Oh come on now, he won most throw ins in the last year, more than Lewa in any case!
Ballon d'Or 2021 | Lewandowski robbed again
- Thread starter Samid
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Can't get over the fact that Jorginho actually got top 3, like what the hell.
Champions league + Euro winner. What else?
Sure, and he's been good, but i just didn't find him that impressive to warrant top 3, thought he would get 5th max.
Agreed.
Claudio Bravo should have won Ballon d'Or 2015.
I think Donnaruma winning Euros and being crowned best player of the tournament player a role in that. Not unfair imo.
He's barely the 3rd best player in either of those teams
Italy
Donnaruma
Verratti
Chiesa
Chelsea
Thiago Silva
Kante
Mount/Jorginho
The year Modric won it, he was Croatia's talisman by far & Madrid's 2nd/3rd best player.
“Copa America should carry no merit”
Just because you want someone else to get the award you are suggesting that Copa America gets no look in? Or we should just hand the award to a certain Italian like Jorginho who is not even the best midfielder never mind player in both his Chelsea and Italian teams?
Common let’s be objective guys.
Yes.
Messi is the worst outfield player in world football when it comes to defensive duties.
He's a passenger and a liability every second that his team does not have the ball
Yes nothing to do with Brcelona's defense playing like a bunch of amateurs.
This award died in 2010 when Sneijder led Inter to a treble, and somehow 3 Barcelona players ended up with more votes.
Jorginho third? Messi first? Bruno 6 pts while De Bruyne 73? What an absolute PR excercise.
Also, Netherlands to a WC final.
The answer, then, is 'no', you haven't checked. You just arbitrarily picked a statistic in which Messi had a higher number than the other one, with no thought put into it besides "dribbling is good."
No one person had an outright claim to the award and so if the award would be given it was always going to be Messi or Lewa. Jorginho couldn’t win it like Modric did because he was not as talismanic as the former was for his national team among other reasons.
I said that anyone who gets the award between Messi and Lewa is a fair choice because there is no outright winner here. Winning the Copa America and scoring and assisting the most while winning the player of the tournament added to his individual stats is a very good feat despite his setbacks at club level (every contender for the award had one significant setback or the other).
It was a fair outcome imo and as an aside I have predicted Balon D’Or awards correctly since forever. In fact I recall when I predicted Modric people thought I was crazy but it happened to be so. If people can ignore their personal biases and try to “enter” the minds of the deciders of this award, it would be pretty easy to judge who would win it.
La Liga has 'player of the month' and Messi only won it once. There is also 'player of the season' awarded (by Marca, tbf) which was won by Luis Suarez. Messi's goalscoring record in La Liga was the 2nd worst for a top scorer in the last decade.
My son just messaged me to say Lewandowski was robbed this year and last. So I'll go with that.
Messi is playing in France FFS. The league where you go for a paycheck and to become irrelevant.
Messi is playing in France FFS. The league where you go for a paycheck and to become irrelevant.
Messi is not responsible for Barcelona having a bad defense. But he's been playing for a club that is cavalier when it comes to defending and instead gives him the freedom to attack, which allows him to boost his individual 'stats.' He's not the only player that benefits from this, but it's particularly grating when your team is not really functioning well.
It was obvious this season, where RM and Atletico were much more defensive than Barcelona. They scored many less goals, and as such their top goalscorers were behind Messi. But they also conceded many less goals, which is why Suarez and Benzema had more 'match-winning goals' than Messi.
Yep, it's a load of bollocks. Treble with Inter and Netherlands to the finals of the WC.
The case for Sneijder was weakened by the perception that Jose Mourinho was the person responsible for that treble.
What a farce 
Messi over Lewandowksi was always going to happen, although it is utterly ridiculous.
I would also rate Spinazzola and the Chiellini-Bonucci combo above him, Mendy too from that Chelsea team.
No he wasn’t. I followed Madrid closely during that period, and really do think he has a rather average season for Madrid in 17/18.
In terms of average rating, he ranked 11th in Madrid team in CL, and ranked 6th in the Madrid team in LL. Abit underwhelming actually. To me, he was nowhere near Madrid top 5 best player over that season.
I also remember Madrid midfield got outplayed by their opponents in many games I’ve watched. Modric was key part of midfield getting outplayed that season. Maybe he has some good games there about, but overall he wasn’t as consistent as in his previous years.
He was easily Croatia best player in WC though, which won them 2nd place for first time in their history, but I think he mainly stands out in the group stage.
In the end, he has the best narrative of the year - being main talisman to lead Croatia to WC final, and being part of Madrid team to win CL. Also, it’s WC year, and it’s probably best time to give it to someone not named Messi or Ronaldo, and to a midfielder instead. Modric just happen to fit the best narrative, personally I think he is probably the worst Ballon D’or winner for long time.
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Ballon d'Or has been a popularity contest since way back in the 00s. The correct list for the top 3 should be like this:
- Lewandowski
- Messi
- Benzema
Usually a good international tournament helps a lot. This time it didnt help Jorginho for instance but it helped Modrić in 2018. Funny thing is in that year there were cries Messi was robbed.
On a side note, I still remember the farce of Messi winning the World Cup golden ball award in 2014, when he wasn’t even Argentina’s best player at that tournament, and it was Mascherano who largely dragged them to the final.
One thing is sure, Messi has very good people working for him in terms of PR. That's my main takeaway
Muller was the best player for me. Kroos and Van Persie were also exceptional.
These awards have been a popularity and biggest name/moment in a big international final for many years. In 1998, Thuram was the best player for me, right next to Ronaldo, and while Zidane was suspended for the SF match after a red card, it was Thuram who put France the in the Final. The entire side were magnificent against Brazil but Zidane gets two goals and suddenly he's the world's best player. Ronaldo was still the best player on the planet for the full calendar year but his disappearance in the Final cost him votes. Yet it was Ronaldo not Zidane that took him the golden ball in the tournament.
Four years later Ronaldo got his revenge yet it was Rivaldo that carried Brazil and Kahn was arguably the best player in the world that year. The model has become - show up in the big international competition and one's actual club performances take a seat. Modric exemplified this.
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Modric won it for winning 3 CLs in a row and 4 overall with RM. Voters wanted to award more than just 1 person (Ronaldo) after such an achievement. Sure, that's not how awards are supposed to be given, but it's what happened.
Ronaldo's 8 WC goals are the highest tally since 1970. It's not like he just had a decent one.
And I didn't say he only had a decent one.
He wasn't the best player in either of those teams though.
Jorghino. Fantastic player but third? Come on.
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I don’t give a single feck about this thing but I just have to say it’s objectively hilarious seeing people cite Messi’s number of MOTM awards and number of dribbles as justification for him winning.
I can understand the lewa argument. I do not understand the Jorghino one. Benz, Neymar, CR7, Mbappe, Salah, Verrati and Kante were all better footballers than he is in this calendar year, but he ended up 3rd?
The reason for that was that Xavi and Iniesta were arguably the best players at the World Cup and World Cup > Champions League. As for Messi, he had a Messi type season, but he was so early in his career that it seemed incredible, nobody knew that he’d keep having the same season for 10 years then.
Agree, but what might have helped is that he was great in both finals...
Lewandovski not winning this year is an absolute disgrace.