When did individual awards become prizes for being in a great side?

Physiocrat

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Discussing Casillias his multiple La Liga awards came up. It seems to me that individual awards these days are largely prizes for being in a great side. It didn't seem to be always this way. Am I correct and if so when did individual awards becomes meaningful? This could become important with respect to our Top 20 lists.
 

Gio

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Probably two trends worth highlighting for context:
  • More awards voted for by players - emergence of the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1991, and then its merging with the Ballon D'Or from 2010-2015. And from 2005 the FIFPro awards.
  • Polarisation within the club game since the mid-to-late 2000s - meaning the same clubs winning their leagues and reaching the latter stages of the Champions League every year. As a result it's now easier for a top player at a top club to repeatedly secure awards as they invariably feature in the high profile games at the end of the season.
 

Schneckerl

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From what I've seen Casillas won the 09 and 12 La Liga Best GK award.
Who deserved it in those seasons in your view? Not saying you're right or wrong, just curious.
 

Physiocrat

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From what I've seen Casillas won the 09 and 12 La Liga Best GK award.
Who deserved it in those seasons in your view? Not saying you're right or wrong, just curious.
Don't know. I didn't follow it that closely in those seasons. It was more a general point about the accuracy of awards over time
 

GodShaveTheQueen

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For me, it started when the quality of defenders in general had fallen down. The quality of defenders, especially centrebacks had fallen from a cliff as compared to just a decade ago.

2003 UCL final for example had - Maldini, Costacurta, Nesta, Ferrara, Thuram, Montero

2013 UCL final had Hummels, Subotic, Boateng, Dante who were pretty good in their peaks but no where compared to the players that were at their peaks just a few years ago.

You could have given it to any of the CB's from the top teams and there would still be enough people complaining about the choice no matter who it was and from which team (A few exceptions of course like Godin/Varane).

They'd rather give it to someone who has won stuff than a slightly better defender performance wise.
 
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harms

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From what I've seen Casillas won the 09 and 12 La Liga Best GK award.
Who deserved it in those seasons in your view? Not saying you're right or wrong, just curious.
It's more about UEFA teams of the year and such, I think.

For example in a period between 2007 to 2011, only Evra got nominated (once) from the United's backline of VDS-RB-Rio-Vidic-Evra that set multiple defensive records, including World record for most minutes without conceding a league goal (1,311 minutes) and reached 3 CL finals, winning one.

Diego Godin, the unquestionable leader of probably the best defensive unit of the past 5-6 years, got into the TOTY once (Ramos did it 8 times).

Et cetera.
 

Schneckerl

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Don't know. I didn't follow it that closely in those seasons. It was more a general point about the accuracy of awards over time
It's more about UEFA teams of the year and such, I think.
.
Yeah, I agree the FIFpro and UEFA team have weird choices sometimes which seem to be made based on reputation and name recognition. OP mentioned La Liga that why I asked about that.

From what I know:
UEFA team of the years: It's an online vote and always has been like that. Would say therefore it always favored famous players on big teams.

FIFpro: Voted by players from all countries. I can see some of them not following the form of players, all teams etc.
 
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berbasloth4

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I believe you have to be winning things as a team to be considered best individual. the pressures are much more. Only on really outstanding occasion should others be considered
 

Chesterlestreet

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All of the above - sure.

I'd also mention the fact that these days it's less likely than ever that a player who might plausibly win a major individual award happens to play for anyone beyond a relatively tiny handful of big/huge clubs.

So, it's not just a stronger focus on players who win big prizes, but a much shallower pool of clubs whose players have half a chance of being considered in the first place.