https://www.bigsoccer.com/attachments/kicker_1995-45-pdf.108300/ https://www.bigsoccer.com/attachments/kicker_1995-45_-pdf.108301/ https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/missing-esm-team-of-the-month.1981639/page-4#post-35733034 That should help show the 1994/95 ESM vote I think Peru, Puck EDIT - Yes, the top two links seem to open the files directly indeed. arriaga had helpfully posted them on the thread shown in link 3 above originally anyway. It is Frank de Boer in Don Balon's team, not Ronald I think we established, looking at the line-up and also total votes as shown on the second link.
One final remark (to be a bit more sympathetic and kind, too): to a great extent I understand this call and the arguments are sound. If it is a wrong call, it is not nearly as bad as the various off-the-chart Dearman calls. The former leans predominantly on a few 'dominant' games (against Chelsea, against main challengers AC Milan, Roma) and some big moments (the opening goal in semis against Barcelona, the winning assist in final) and that he was generally higher graded than for example team mate Milito. At the same time, the perspective changes when the comparison is not Messi. Sneijder had in 2011-12 clearly not anywhere near his best year, yet his WhoScored rating was still roughly comparable to the one of Ozil of 2011-12 (0.13 higher), who had possibly and arguably his best ever year and played in the more attacking/open league and more dominant team. Things like that alter the relative proportions and perspective quite a bit (imho). I'd say that the widespread lack of support, resonance and clout also gives the necessary breathing space for the saboteurs and the manipulators at the top. With no risk for Anders Frisk type of scenarios. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Referee Cakir did nothing of course, and a string of those kicks saw Sneijder missing the 3rd place match (in which Brazil should have seen red for the penalty) Check this (in particular the 2nd half, 2:10, 3:20): I'm sure you have seen how Peru (right now the 4th or 5th team of South America) lost comfortably against 'Holland' recently (one of the worst ever Holland teams).
As always, great list. The top two positions of the Top 3 seem clear. Regarding the third position, I think Iniesta deserves it. Here is the comparison with Pirlo: Ballon D´or: Iniesta, 3º; Pirlo: 7º. World Soccer: Iniesta, 3º; Pirlo: 4º FourFour Two: Iniesta, 3º; Pirlo: 9º The Guardian: Iniesta, 4º; Pirlo: 8º Team FIFA: Iniesta, yes; Pirlo, no. Team UEFA: Iniesta, yes; Pirlo, yes. Team ESM: Iniesta, no; Pirlo, yes. On the other hand, Iniesta is chosen as the best player in the European Championship, the best player of the year in the UEFA and best Playmaker of the season by the IFFHS. From the Top 23, I propose some modification. I would put Neuer, Busquets and Lahm and remove Ribery, Hummels and Reus, even though they had a good season. Busquets wins with Spain the Eurocopa, being included in the ideal team. In the election of the Golden Ball it occupied the 20ª position, is the 14º in the voting of The Guardian and 23º in the one of the FourFourTwo. Neuer, like Hummels, is included in the ESM's team of the year, but gets better positions in the votes of The Guardian and FourFourTwo and is nominated for the Golden Ball. Lahm was part of the XI of the UEFA, was 2 times included in the team of the month of the ESM and was among the top 20 of the FourFourTwo ranking. A greeting.
I know you have consistently made pro-Barcelona and pro-Bayern alterations in this thread (as a result Peru FC downgraded Sneijder and upgraded Xavi to #2 for 2010), but what did Iniesta do that Pirlo did not? (Pirlo was more productive than he ever was for Milan). Even if you compare Iniesta to Van Persie one sees that Iniesta has half the amount of key passes, the same rate of through balls (for a vastly better team), a bit more dribbles, before one goes to the goals and assists.
Hi. Pirlo had an excellent season and his statistical performance is even better than Iniesta's in key passes, for example. Although Pirlo has more goals and assists, if you take into account the minutes played in the league, the percentage is equal. I am sure that if Italy had won the European Championship and had been MVP of the final, the merits of Pirlo would surpass those of Iniesta. In relation to my preference for Barcelona and Bayern I explain. I admire the game of Barcelona in general and Iniesta in particular, although I assure you that in this analysis I try to be objective. As for Bayern, I do not feel special predilection for this team. A greeting.
