You're mixing up your defenders. Anyway, I don't think it's a coincidence that 99% say that Messi didn't deserve this award (including Maradona and Kempes). That doesn't mean that Messi was bad, he wasn't, and it doesn't mean he's to blame, he didn't chose himself. But there clearly were a hand full of better player to chose from.
Not a handful, just two or three without including defensive players: Rodriguez, Robben and arguably Neymar. That's about it.
That might be your opinion, but from what I've heard from various pundits and fans alike, you're pretty alone there as well. But hey, no problem. This isn't a hard science anyway. Should you try to make it into one, à la Castrol Index, Messi doesn't even get close of course.
And from what I've heard from pundits and fans, Messi was better than any German player in the WC if not necessarily the just winner for Golden Ball. And Messi did win the it ahead of anyone else anyways, seems I'm not all alone after all. Castrol should stick to engine oil, it's irrelevant to soccer.
I would have given it to Robben, but I think people are taking this whole "Messi didn't deserve it" way too far. He was instrumental to his team and unlike the other non-German players on the list, he actually made it to the final. That definitely counts for something (and rightfully so). Without Messi, Argentina was a good team, but they would not have made it to the final. It's also so silly when people say his only contribution in certain games were goals as if goals are not an important part of the game.
I agree with your last part that goals are important, but that is honored with the golden boot, not the golden ball. This trophy is for players that who positively shaped the game of their team, who were instrumental and involved throughout. Even Argentina had a better player in that regard, namely Mascherano. And there were at least a handful of players from other teams that were better as well, that's the point. It's no coincidence that the universal reaction to this choice was bewilderment. Messi had a few individual bursts of brilliance, which were great, no doubt, but others were simply more consistently brilliant.
messi was often lethargic and static in this worldcup..this is fact ..overlooked here in discusions....muller and robben for sure not, this guys helped out often away from the offensive.....8 kilometers running for messi per 90 minutes confirm that..messi teamates was forced to even out messis manko in this categegory.....people are bit blended to much in messi offensive actions....
But Messi's goals were important in the sense that without them, Argentina would would have drawn with Iran and could have had a completely different result against Nigeria. It's not like he scored all of his goals in a game where they were winning comfortably. Not to mention, I don't see the correlation between winning the golden boot and the golden ball. James Rodriguez won the golden boot and so many people wanted him to win the golden ball despite exiting the competition pretty early and not having the chance to shine against top opposition. Like I said, I thought Robben should have won it, but I think the fact that Messi wasn't the most deserving candidate is making people blow it out of proportion and exaggerate. Not to mention the fact that people expect more from him than other players. I guarantee you if Messi was in James' in position and shined in the knockout stages, but got eliminated by Brazil, people would not think he'd deserve the award.
messis goal against iran was not more worth than the big save of romerio in the second half against this iranian guy (have forget his name)...the same iranian guy where was denid a penalty late in the game too.....
The point being that people said all Messi did was to score during group stage vs. lesser teams. You're argument was that these goals were important which is true, but not enough for a golden ball. If all you do is to score goals, there's already an award that honors that as you're in the running for the golden boot. Robben on the other hand did a lot more than that, he was the offensive focal point of his team. Müller scored more goals than Messi, he set up more goals than Mesdi, he defended more than Messi, he ran more than Messi. Hummels was the defensive rock of the German game and he also helped going forward, scoring two goals in the process....etc. So no matter what people expect from Messi, he just was nowhere near the best of the tournament. As I said before, I'd have given this award to Kroos as he was the heart of the World Cup winning team, brilliantly pulling the strings throughout the tournament. That's not something you can put into numbers, unlike goals scored for instance and this is exactly what this award is there for. Though I wouldn't have complained if Robben got it either. Giving it to Messi was however a farce.
The Golden Boot is a statistical award, regardless of quality or relevance of goals scored. Salenko won it in WC94 for example. Golden Ball is a qualitative award, and on that Messi's performance has enough merit to be a candidate, and certainly ahead of that plethora of German players that another poster mentioned. I would place Messi as third place, behind Rodriguez and Robben, with Neymar, Muller, Feghouli, Ruiz and Kroos all closely following him (only limiting the award to offense players). Reality is, every WC will have players of who performed great but were snubbed at the awards, this is not different this time, and while his name benefited Messi, he did enough to put himself amongst the tournament's protagonists.
