Just checked the bookies and they seem to have no doubts at all about the Ballon d'Or this year. These are average odds right now: Messi 1.634 Cristiano 3.526 Iniesta 6.500 Falcao 25.333 Pirlo 48.000 Casillas 59.875 Neymar 62.625 Xavi 64.500 Van Persie 81.889 Ibrahimovic 86.429 Agüero 91.286 Rooney 95.222 Özil 99.500 Xabi Alonso and Yaya Touré 120.333 Drogba 128.000 Piqué 170.333
Some more announced votes: Brede Hangeland (captain Norway): 1. Messi 2. Pirlo 3. Yaya Toure Egil Olsen (coach Norway): 1. Messi 2. Falcao 3. Ibrahimovic
Other options: * Most goals scored on a bad hair-day * Most goals scored against keepers whose first name is Iker * Most women scored during half-time (unfortunately for Messi probably way behind CR7 in this one) * Most goals scored during games interupted by naked flashers * Most assists with your toenail
The dislike against Ronaldo is really shameful. There is no way that Falcao is second. Falcao is a good finisher but so were Vieiri, Van Nistelrooy and many others in the past 20 years.
There are relevant stats and irrelevant. If we get more info than scored goals/assists/YC/RC it may even help us to understand the game better, what do you say? The dislike has very little to do with him as a footballer, but some people may think his moaning a few months ago was pitiful. That's the Zlatan Syndrome: people admire his skills, but dislike his attitude.
This is also why I don't buy all that 'they are so humble' talk. Messi also spat once on opponents and whatever. All that 'Messi never dives' videos is really propaganda and the sad thing is that written media is using those videos as evidence like here. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=Lionel-Messi In the meantime Ronaldo gets all kind of ridiculous accusations which are sometimes grounded and sometimes not. I mean: the difference in judgement is too big. It is not good vs evil. In the end, most top players are alpha males. You can even turn this around: which is more harmful, spitting and punching on others or making a regular dive and self-appraising remark? Of course one might still think that Messi is the friendlier and better mannered person but everything that speaks against it is ignored and fan-videos are used as outright 'evidence'.
What dislike? Ibrahimovic and Falcao were just as effective than Cronaldo, in worse teams. And it's not like Cronaldo is the main creator in his team. The difference between Messi and Cronaldo however is a lot bigger than difference between Cronado and let say, an average striker.
Messi never spat nobody, he spat in front of one player lol. And Messi hardly ever dives, easily the lest in relation to the treatment he gets. That's why people have huge respect for Messi regarding that. However there was whole youtube channel for Cronaldo's dives though.
The only argument I buy is 'too much respect'. The crowds for the teams you mentioned are among the quietest in their respective leagues.
Season 2012/2013 (so far) vs season 2011/2012... At least pretend not to be hypocrites... Messi's freekick improvement is a relatively new thing, yet you are already touting it, but when it doesn't suite your argument it's suddenly 'about the whole calendar year'.
Some other votes (as expected Messi getting the Barca fan vote): Lothar Matthaus (Bulgary coach): 1. Xavi 2. Iniesta 3. Schweinsteiger Ali Daei (Iran): 1. Messi 2. Xavi 3. Iniesta Korean coach backs Messi (hinted CR7 as second), but jokes about not voting all together. Cristiano Ronaldo expected to vote for Didier Drogba and Falcao. Didier Drogba sure to vote for Messi and CR7, but has not said who gets 1 or 2. Samir Halidzodic (Algeria coach): 1. Messi 2. CR7 3. Drogba Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba getting a lot of votes from African captains / players Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon): 1. Messi 2. Xavi 3. Iniesta (Mourinho as coach) Del Bosque (Spain) expected to on Spanish players, but hints a vote for Pirlo Expect Drogba and Toure to be surprisingly high in the vote (vide the European Player of the Year vote, where Drogba was 7th). Casillas stated the rumoured Ramos vote is a lie. Barcelona Spanish players pressuring him to vote Messi, but he doesn't agree with them. --- Clearly we were right and fanboy coaches + players look likely to vote Messi for a 4th consecutive Balon.
Thank you for admitting that unsubstantial non-footballing matters are influencing the vote and hence further undermining its credibility after the 2010 ignomy. My regards.
Just because you haven't heard of the record doesn't make it something irrelevant. Soccer is not a game of statistics. So pretty much every stat is specialized apart from total goals in a competition. Also there are other statistics repeated by media and players that are just as specialized as the ones Bada Bing quoted.
Print that out and put it up in front of your computer. Then stop throwing countless pointless stats that skew the argument.
Correct for even 11-12 vs 12-13 12-13 18@16 for club + 5@5 for NT (4 WCQ) = 1,095 GPG 11-12 19@16 for club + 1@3 for NT (1 WCQ) = 1,052 GPG And that even with taking one more trip to South America (which lessens overall form) to play 3 more competitive games.
Stupid argument because: A) this season just started. B) even using this season's small game sample so far, there is still no notable GPG decrease compared to last season. Edit: I see baba bing beat me to it. Lol
No. Because you can still gain meaning for some stats. Just to give an example. Stat: Barca are currently off to their best start to a La Liga season ever. This is a very specialized stat, yet it still leads to a conclusion: Wrong conclusion: this must be the best Barca team evah! Correct conclusion: Barca are currently putting up good results in La liga and there is nothing to suggest from this stat that they are worse this season than last season. The wrong conclusion is pretty much what you just did after looking at Messi's 18 goals in 16 games this season and concluding this means is overall game is worse than before.
I really promised myself I wouldn’t respond to you since almost every thing you post is bullshit and this is no different. The only thing you have reason with is the dribbling which I already mentioned above. The rest is all bogus. Yeah he criticized Villa once for not making the right decision but apparently that means he’s frustrated with all the players and acting aggressive towards them? Did you miss Messi running and celebrating with Villa the last La Liga match when Villa scored?
The most international goals for club and country combined in a calendar year is nothing but a manufactured record. It's never been mentioned in anything I've ever read until here, and I'm pretty sure it's only been dug up by someone going through the history books to look for more "records" to compare Messi to. Goals is a season - fine. Goals in a given competition - no problem. But something like this is going to far.