I think this is somewhat misleading. For instance when the Guardian writers chose their player of the tournament 5 chose Iniesta, 4 chose Pirlo and 1 chose both. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/jul/02/euro-2012-review-guardian Meanwhile the Guardian readers' average rating was 7.6 for Iniesta and 7.5 for Pirlo. On Football Ratings the average for Iniesta is 7.10 and for Pirlo 6.83. Basically then that has determined the annual awards. The FourFourTwo and Guardian ones are also "Best Player in the World" rather than player of the year awards.
Well, he's one of the players that I put aside very closely. He dominated the scene in France, but I was reviewing some of his performances and I don't get impressed so much, not enough to include him from the French League. At this point I perceive something better to Neymar from Brazil (whom I don't include despite not noticing so much difference between this and his previous season, just a higher competitiveness). In an immediate replacement group I'd consider in a similar position or before to Ramires, Mario Gómez, Sergio Busquets, Manuel Neuer, Petr Cech and Neymar. Take it easy, I must say that's my mistake. I think I separated Robben due I wanted to review how much continuity he had that year because I thought about if he could be in the top 23 and then I forgot to add him again in the group of honorable mentions (surely here, at least).
Despite having been included 5 times in the ESM Team of the Month, I've noticed that most sources agree that this season wasn't one of the best of Dani Alves, and idea that I also remembered, though not so detailed. By the way, Sid Lowe took Andoni Iraola over him in his La Liga Team of the Season.
I must say that the position you comment is complex. I must understand that it's sincere and it's not due to your nationality (at least not conciously), but I don't notice the same from my perspective and I think there are reasonable variables that explain each point you address and not exactly a discrimination. By the way, I couldn't watch the last match of Peru against Netherlands, but I was surprised by the inclusion of Sneijder and it's seems to me notorious that his fame here is not any short.
Finally, I think is Pirlo who has a better case. I can't decide who played better in the Euro (Pirlo seems more protagonist by himself, but because Iniesta forms a better collective), but at local league I think it's clear that while Pirlo probably had the best season of his career, Iniesta doesn't seem to have convinced the most nor to be in La Liga Team of the Season. I'm not sure how to approach the annual awards, but those referred to the season I think they could have been influenced more than the account by who won the Euro. I agree about Drogba.
Well, let's disagree on all the points above and I'd say it is also typical within this frame you discard RVP as a candidate for #3. Quite funny how Sid Lowe (I like to call him Sad Lowe) - with his phony hipster style, a hired typewriter for the cartel - is suddenly some sort of high authority in this.
For very little. In my opinion he could be between 3 or 5 next to Pirlo and Iniesta. Not a superior authority. I named him only because he's a source published by comme in another thread and you pointed it out to me in previous answers (being that both usually participate in this discussion).
This is my final list, at least until the final revision of the decade: 2012 AGÜERO, Sergio (Argentina & Manchester City) ALONSO, Xabi (Spain & Real Madrid) BUFFON, Gianluigi (Italy & Juventus) CASILLAS, Íker (Spain & Real Madrid) CRISTIANO RONALDO (Portugal & Real Madrid) FALCAO, Radamel (Colombia & Atlético de Madrid) HUMMELS, Mats (Germany & Borussia Dortmund) IBRAHIMOVIC, Zlatan (Sweden & AC Milan) INIESTA, Andrés (Spain & Barcelona) KOMPANY, Vincent (Belgium & Manchester City) MESSI, Lionel (Argentina & Barcelona) NEUER, Manuel (Germany & Bayern Munich) ÖZIL, Mesut (Germany & Real Madrid) PIRLO, Andrea (Italy & Juventus) RAMOS, Sergio (Spain & Real Madrid) REUS, Marco (Germany & Borussia Mönchengladbach) RIBÉRY, Franck (France & Bayern Munich) ROONEY, Wayne (England & Manchester United) SILVA, David (Spain & Manchester City) THIAGO SILVA (Brazil & AC Milan) TOURÉ, Yaya (Ivory Coast & Manchester City) VAN PERSIE, Robin (Netherlands & Arsenal) XAVI (Spain & Barcelona) Top 3 1) MESSI, Lionel 2) CRISTIANO RONALDO 3) PIRLO, Andrea All lists
I don't think he's a "high authority" but he is probably the leading voice on Spanish football in the English language press as the correspondent for World Soccer and the Guardian. Despite its prominence, La Liga is pretty poorly catered for in terms of good sources and that's not helped by the partisan nature of their press. In that void his teams of the year are (I think) a useful source.
