Reading on Olé, it was fairly close, and yes the extended award appears to have helped Ronaldo. En la votación final, sacó el 27,99% de los votos, apenas por encima del rosarino (24,72%) y el francés del Bayern Munich (23,36%).
Won by only 3%? Of course the extension was key. Plus, there are rumors that the Qatar coach is saying FIFA pressured him to change his vote to Crissy.
Ronaldo was top scorer of the UCL. And if you look at calendar year stats, well ... goals which is how most may rate Messi x Ronaldo, Ronaldo had the edge. Obviously it's mainly due to Messi's injuries. He may have gotten some sympathy votes considering he has been second fiddle to Messi in this award. Otherwise like you said, nobody was really far ahead this year and whichever player took the award is OK in my book. What I find funny is Ronaldo's complete 180 on his feelings towards the award: (Nov) I am not going to the ceremony >>> (Nov) I don't care about the award, titles are important >>> Voting Extended >> (Dec) I will attend the ceremony >>> Cries uncontrollably after winning, can barely speak, special video up on his social media accounts minutes after he won thanking his fans
Ronaldo was a worthy winner guys, lets just move on. Ribery has a case and Leo did well as well but in the end I would have given the edge to Cristiano. Mind you he said he forgot who else he should thank at the end of the speech, how about you thank Leo's hamstring
Ronaldo winning means Portugal won't win the WC this year. History has made it so. Voila, the curse of the Ballon D'Or: And if you're curious about who voted for whom, here's the complete list of votes: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/bal...2/26/02/68/fboaward_menplayer2013_neutral.pdf Messi (captain ARG): 1. Iniesta, 2. Xavi, 3. Neymar Ronaldo (captain POR): 1. Falcao, 2. Bale, 3. Ozil Looks like Ribery was a clear winner among voters from the media. Captains and coaches tended to go more for Messi and CR7.
The problem for football fans is the fact FIFA extended the poll in favor of one player. So the winner was pretty much announced after that play off. If Ronaldo wins it without that blatant help, that would be looks more credible.
Now I wanna see Real Madrid or ROnaldo fans crying over the fact Balon D'or winner did NOT win a single thropy. Lionel Messi: “I was out for a long time. Cristiano Ronaldo had a great year and deserves the Ballon d'Or I must congratulate Cristiano. I can't complain. I couldn't win but being here was the prize.
I think Ronaldo / Portugal have much bigger road blocks to lift the trophy other than a jinx ... in other words, they were never going to win it. With that being said, now that you pointed it out, I really would have liked to see Messi win it this year.
If Messi aint winning it, its still going to be the German, Spain or Brazil. Just being realistic. Portugal has no winning tradition in WC. Spain won Euro twice prior to 2010.
So Greece could win the WC but Portugal can't? Do you seriously believe in that winning tradition stuff? At one point Brazil and Germany didn't have winning traditions either. Until they won. I kind of hope Portugal do well because if they win the matches that they should win, they'll be in-line to play Messi & Argentina in the quarterfinals.
Well, Cristiano has said he does not care about the award in the past, but now he is saying he wants to win a 3rd. http://www.fifa.com/ballondor/news/newsid=2260752/index.html?intcmp=newsreader_news_box_1 He doesn't care about it, but yet he cares enough to cry when he does win it? . He clearly feels like he has a chip on his shoulder, and wants to get out of the shadow of Messi, which is pretty sad. He is a fantastic player, and it's really a shame he cares this much about individualistic awards.
This is what I said in the last thread. His only achievement was his goal scoring in the CL and a couple good classicos. Literally nothing else
Well, there was the 2 games against Sweden too. Also he was the top scorer in La Liga in 2013. That's not really saying much since the next 3 best scorers missed a big chunk of games, but since the Ballon d'Or has basically become a La Liga award it still gets noticed....
I am not sure who exactly deserved it more but it is a bit weird that Barca not Bayern had more players on the Fifa Pro 11 squad, 4 vs. 3, followed by 2 each for Real and PSG. Not a single EPL player, not a single Serie A player, not a single BvB Dortmund player. Whatever, crazy popularity contest. "The 2013 FIFA/FIFPro World XI was announced Monday in the Ballon d’Or Gala, and it was dominated by Barça players. Four players made the cut: Dani Alves, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Lionel Messi. Bayern Munich, who won almost everything this year, had only three players included: Manuel Neuer, Philip Lahm and Franck Ribéry. While Paris Saint-Germain featured Thiago Silva and the Puskas award winner Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Real Madrid had Sergio Ramos and Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo. All the selected players attended, except Andrés Iniesta who was recovering from that knock he suffered at the Vicente Calderón." Totalbarca FWIW here's a much more well rounded top 11 (plus 2nd 11) squad, though admittedly it is just for the 2012-13 season so it doesn't include this past fall (but then what has Alves, Xavi or Iniesta done this Fall that they did not do last season). This one has 2 Serie A players, a BvB Dortmund player, an EPL player, and rightly has 4 Bayern players to only 2 Barca players, plus 2 Juventus, 1 Chelsea, 1 BvB, and 1 Real. That's about right and certainly more well rounded. The 2nd 11 has 4 more teams represented (Atletico, Leverkeusen, PSG (2), and Tottenham) and includes 3 more Bayern players, 1 more Barca, 1 more Juventus, and 1 more BvB. http://www.zonalmarking.net/2013/06/12/european-team-of-the-season-201213/
Third-division Racing Santander defeats Almeria in the CdR. Atleti now leads Valencia 2-1 on aggregate after Godin scores.
Wow, did not realized Santander went from La Liga (for a remarkable 10 years straight) to Segunda to the third division in consecutive seasons. Nice upset for them but probably more of a gift for whoever wins the Sociedad v. Villarreal 2nd leg, winner then plays Barca or the Levante v. Rayo winner. Not to count "chickens before they hatch" but Barca has a pretty nice path to the final this year and hopefully can get more squad players and even Barca B players on the pitch in these games, especially if we can get a commanding lead in the first legs.
At least with Tata in charge, there is a chance that we play more squad/Barca B players in the Copa. Pep in particular played insanely strong teams no matter the first leg result (and I believe at least 5 first teamers must be named in each starting 11). That led to the burnout of the players. I for one, don't think Messi should feature in this competition unless we get to the semis. Getting Messi to agree to that is another matter
I'm pretty sure he scored a few goals/assists in La Liga and carried a Portugal to the World Cup after a freakishly disastrous qualifying campaign.
Why Portugal even needed a playoff? like he didnt play in qualifier and only came as savior in playoff? the logic is simple, the reason why he and his team even needed a playoff is because they have medicore performance in qualifier. Messi scored 10 goals in qualifier, Argentina is no.1 so they dont need those 2 extra matches which in fact helping Ronaldo to win the award after FIFA extended the poll date. CR fans also cried in 2011 when Messi won it because they wanted Iniesta or Xavi to win it by saying those 2 players won the WC. Now Ronaldo did not win a single thropy, only CL top scorer and his fans said its individual achievement that really matter.