@maxsanta I would argue that, given they scored only 8 goals all tournament, ARG reaching the final was infinitely more about their back 6 than Messi. And surely if you're going to make the "But Messi scored 4 goals and assisted another.. that's 5 out of 8; 62.5% offensive involvement!" argument, James is the Balon D'or winner with his 6 goals and 2 assists for 8 of 12; 66% involvement. Doubly so when you consider James did that in 5 matches to Messi's 7. Though I'd look no further than the Brazil game and James' heatmap. Just look at how much of an impact he's trying to have despite being hacked down everywhere he goes. Then look at a Messi heat map. Despite typically be the 3rd or 4th highest man on average up the pitch for ARG, he refuses to track back pretty much the entire tournament to receive the ball. His heat maps scream "slow and tired" just like his play for the bulk of the tournament did.
I think you guys are forgetting that only players who made it to the semis are considered for this award, which eliminates James. This leaves Messi, Kroos, Muller, Robben etc. My personal pick is Robben, but I don't think it's really that bad for Messi to get the award.
Even taking out the Germans... Consider Oscar. Clearly Brazil was NOT a well-oiled machine, and he stood out enough to make the CI top 10. And pretty much everyone noticed it too... quite often it was cited by match commentators and armchair pundits alike that he was the only one even remotely playing positive football for Brazil. Can't remember any such similar praise for Messi. We're getting to the point where one could easily argue the pro-Messi crowd is just arguing for him for the sake of it, and is just as if not more blind as the supposed anti-Messi crowd (which I'm not convinced is even entirely anti-Messi so much as merely disagreeing with the pro-Messi crowd, which has assigned the dissenters the "anti" moniker in a "For us or against us" Bush style). I have nothing for or against the guy. It's just very clear to me based on the eye test and the stats he didn't deserve the award.
What is a heat map supposed to tell you other than the activity of the player? Nothing to do with quality. However, I do agree that James was the best player of the tournament.
Disagree entirely. Activity and involvement in the match (i.e. heat map of touches), coupled with stats on passing success rate, distance covered (displayed by the heat map to an extent), and key plays paint a very accurate overall picture of the player's quality by impact on the match. Now, if you'd rather have a guy that's aloof for 89 minutes and then does something brilliant I guess that's your prerogative because if he gets a goal out of it it's the same on the scoreboard as someone that runs their socks off for the full time and is involved in a goal, but I would argue that the attempt to dictate tempo and pace of the game from the latter player is far more critical than given credit.
I don't disagree with you. And I suspect that truth also goes a long way to explaining why Messi, as compared to other greats in the history of this game, has so many detractors. I liken him to more advanced (up the pitch) Xavi, because though he is a forward, he needs the ball and space to be most effective. He cannot be isolated from the game 99% of the time as a poacher might. His skill, vision, and perception are immense. The advantage Spain had having players like Xavi and Iniesta in their primes was that they had enough athleticism as well to make them difficult to impossible to defend. As soon as even a glimmer of athletic decline occurs, their stock plummets, because even an average ability defender can manage them (as even if they are dribbled past they can recover athletically). Look no further than Barca 2013- and Spain 2014 to see an example of this. Now, personally, I find that sad because as an American, the mental and technical attributes of the game are the ones we direly need (and currently lack). But it's also no secret that players who are more dependent upon them (sans GKs and those very dedicated to fitness) have shorter peak periods and shorter careers. I would not be surprised if Messi not only is a shell of his current (and even former) self come 2018, but in fact is barely a factor in 2018 at all, even at 31. Iniesta was a non-factor this summer at 30.
It is interesting because last time of course Forlan won, but I don't think they seriously consider anybody who didn't go to the semis.
Yep, I too am worried about his future career - he has skill and vision, but his greatest asset IMO is the combination of his ball skill with extreme acceleration. I expect he'll need to change his playing style and start leaning upon his vision and playmaking skill, but I don't know if he will be willing to transform like that.