But ultimately you boil it down to the last two and say nothing about the other, which again fits perfectly within your self-admitted ignorance and distaste (which is at least better than many other latin posters, who excel in hidden agendas but then openly dare to put as disclaimer they have none). Ribery will have more inclusions than Robben (who was btw better in the KO stages for this year) and Ozil will get to more than Hazard. No doubt in my mind that you put already existing media tendencies on steroids. That's nice, that not every Peruvian is falling into the Milito myth (who after all was rated 0.6-0.7 points lower for his CL games by Gazzetta). As the record cap holder it was his mandatory farewell match, and he still ripped your Peru team wide open a few times. But of course, given your self-admitted dislike and ignorance you aren't aware of that. Anyway, it is better to not contribute again to this thread. The tendencies of the last 20-25 years are obvious.
That's not right. I didn't include him as a possibility for the 3rd place because among the 3 I think it seems fair to place him half a step behind Pirlo and Iniesta, since both were stellar in the Euro apart from the rest of their seasons, but I consider reasonable the possibility of placing van Persie on the same scale because of his excellent production at overall. It's not about objective positions as if a mathematical discard could be made, but approximated by the general impressions that I can extract. At that point, I wouldn't consider a crazy option for that 3rd place for Falcao or Ibrahimovic. I'm not sure about that right now, but I think it's understandable that Robben had some less inclusion than Ribéry (if that happens) because despite his very high peaks of performance, his consistency was more than once reduced by injuries year by year and it should be noted in an exercise like this. On the other hand, I'm not sure about the comparison between Özil and Hazard, but your presumption is a bit strange for me because I've no doubt that is Hazard who has become more popular in the media (at least that's what I perceive from my geographical area). I don't see the same tendencies. I never heard of a myth about Milito. Actually, I don't think he was as popular or remembered as much for his campaign with Inter in 2010 as Sneijder here. I haven't recognized any particular dislike and my ignorance is limited by what I can review (I try to decrease it to the maximum). I haven't seen the Netherlands-Peru last match, so I can't give you an opinion right now, but obviously it doesn't affect at all my previous analysis. That's a shame, your contributions have been very valuable to me so far, but I think you perceive something that I can't perceive and I find it hard to understand the logic. I'm not saying you're completely wrong, but I think you're letting yourself be carried away by your own feelings and/or by very particular perceptions about the media, which is not an average everywhere.
Of course you don't. You also don't see the class he had in 2011-12. The high difference in number of social media followers and what the players receive from their boot sponsors (and other sponsorship) tells the true story here. Nice disclaimer against inconsistencies but those "general impressions" are consistently negative towards low countries players and I have already given various tangible evidence. I'm also sure here that the 'Holland' that reached 2nd and 3rd place will add up to one of the lowest ever accumulated inclusions - another piece of evidence. Either way, as I said I'll leave it at this.
I saw him, in what it seems we don't agree is in how we judge that class and in the general comparison with other players (potential candidates for a top 23). I'd say that everything depends on how it impacts each zone and each person. I have no idea of the impact of the social media for them, probably influences many media (sources), but if you paint it so clearly that way, then somehow it doesn't work well here (at least in Peru) because the impact is the other way around. That very apart from my own criteria. I believe that it's not a disclaimer, but a sincere announcement: it's not to be completely sure of something in this subject, I base my criteria on approximate impressions and try to include as many objective elements, but my conclusions can only be subjective (although I believe that coherent, at least). I'm not sure about the inclusion of Dutch footballers in the remaining years, but I don't think that determined a preference on my part. In fact, in this last list just happened something that I think didn't happen before: I haven't included any player of the champion of the UEFA Champions League (Chelsea). That's for sure strange and it's not that there are no candidates, but in the exercise of judging individuals, there may be some difference in terms of teams and their success. It's not common an unusual relationship, but not a norm.
