Damn bro. You just saved people having to read 7 billion words to know what @leadleader is all about. This is "very reputable" and now I "praised you."
For the record he brought up the Poe and writing etc.. I just pointed out he is emphatically ironic. He always feels the need to cement his Dickensness in every disagreement.
They have lobbied for him, that is for sure. But that was not exactly what I meant. I responded to your post about "assigning the next superstar".
I do find it incredibly sad how the many Manuel Neuer supporters on twitter and the media are suddenly talking about how money shapes media narratives and history, the machinery, marketing power, support of sportswear companies, fanbase and such. While they themselves are not exactly disadvantaged in that respect.
I don't know about a joke, but yeah: Iniesta, David Luiz, and Thiago Silva didn't deserve a spot in XI.
Totally agree, if Neuer played for Dortmund and they did the double and CL semis fair enough. He plays for proably the second best club side in Europe that domniated domestically more than ever before, and also the best country so his stats will always be good. His WC14 was not of the same level as Kahn 02 for the simple reason he was behind a better team and did not have as much to do.
I thought Portugal had a frist round exit not just Ronaldo himself, players can't do it on thier own.................. also Ibrahimovic was far to low down after suffering from no WC and slow start to 14-15 season but was definitely in top ten of 13-14 season.
Maybe a biased example but Edwin van der Sar once had (still has) multiple clean sheet records while often playing with what many would see as an average or mediocre defence. There are more examples though.
To be honest I am not really surprised with the inclusion of the three player above. My only surprise is that for some strange reason Xavi and Dani Alves failed to make it into this team. Imo this is the results of equating player's reputation and talent as the reason to qualify them as top performers of the season. By the mere fact that Iniesta is alive he should be regarded as better than other players even if his performance did warrant that. People forget that player of the year is not about who is more talented but who performed well during that predefined period.
Thiago and Silva and David Luiz don't even deserve to make it to the reserve team, talkless of being in the Fifa 1st 11. Iniesta doesn't deserve to be in the starting 11 either, i'll even go a far as saying that he shouldn't even have made the reserve team. And how's Modric not in that team?
Ok, since you guys are too lazy to read novels, let me summarize what has been said here for the last month or so. 1. CR7 gets Ballon D'Or award only when Messi is not feeling well that year. 2. Messi has become the de facto "default mode" for Ballon D'Or, the year 2010 reinforces this claim 3. The USA is not worthy to be considered a 1st world country. Manhattan, Malibu, La Jolla do not represent the majority of the country's standard of living, since Skid Row, Overtown, Hell's Kitchen and most of New Orleans ghettos are a better representation. In the US, you need to lose first your job, house, car, and any other bank savings, and then wife and kids, before you even qualify for "food stamps". Whilst on the other hand, in the Western Europe you can keep the house, car, wife and kids, and any bank savings and still be entitled to welfare benefits, including medical care. The US just falls short of Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, Scandinavia, Switzerland, New Zealand who have set the benchmark of quality of live and standard of living too high, leaving the US to take the lead only in the Gun and Weapons arena. For the US to be considered a 1st world country, she must first meet the following 1. pass universal medicare, 2. amend the anarchic Gun laws, 3. eradicate poverty in all her states, 4. remove the "death penalty" since this is too primitive and barbaric and has no place in the future. 5. force the majority of her citizens to hold a passport and travel abroad more then often to open their biased minds and get both acculturated and enculturated. 4. @EdgarAllanPoet is not worthy to bare the name, hence should be amended to "EdgarAllanPoo" or "Ed the Poe", since there is nothing "poetic" in his writing. Since when does Bigotry be reduced to Poetry? @leadleader
@comme hi comme. Looks like the Ballon D'Or debate has now run its course again for another year. Personally speaking, I don't get why so many people get so uptight about a FIFA award.
Well this is proof that @JamesBH11 was correct all along when he said that this is a "weak era" in football history. There is simple no other talents to bring competition for the award, hence players like Dani Alves and David Luiz will keep filling the "vacuum" year after year. Do not be startled to see Dani Alves, David Luiz cuting it to the best XI in the next 2015 Ballon D'Or again. It wont surprise me to see the same names coming up over and over again in the Ballon D'Or for many years to come.
Modric in place of Iniesta, Boateng in place of David Luiz and Godin in place of Thiago Silva. But have these FifPro XI's ever been anything but a joke? My opinion on coach of the year. 1) Diego Simeone - Won La Liga and came within seconds of winning the CL with a relatively modest side. In 2014 I'm certain he has a positive record against both Madrid and Barca having played them 7 & 4 times respectively. Dispatched off Milan and Chelsea, was untroubled by Juventus. 2) Carlo Ancelotti - Finally delivered Madrid the Decima and destroyed Pep in the semi final, won the domestic cup and was in the fight for La Liga until the penultimate matchday. Equalled the consecutive wins record too. 3) Joachim Low - Won the world cup, in Brazil, defeating Brazil 7-1 in the process. His squad was missing any natural fullback besides Lahm, so he had to improvise. Had an unfit Khedira, neither of the Bender brothers, Gundogan and arguably their best player Reus. Despite having the best side in Brazil, he still had to show good coaching skills, not enough to be the number one coach though.