Ballon d’Or / FIFA World Footballer Of The Year 2008

[Father Ted]

Ronaldo and Rooney in the list of 30 for the Ballon D'or. But seriously, no Rio?

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-ballon_dorlist&prov=reuters&type=lgns

[urbnzy]

According to this acrticle, there are also Vidic and Der Sar in latest selection.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/19102008/58/champions-league-prem-stars-ballon-d-shortlist.html

[Big Soccer Member]

Rio would be in my top 5 for his performances against Barcelona alone.

[cr7torossi]

What a ********ing joke.

[Bex79]

No Rio?:confused: Absolute joke.

[United Forever]

What is even more amusing is the headline. Henry and Ronaldinho left off Balon d'Or list. If they had actually done something last season it would have been a shock. :rolleyes:

[JamesA]

What a joke...no Rio? He was clearly the best CB in Europe last year and a key reason we won the CL.

[Bronaldo]

What did you guys expect? These awards are a joke, expecting Rio to be on the list would be naive.

[sdotsom]

Who cares what this list is? It's meant for ignorant people who know f**k all about football.

Saying that, it'll be even more ludicrous if somehow Ronaldo doesn't win.

[michael24710]

its even more surprising because Rio is a classy centre back... and it seems this award is more geared towards that compared to rough players like Keane and Viera...

But generally... Rio is incredibily under-rated outside United fans.

[schafer]

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

The full list according to Goal.com. Really shocking that Ferdinand isn't in there, particularly when he's obviously better than the two (3 if you include Ramos) central defenders that are on the list.

[Ruud v.Nistelrooy 10]

lmao@ Pepe

awful spelling on Arshavin too...

[Dark Savante]

There was talk from those associations about smiting Rio when they could at the time of his ban for the drug test.

That's Rio's lot. It's politics and nothing to do with his ability.

It will be interesting to see what happens if A) we again win the CL and Rio is again immense and; B) If Rio goes to the WC and is immense there.

It's not by accident he has been left of these lists. A quick search should find lots of bad words aimed at him from both Platini and blatter.

Filthy, corrupt organisations.

[lynne]

There was talk from those associations about smiting Rio when they could at the time of his ban for the drug test.

That's Rio's lot. It's politics and nothing to do with his ability.

It will be interesting to see what happens if A) we again win the CL and Rio is again immense and; B) If Rio goes to the WC and is immense there.

It's not by accident he has been left of these lists. A quick search should find lots of bad words aimed at him from both Platini and blatter.

Filthy, corrupt organisations.

You think? I had always assumed that the treatment of Rio vs. JT was down to plain unfortunately-not-so-ordinary racism....(I took my son to see 'the Express' yesterday and he spent the whole movie asking me why white people were so mean.)

[johno]

You think? I had always assumed that the treatment of Rio vs. JT was down to plain unfortunately-not-so-ordinary racism....(I took my son to see 'the Express' yesterday and he spent the whole movie asking me why white people were so mean.)

I knew there was something I was forgetting to go watch.

[sdotsom]

Wow. Did I just see Pepe on that list?

Shocking.

[sab456]

Wow. Did I just see Pepe on that list?

Shocking.


His own goals end up in the top corner. Everyone cant do that, sdot.

[Newton Heath]

Bloody gangsters!!!

[israbeckham]

If only I could ask Fifa,

Please explain to me in detail while providing examples, what Pepe did to merit a better display this past year than Rio. But of course we are all saying Pepe just because they play the same position, the same can be said of 90 percent of the players on that list.

Arshavin, wow he had a good 3 games for Russia, ya lets put him on there!

Rio, CL winner (captain), widely accepted as the current best dfender in the world, EPL winner, England Vice captain etc etc.. is he got enough for top 50?

[Republic of Mancunia]

It's not by accident he has been left of these lists. A quick search should find lots of bad words aimed at him from both Platini and blatter.

Filthy, corrupt organisations.

This is just the list for the Ballon D'or, otherwise known as the European footballer of the year award voted by journalists and organised by France Football magazine. It's entirely possible that I'm misinterpreting your post but I read that as you believing this award has something to do with FIFA/UEFA? Maybe the thread title threw you off?

Either way, Platini and Blatter are **********, there's no doubt about that[/Fergie]. Their words could certainly have had an effect in this one too and whoever produced that shortlist for France Football.

I've got no problem with you describing the press as filthy and corrupt either if that was intended all along. (Sorry, Johno. :p)

PS - Rio should of course be on there.

PPS - All awards are meaningless.

Edit: Isra - read my first paragraph!