This is my first attempt to the 2013 list. Contrary to last season's list (in which I didn't name any player of the winner of the UEFA Champions League in the final top 23), this time I think there is a very clear predominance of Bayern Munich (7), which could have been broader if I had included to Manuel Neuer, David Alaba, Toni Kroos and Mario Mandzukic, all potential candidates from my point of view, especially the German goalkeeper. The German runner-up of the same tournament, Borussia Dortmund, has 2 players included by now, although I think there are 3 other potential candidates in Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gündogan and Marco Reus. This was a complicated case for Neymar. After having included him in 2011 and excluded in 2012 (by a narrow margin), the Brazilian rising star only completed half of the year with Santos before joining Barcelona, so the schedule for him changes radically at the club level (his first season in Spain (2013-14) would belong to the following list). That year (2013) he didn't compete in the Copa Libertadores, however, he led Santos to the final of the Campeonato Paulista (lost against an intractable Corinthians) and named the best player of the tournament. In addition, on the international stage he led Brazil to win the FIFA Confederations Cup in a fashionable way and was elected the best player of the tournament. I was very tempted to include 2 great former stars after several years of their prime. The first, Francesco Totti, who did a great campaign despite the irregular year of AS Roma making 12 goals and 12 assists in Serie A. The second, Ronaldinho, who led Atlético Mineiro to win the Copa Libertadores and was elected the South American Footballer of the Year starring in some spectacular plays, although already something lacking in physical. This is my 2013 Preliminary List: BALE, Gareth (Wales & Tottenham Hotspur) CAVANI, Edinson (Uruguay & Napoli) CRISTIANO RONALDO (Portugal & Real Madrid) DANTE (Brazil & Bayern Munich) FALCAO, Radamel (Colombia & Atlético de Madrid) GÖTZE, Mario (Germany & Borussia Dortmund) IBRAHIMOVIC, Zlatan (Sweden & Paris Saint-Germain) INIESTA, Andrés (Spain & Barcelona) JAVI MARTÍNEZ (Spain & Bayern Munich) LAHM, Philipp (Germany & Bayern Munich) LEWANDOWSKI, Robert (Poland & Borussia Dortmund) MATA, Juan (Spain & Chelsea) MESSI, Lionel (Argentina & Barcelona) MÜLLER, Thomas (Germany & Bayern Munich) NEYMAR (Brazil & Santos) PIRLO, Andrea (Italy & Juventus) RIBÉRY, Franck (France & Bayern Munich) ROBBEN, Arjen (Netherlands & Bayern Munich) SCHWEINSTEIGER, Bastian (Germany & Bayern Munich) SUÁREZ, Luis (Uruguay & Liverpool) THIAGO SILVA (Brazil & Paris Saint-Germain) VAN PERSIE, Robin (Netherlands & Manchester United) VIDAL, Arturo (Chile & Juventus) Honorable Mentions ADLER, René (Germany & Hamburg) AKINFEEV, Igor (Russia & CSKA Moscow) ALABA, David (Austria & Bayern Munich) ALBA, Jordi (Spain & Barcelona) ALONSO, Xabi (Spain & Real Madrid) AUBAMEYANG, Pierre-Emerick (Gabon & Saint-Étienne) BA, Demba (Senegal & Newcastle United | Chelsea) BAINES, Leighton (England & Everton) BALOTELLI, Mario (Italy & Manchester City | AC Milan) BARZAGLI, Andrea (Italy & Juventus) BENTEKE, Christian (Belgium & Aston Villa) BLASZCZYKOWSKI, Jakub (Poland & Borussia Dortmund) BONY, Wilfried (Ivory Coast & Vitesse) BORJA VALERO (Spain & Fiorentina) BUFFON, Gianluigi (Italy & Juventus) BURAK Yilmaz (Turkey & Galatasaray) BUSQUETS, Sergio (Spain & Barcelona) CABALLERO, Willy (Argentina & Málaga) CAMPAGNARO, Hugo (Argentina & Napoli) CAPOUE, Étienne (France & Toulouse) CARDOZO, Óscar (Paraguay & Benfica) CARRICK, Michael (England & Manchester United) CARVAJAL, Dani (Spain & Bayer Leverkusen) CAZORLA, Santi (Spain & Arsenal) CHIELLINI, Giorgio (Italy & Juventus) COURTOIS, Thibaut (Belgium & Atlético de Madrid) CUADRADO, Juan Guillermo (Colombia & Fiorentina) DANI