Ballon d'Or Nominees Announced

by **A-Cube** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:42 pm

And your nominees are:

Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Togo.
Sergio Agüero (Atletico Madrid), Argentine.
Andreï Archavine (Zénith Saint-Pétersbourg), Russia.
Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Germany.
Karim Benzema (Lyon), France.
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus Turin), Italy.
Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Spain.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Portugal.
Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Ivory Coast.
Samuel Eto'o (FC Barcelone), Cameroon.
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Spain.
Fernando Torres (Liverpool FC), Spain.
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC), England.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan), Sweden.
Kaka (Milan AC), Brazil.
Frank Lampard (Chelsea), England.
Lionel Messi (FC Barcelone), Argentina.
Pepe (Real Madrid), Portugal.
Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich), France.
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), England.
Marcos Senna (Villarreal), Spain.
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Spain.
Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Italy.
Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United), Netherlands.
Rafael van der Vaart (Hamburg SV puis Real Madrid), Netherlands.
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), Netherlands.
Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), Serbia.
David Villa (Valence CF), Spain.
Xavi (FC Barcelone), Spain.
Youri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscou), Russia.

So my top 5 would be:

1-Iker Casillas: The goalkeeper of the year, single-handedly led Real to the local title and managed to keep a clean sheet in the last 3 rounds of the tournament. A year to remember for the player who ranks amongst some of the best in the world (But Gianluigi Buffon remains the best goalie in these last 8 years)

2-Cristiano Ronaldo: Hate him or love him 40+ goals a season for a winger is quite an achievement. The EPL and CL crowned his season but he showed clear signs of weakness when it really mattered. If it wasn't for a great cast of players at Manchester he probably could have never pulled off these performances. Ronaldo was a huge disappointment in this Euro and the Portuguese team as usual was overrated and left the competition rather quickly.

3-Marcos Senna: The Brazilian-born midfielder was the best player in the Euro and should have been awarded the title. Nevertheless, Senna had a great season and led Villareal towards this year CL. These types of performances come often unnoticed but Senna was the rock of the Spanish midfield, a more athletic version of Makelele. Scored the goal of the year in La Liga last year

4-Edwin Van Der Saar: MU's goalie was outstanding this year, helped his team towards the double. Edwin is like a fine glass of Merlot, just gets better by the year. He was let down by his defense in Euro 2008 and left a competition that the Netherlands seemed to have sealed from the first round prematurely. Edwin made his good-byes to the international scene in the last phase of the qualifiers and is in for one last season with The Reds.

5-Fernando Torres: He may not have scored as much as Ronaldo but was as effective in his first season at Anfield. Torres may not have been the best Spanish player in the Euro but he got a lot of credit for winning it for them in the final. He got back even stronger this year with Liverpool chasing their first EPL title in years. The Spaniard is red hot and has become one of the highlights of the English League.

6-Arshavin
7-Drogba
8-Fabregas
9-Xavi
10-Sergio Ramos

Pepe, Ballack and Toni should be dropped from the list. Where are John Terry, Altintop and Iniesta?

by **Fawzi** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:52 pm

by **[IN]Head-Kay** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:58 pm

by **TranceFusion** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:11 am

by **Genesis** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:14 am

by **Fawzi** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:21 am

by **tarantula** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:29 am

by **paulj419** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:50 am

who id like to win it: no doubt torres
but whos most prolly gona win it: very tight b/w messi n ronaldo,ronaldo favorite tho,i hate him but u cant deny he's one hell of a player

by **rob** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:50 am

1-Ronaldo
2-Buffon
3-Archavin
4-Fabregas
5-Senna

by **Fawzi** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:04 am

1-Cristiano Ronaldo
2-Fernando Torres
3-Iker Casillas

Doesn't really matter for the rest...

I hope Ronaldo gets it for one reason: If a player scores 42 goals while winning the CL and the Prem doesn't win him the Ballon d'Or, I don't know what does!! Although his form at EURO 2008 will definitely count against him... He's answered all his football-related critics, but you'll still have the odd voter biased against "flashy" players... meh...

by **Guest** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:59 pm

Xavi deserves it

by **mzy** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:03 pm

Fernando Torres

by **TranceFusion** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:37 pm

Tarantula
Torres also played the EPL and the CL, but he didn't suck at Euro 2008, meanwhile Ronaldo did. Actually all Portugal kinda sucked. The spanish players had a tiring season too with many games (Primera Division, CL, UEFA Cup, Spanish Cup) but they didn't look exhausted at all during the Euro. I KNOW that Ronaldo scored 42 goals, but that's not ENOUGH!!!
I expect Casillas to win the trophy, he didn't fail at all from start to finish. Led Madrid to the 2nd title in a row, and showed the same form in the Euro (think of Spain - Italy and Spain - Germany).
Meanwhile Ronaldo shined in games against weaks, but didn't shine that much against strongest teams. And is that a leader that Portugal wants? Come on... his arrogance (just like Hamilton's in F1) makes him think too much.

by **rob** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:37 am

I can't believe Del Piero wasn't selected in the list, I mean the guy was the best scorer of Serie A last year, and he is on fire! he somehow found a rejuvenating fountain! anybody saw his performance tonight? Real were stunned! They got two goals out of nowhere!

by **lebanese_raver** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:46 am

Ballon d'Or Nominees Announced

Ballon d'Or Nominees Announced

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