offered in the three biggest leagues in europe (epl, serie a & la liga) but there are some names that come to my mind.

i will definitely support ronaldinho as the player of 2004 for his consistency and brilliant individual skills. not that i look down on henry or shevchenko. let's just say he is a far more complete player to me than any of them. i will also think that deco had a wonderful overall year for 2004. some players who are good at the beginning of 2004 just disappeared at the ending and there are those in the opposite direction as well.



the question now is does ronaldinho deserve to be fifa world player of the year for 2004? it was the second year running that Henry has finished runner-up in the poll, based on the verdict of 157 international coaches and, for the first time this year, 145 national team captains. the interesting thing here is to understand two school of thoughts before you give me the answer.

1. INDIVIDUAL BRILLIANCE
tis school of thought belives in overall performance of e player in terms of consistency, in terms of individual brilliance & in terms of ability to change a game. now, e debate here is alwiz wat if there are no other great players around him? will he be considered unlucky?

for example, if the chicago bulls will not have scottie pippen and dennis rodman or hugh grant in the past, will michael jordan ever gonna win any nba crowns? remember the time when jordan was struggling to win anything for chicago bulls before the arrival of pippen & grant? it is the same as to debate that pele scored so many goals & was regarded as the best player of all time because he has other great players at that time playing alongside him. others claimed that he never actually played in europe leagues and so he did not compete with the best in the world at that time. that made him score more goals easily.

it is just like looking at ryan giggs in his national team. or for that matter, alfredo di stefano, the legend of real madrid. alfredo di stefano scored goals like peanuts during his time in europe & he never became well known in the international level despite scoring so many goals in his life. remember how he brought real madrid 5 champions league crowns continuously? the simple fact is that the unforgotten legend never had a world cup medal to show off. so you can say that they are born at the wrong time and at the wrong place.

if that is the case, do we measure a true great player by his individual achievement or team achievement? what is michael jordan without any nba crown & olympic medals? even if he won the scoring record every year in the nba? what is pele without any world cup medals? will both of them still be as well-known today? will they have lousier records if we turn back time?

2. TEAM ACHIEVEMENTS
this is dedicated solely to the people who only want to see on paper the achievements you get. football is a sport of 11 players right? what if among the 11 players, 1 of the player enjoy achievement of the whole team eventhough he is not really a good player? just happens that the team has no more better player to fit that position? the guy will just enjoy the national team winning the world cup and european cup/copa america as well as all the club honours like the league champions, fa cup champions, league cup champions, uefa/champions league champions. he is just to be there to fill up that position because there are no challengers. he could be the team's weakest link.

so will team achievement be the sole measurement of a player achievement? will it be fair to players who happens to be in the wrong teams eventhough they are geniuses? well, to me, i will emphasize here that i believe that both school of thoughts are valid but i will rate it as 80% individual brilliance and 20% team achievements if you are to award anything to any player. becoz 2 me, even if the team is losing every match, the brilliant player should not be disregarded his achievement. the argument here is that football is a team sport and thus the achievement solely based on team achievement is very unfair. although people will also argue that having a genius in the team will create spectacular things to push for victories even if the team mates are not really great.

what do you guys think? since it is called a world player of the year award, i am sure the attention here is his contribution to the team as well as his ability to play the beautiful game of football. i honestly have no idea of the guidelines laid out by fifa or uefa for the voters to think before they vote the players.

Previous winners of the Fifa World Player of the Year:
2003: Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid)
2002: Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
2001: Luis Figo (Real Madrid)
2000: Zinedine Zidane (Juventus)
1999: Rivaldo (Barcelona)
1998: Zinedine Zidane (Juventus)
1997: Ronaldo (Inter Milan)
1996: Ronaldo (Barcelona)
1995: George Weah (AC Milan)
1994: Romario (Barcelona)
1993: Roberto Baggio (Juventus)
1992: Marco Van Basten (AC Milan)
1991: Lothar Matthaeus (Inter Milan)

WHO VOTED FOR WHOM:
ERIKSSON: Henry, Deco, Nedved
BECKHAM: Henry, Ronaldo, Zidane
SANCHEZ: Henry, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo
A HUGHES: Ronaldinho, Henry, Deco
VOGTS: Henry, Deco, Zagorakis
FERGUSON: Rooney, Henry, Gerrard
M HUGHES: Nedved, Makaay, Larsson
SPEED: Nedved, Eto’o, Figo
KERR: Ronaldinho, Henry, Deco

for the full results of who voted for whom, you can go to the fifa website directly below & click on MEN - VOTES PER ASSOCIATION:
FIFA