ALVES (Brazil & Barcelona) DE BRUYNE, Kevin (Belgium & Werder Bremen) DE GEA, David (Spain & Manchester United) DEMICHELIS, Martín (Argentina & Málaga) DI MARÍA, Ángel (Argentina & Real Madrid) DI NATALE, Antonio (Italy & Udinese) DIEGO (Brazil & Wolfsburg) DIEGO COSTA (Spain & Atlético de Madrid) EL SHAARAWY, Stephan (Egypt & AC Milan) ÉVERTON RIBEIRO (Brazil & Cruzeiro) FABREGAS, Cesc (Spain & Barcelona) FELLAINI, Marouane (Belgium & Everton) FERDINAND, Rio (England & Manchester United) FERNANDINHO (Brazil & Shakhtar Donetsk) FILIPE LUÍS (Brazil & Atlético de Madrid) FINNBOGASON, Alfred (Iceland & Heerenveen) GERRARD, Steven (England & Liverpool) GUARÍN, Fredy (Colombia & Inter Milan) GUERRERO, Paolo (Peru & Corinthians) GÜNDOGAN, Ilkay (Germany & Borussia Dortmund) HAMSÍK, Marek (Slovakia & Napoli) HANDANOVIC, Samir (Slovenia & Inter Milan) HAZARD, Eden (Belgium & Chelsea) HUMMELS, Mats (Germany & Borussia Dortmund) ILLARRAMENDI, Asier (Spain & Real Sociedad) IBISEVIC, Vedad (Bosnia and Herzegovina & Stuttgart) ISCO (Spain & Málaga) IVANOVIC, Branislav (Serbia & Chelsea) JAGIELKA, Phil (England & Everton) JAMES Rodríguez (Colombia & Porto) JO (Brazil & Atlético Mineiro) JONAS (Brazil & Valencia) JOVETIC, Stevan (Montenegro & Fiorentina) KIESSLING, Stefan (Germany & Bayer Leverkusen) KOKE (Spain & Atlético de Madrid) KROOS, Toni (Germany & Bayern Munich) LAMBERT, Rickie (England & Southampton) LAMELA, Érik (Argentina & AS Roma) LAMPARD, Frank (England & Chelsea) LAVEZZI, Ezequiel (Argentina & Paris Saint-Germain) LIMA (Portugal & Benfica) LUKAKU, Romelu (Belgium & West Bromwich Albion) MAGGIO, Christian (Italy & Napoli) MANDZUKIC, Mario (Croatia & Bayern Munich) MARQUINHOS (Brazil & AS Roma) MARTÍNEZ, Iñigo (Spain & Real Sociedad) MARTÍNEZ, Jackson (Colombia & Porto) MATUIDI, Blaise (France & Paris Saint-Germain) MAXWELL (Brazil & Paris Saint-Germain) MERTENS, Dries (Belgium & PSV Eindhoven) MICHU (Spain & Swansea City) MIRANDA (Brazil & Atlético de Madrid) MKHITARYAN, Henrikh (Armenia & Shakhtar Donetsk) MONTOLIVO, Riccardo (Italy & AC Milan) MOUTINHO, Joao (Portugal & Porto) NEGREDO, Álvaro (Spain & Sevilla) NEUER, Manuel (Germany & Bayern Munich) NKOULOU, Nicolas (Cameroon & Olympique de Marseille) OSCAR (Brazil & Chelsea) OSVALDO, Pablo (Italy & AS Roma) ÖZIL, Mesut (Germany & Real Madrid) PALACIO, Rodrigo (Argentina & Inter Milan) PAULINHO (Brazil & Corinthians) PAYET, Dimitri (France & Lille) PELLE, Graziano (Italy & Feyenoord) PRIETO, Xabi (Spain & Real Sociedad) RAFAEL (Brazil & Manchester United) RAKITIC, Ivan (Croatia & Sevilla) RAMOS, Sergio (Spain & Real Madrid) REUS, Marco (Germany & Borussia Dortmund) RODRÍGUEZ, Maxi (Argentina & Newell's Old Boys) RONALDINHO (Brazil & Atlético Mineiro) SALVIO, Eduardo (Argentina & Benfica) SCHMELZER, Marcel (Germany & Borussia Dortmund) SCOCCO, Ignacio (Argentina & Newell's Old Boys) SIRIGU, Salvatore (Italy & Paris Saint-Germain) SOLDADO, Roberto (Spain & Valencia) SUBOTIC, Neven (Serbia & Borussia Dortmund) TADIC, Dusan (Serbia & Twente) TARDELLI, Diego (Brazil & Atlético Mineiro) TORRES, Fernando (Spain & Chelsea) TOTTI, Francesco (Italy & AS Roma) TOURÉ, Yaya (Ivory Coast & Manchester City) TRAPP, Kevin (Germany & Eintracht Frankfurt) TURAN, Arda (Turkey & Atlético de Madrid) VALBUENA, Mathieu (France & Olympique de Marseille) VARANE, Raphaël (Spain & Real Madrid) VELA, Carlos (Mexico & Real Sociedad) VERRATTI, Marco (Italy & Paris Saint-Germain) VERTONGHEN, Jan (Belgium & Tottenham Hotspur) WALCOTT, Theo (England & Arsenal) WEIDENFELLER, Roman (Germany & Borussia Dortmund) WELIGTON (Brazil & Málaga) WILLIAN (Brazil & Shakhtar Donetsk) XAVI (Spain & Barcelona) ZABALETA, Pablo (Argentina & Manchester City) Top 3 1) Lionel Messi 2) Cristiano Ronaldo 3) Franck Ribéry or Zlatan Ibrahimovic (perhaps Arjen Robben or Gareth Bale) Thoughts will be appreciated.
