It would only be a shame if Iniesta deserved to win it over Messi. Consistency has been his problem (and injuries).
How is it a shame? Messi is the best, this isn't a sympathy award It's an award for the best And messi is the greatest of all time "hasnt won a world Cup!!!!111one" Guess that means fabio grosso> messi according to these haters World cup doesn't matter, especially when most teams Play anti football Messi does it with class humility and with style, his play on Barcelona is the purest expression of football in the Modern era The english invented it, the brazilians perfected it, then Messi modernized it for the 21st centiry
Money is very important, though. 95% of soccer matches are won by the team with the larger wage bill, according to I believe it was Soccernomics. And since when did European clubs ever have lesser wage bills than Brazillian ones? If we look at almost all quality Brazillian internationals over the past decade, they started in Brazil, went to Europe, spent the vast majority of their prime years playing there, and then ended in Brazil or a second-string European team. Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho, Juninho, Kaka soon, Robinho soon, Gilberto Silva, Thiago Silva, Ze Roberto, etc. I don't understand how you can argue that European leagues are worse than Brazillian league when European leagues poach a lot of the quality talent away from Brazil. Therefore, if Europe is where most international-calibre Brazillians hone their trade and truly prove their worth because that's where the quality is due to Europe's money enabling it to poach the best players in the world, it logical for us to conclude that Neymar ought to as well.
You overlook the fact that the Brazilian economy Has picked up and some clubs are now rich and can afford to pay ther players much more, thus making it easier these days for brazil to keep much of their top players For example There are less brazilians transferring to portuguese clubs than has historically been the case due to increasing transfer fees
So in your terms the majority of La Liga teams who are below the 50% mark in the current season which includes teams like Bilbao, Sevilla, and Getafe could never make it in the EPL despite the fact that Athletico with practically the same core of players that made it to the Europa League final last year? Ahead of EPL teams. Well they couldn’t make it in the EPL? In terms of money the average second division Championship side using their current placing in the second division in England is Derby County. Maybe they have more money which in this case is irrelevant unless you think they are on the level of Getafe, Bilbao or Sevilla who are also on the second half of the table in Spain Money doesn’t always make you better. That’s a false equivalency on your part. It helps. But not always as shown.
Um, by "Big boys" I mean the Champions League......that's European football. Also, La Liga is not the only "European football" either. There is Bundesliga, EPL, Seria A.....I would like to see how Neymar would do in any of those competitions.....heck, I would even be interested to see how he would do in the French league. BTW, we already saw how Neymar did against Barca in 2011, didn't we? I wonder how he would do against other big European teams..... Actually, you are wrong. Neymar does need to go to Europe to prove himself, especially if he is to win any individual awards or dethrone Messi (which wont happen anyway). You said it yourself, these individual awards have European biased in them, meaning players who play in Europe (but not necessarily being European nationality) are regarded higher.
If the majority of Spanish first league teams won't survive in the Premier League (given the 0.90+ correlation) it means that average English second division sides are stronger.
If that were the case then why are Spanish sides always doing well, including beating an EPL club in the final a few years ago, in The Europa League the past years? The team who won the EPL last season failed in the CL and is currently in the Europa League. Manchester United failed in the CL not too long ago and were algo in the Europa League. And neither team won it. Where do you get that MOST teams in La Liga won’t survive in the EPL? You sound just like those people that said that players coming from La Liga would be crap in the EPL because it’s just “harder”. At that has been proven to be shit.
The first part is farfatched speculation at best. Even assuming it would be true - you are saying that more than half of English 2nd Division would be able to survive in EPL. Has to be a new logical high in the crusade against Spanish football.
Because the Europe League is a second rate irrelevant competition and unlike round robin competitions upsets can happen. No, you give false assumptions and information with false intentions. A correlation of above 0.90 does not lie. Yeah, and you are a Spanish fanboy. I'm proud to hate Spain, hate the dopers, hate the cheaters. But other than that, you don't get the clue. The majority of English second division are more likely to survive than the majority of Spanish first division clubs, that is what I think and what the source I quoted says. If the majority Spanish first division clubs likely (the quote says 'likely') won't survive in Bundesliga and EPL then it means that those second division teams are stronger. And as someone else also pointed out: they are wealthier too. Very sad that you accuse me of lying without any base.
What?!? No it would mean that the majority of EPL and Bundesliga teams are stronger. That's new. Another nation to add to my fanboy list.
Ohh how nice. If those teams were as great as you claim a "second rate irrelevant competition" should be easy for them to win no? Likely is not a valid point. Unless you prove valid facts that Championship division sides are better than first division La liga sides,. 50% under which I already said includes sides like Sevilla and Bilbao, then you have no point. And Villarreal who are currently in the second division of Spain beat Man Utd a few years ago. So don’t try to bring the past.
Champions league is not a strong competition, it only gets good in the knockout rounds. Before that is filled with average teams. Neymar has already proven himself in brasil and in the international stage. He's Brasil number one player and the star of the brasilian team. He'll have enough opportunities leading up to world cup to play vs european players. 2013 alone he'll play vs spain, france, england and italy twice. []__[]
Second division teams who promote to the first division of these two leagues do not immediately relegate. At the same time there is every reason to think that the majority of the Spanish clubs will not survive if they are dropped in the first division of other big leagues. Exactly, you're not only a Germany fanboy (just like the Austrian refs I would say) but also pro Spain. The accusation of lying granted a glance at your cards. Anyhow, it is playing at the margins. When the Dutch FA director was confronted with the fact that Holland is deteriorating and declining in every aspect he replied that whole Europe is overtaken by other continents. If China and Brazil awake the danger will shrink that Germany will take away all prizes.
Currently the majority of La Liga does not include the likes of Sevilla or Bilbao and others who are clearly better than a lot of the teams in the second half of the Priemrship not to mention the Championship. No he’s not a Spanish or German fanboy. You’re just a Spanish hater as you have already mentioned.
Wait I thought there are 3 teams promoting to EPL not 12? Woah stop the insults. YOU are a German fanboy!
Nope, Man City didn't make the Europa League. Ajax finished above them. Actually that point is significant because it disqualifies the excuse that they didn't advance further due to being stuck in "the group of death". If you finish behind Ajax, it means you can't survive in ANY group.
That's why we look at the UEFA coefficient which is calculated using hundreds of games as a basis. So the "upsets can happen" excuse is a non-starter. The English Premier League is a distant 2nd-best in Europe now. Will officially fall to #3 by the end of the season.
This small debate is going in circles. Fact is the 20th richest EPL club is by a considerable margin richer as the 13th La Liga club (unfortunately not more clubs are included in the dataset) and the 0.90 correlation. There is every reason to think that numbers 20-30 will outperform numbers 13-20 of La Liga. Of course everyone has exceptions and I have too but at which threshold become the exceptions a rule?
What do you mean? All I can tell you is that everytime Germany gets eliminated from a tournament it's a pleasant day for me, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the quality of their players or teams.
Are you bored yet? Rhetorical question. Give up brah. Your trolling is pretty obvious and just sad at this point with the persistence.
Any other nations you are happy to see being eliminated (generally)? Indeed, I think their achievements and credentials of some individual players aren't matched by inherent quality. Same with a few other nations (Brazil at some moments).
There's still a fair gap between England and Germany (over 2 and a half coefficient points) that needs to be made up before things will change next year. Let's get some games played before making assumptions.