A few external lists for 2013: FIFA Ballon d'Or: C Ronaldo (27.99%), Messi (24.72%), Ribery (23.36%), Ibrahimovic (5.29%), Neymar (3.17%), Iniesta (2.08%), van Persie (1.79%), Robben (1.77%), Bale (1.32%), Pirlo (1.11%), Radamel Falcao (1.08%). Also Lewandowski (0.92%), Lahm (0.82%), T Muller (0.43%), Schweinsteiger (0.43%). UEFA Men's Player of the 2012/13 Season: Votes after short-listing: Ribery 36, Messi 14, C Ronaldo 3. Rest of Top 10 before short-listing: Robben 57, Lewandowski 39, T Muller 38, Schweinsteiger 32, Bale 24, Ibrahimovic 14, van Persie 10. South American Player of the Year: Ronaldinho 156 points, Neymar 81. Eastern European Player of the Year: Lewandowski World Soccer Player of the Year: C Ronaldo La Liga (Spain) Best Player 2012/13 Season: Messi Footballer of the 2012/13 German Season: Schweinsteiger. Close three-horse race between Schweinsteiger (17.46%), Ribery (16.51%) and T Muller (16.13%). Serie A (Italy) Best Player of the 2012/13 Season: Pirlo Footballer of the 2012/13 English Season: Bale won both the Football Writers Association (FWA) and Professional Footballers Association (PFA) awards. ESM Team of the Month Votes 2012/13 Season: Messi 65, C Ronaldo 38, Ibrahimovic 34, Bale 32, Lahm 32, Dante 31, van Persie 30, Falcao 26. Also T Muller 18, Lewandowski 17, Schweinsteiger 14, Iniesta 13, Pirlo 13, Robben 13, Ribery 10, Neymar n/a. There is no real consensus here. Ronaldo, Messi and Ribery finish close together in the FIFA Ballon d'Or, with Ribery well ahead in the European jounalists' vote. But the Frenchman is just behind Schweinsteiger in Germany and picks up only a sixth of Messi's ESM votes. Ronaldo adds the World Soccer Player of the Year award to his Ballon d'Or, despite ranking behind Messi in Spain. The UEFA journalists' Top 7 consists of these two, plus five who appeared in the Bayern-Dortmund UCL final. All the names above, apart from Ronaldinho, feature in Peru FC's initial Top 23.
By and large I think it's another very good list. Others will feel differently but I'd struggle to see Robben in the top 23. He only started 11 games in the league, 7 in the Champions League and his ratings were not (by his standards) exceptional. He was great in the closing stages of the CL but is that enough? In terms of the 23 I think Carrick was excellent this season and a very important figure for United in their title winning season. Hamsik would be one I'd think about putting in there as well. Van Persie was obviously excellent again and he carried them to that title. I think you can make a case for him challenging the podium. Obviously Bale was outstanding for Spurs as well. I think you've basically got the top 3 right.
Well, Robben started the season as substitute because Heynckes prefer to put Kroos in the middle and Müller by right and only in the last 3 months he appeared more regularly in Bundesliga, but interestingly he was very active in DFB-Pokal and all the knockout phases of the Champions League. With Bayern Munich accumulated a total activity of 2147 minutes (about 450 minutes more than in the previous season and what totals about 24 complete matches), in addition to 10 matches with Netherlands (8 as starter) scoring against Estonia, Hungary and Turkey in the World Cup qualifying phase. I think he had a decent amount of minutes of activity and a terrific peak in the final stage in the victorious campaign of his team in contrast to his regularity.
This was an odd one in the awards in that Ronaldo got a lot of votes for the start of the following season, particularly for his performances against Sweden in the WC play-offs. Take that out and I don't see how he can compare with Messi for the 2012-3 season. Messi was ahead in every measure.
Very good list again. According to 90%. Only three suggestions: to include Xavi, Ozil and Neuer in the top 23 and to exclude Javi Martínez, Gotze and Mata, even though they had a good season.