Firstly I hope everyone is keeping safe and well.... Now for business, with the cancellation of both the European Championships and Copa America and possibly the first few months of the year and perhaps season further back in the memory banks, is the Champions League a straight shoot out for the Ballon d'or? Or given the differing nature to the event this season maybe more focus will be on league performances like years gone by? Personally I would love to see Lewandowski win it this year after a fabulous season that has picked up post lockdown in the same fashion as before, admittedly the timing of the lock down was perfect for him re recuperation from the leg fracture meaning missing just two games as opposed to potentially much more.
Its to soon to say, Lewandowski has a shout with his most probable golden shoe and League.... the Champions league might bring in some new candidates but its difficult to say right now....i think this year might be a close call between a lot of players
I think the time and the mood of voters is probably right for Lewandowski or De Bruyne to win it with a definitive champions league performance, although Messi is still lurking.
Agree with both comments, the CL in August will feel like a mini WC/Euros in terms of the events and importance I feel I would love to see City win it and De Bruyne being the main man, agree Messi is very much there and a decent end to La Liga and Lisbon performance will mean he will be very to beat. Interesting in terms if timing and period played over it slightly resembles the old Mitropa Cup days of the 1930s, albeit that was not at one location but had quarters to final player over a few months.
Lionel Messi Kevin de Bruyne Robert Lewandowski As things stand, they would be in pole position. Neymar, Mbappe and Ronaldo also will be in the picture and whoever of the 6 has the best run in Lisbon would stand the best chance. It would be very interesting though if Atletico Madrid or even Lyon/Atalanta were to win the CL
De Bruyne one is interested re awards in PL this year, I think whilst he will get a chunk of votes in the PFA award, it will not be enough to win, but has a chance re the FWA award but I feel they have earmarked for Henderson, who whislt being consistent has not even been in Liverpool's top three in my opinion, let alone the league.
It is not unthinkable in the autumn there will be a 2nd wave of the virus, potentially closing a few leagues again. Don't rule out a #blackwhiningmatters token boy either for this, similar to how it helped Weah in 1995 (all against the backdrop of #visitabudhabi while bashing on western civilization). Or how the Francophone countries got behind Mane in 2019. For now, Lewandowski is miles behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the bookmaker's odds. Ronaldo is still seen as a 'default' option. https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/n...andowski-virgil-van-dijk-win-2020-ballon-dor/
Henderson just wasn't better or more important/decisive than Fabinho or Wijnaldum in many of the bigger games (Leicester, Man United, Atletico etc.). Before the restart, Daily Telegraph ranked this as the 20 best three days ago. 20. Richarlison 19. Kante 18. Sterling 17. Traore 16. Maguire 15. Son 14. Aubameyang 13. Azpilicueta 12. Rashford 11. Ndidi 10. Mahrez 9. Vardy 8. Grealish 7. Salah 6. Aguero 5. Mane 4. Van Dijk 3. Alexander-Arnold 2. Henderson 1. De Bruyne This is predictable, typical and ridiculous at the same time. With commentary interchanging the bad with the good. "Henderson is the most important player to any team, but Kevin de Bruyne is the best individual by a small distance." (no, that distance in comparison to that other midfielder is not so 'small' in football terms and football proportions...) "Joe Gomez has improved massively alongside him, and Joel Matip looked like a world top five defender at the start of the season when side by side. Van Dijk makes everyone else better." Mane is also (easily) among the three most important players of Liverpool, if not number one.
Very dubious list, Henderson # 2 is way to high, Mane, VVD, AA plus Fabinho and Wijnadulm better for Liverpool in my view. As much as I like him does Aguero warrant sixth for this season? Grealish in eight? Decent season but hardly top ten. Also where are Wolves players, Jimenez & Jota, Traore is too low, Ings has has had a great season and warrants a place above others in that list
The Henderson praise this season has me really confused as Mane, Van Dijk, TAA have all been clearly better/more important.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind VVD finishing 3rd this year if Liverpool go on to win the league with an uninspiring attack, but continues to keep cleansheets. For me, the top two comes down to the UCL. Like the posts above, all of Lewandowski, KDB, and Messi would become prime candidate for me if their team wins the UCL with them as the protagonist. I'm a huge fan of KDB, but I think Lewandowski has the stronger narrative. His scoring rate is ridiculous, and winning the league + UCL double is something KDB can't match (he can only win the UCL). This is especially true if Lewandowski scores in the UCL final as well.
The most important thing is it is not unthinkable there will be symbolic vote, for the 'story'. The odds for a Sterling and TAA have already shortened as a result. In the same way it helped Weah to win in 1995. It is not the correct thing to say, but it's silly how an internal USA problem with a singular history has now spread to the rest of the Western world under a very broad and generic banner, with China and the Emirates crying with the wolves (smelling their chance to undermine the credibility of the west). Each of these countries have their own specific problems/weaknesses (we have the Black Pete tradition..) and often of a smaller magnitude as the place where remnants of the Jim Crow laws were normal until the mid-1960s. Most Western countries just don't have a police force that behave and are armed like the military. It seems as if people are just bored by corona and are therefore now tearing down statues (and if we are really, really strict on this we should banish all statues of Churchill, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in the world). I'll leave it at here for this matter, and don't comment further on this thing, but I agree with roughly 50% of this necessary counter-voice: "Across the TV schedules, Sky competes with the BBC to be the official broadcast partner of BLM, even launching a Black Lives Matter movie season. [...] Man City’s Raheem Sterling certainly wouldn’t get away with expressing his political opinions in the enlightened Arab emirate of Abu Dhabi, which owns his club and pays him £350,000 a week — some of which he spent getting a tasteful tattoo of an M16 assault rifle on his leg, as a memorial to his father who was shot dead in a gang feud. Abu Dhabi is an open sewer of racial and sexual discrimination, and other assorted human rights abuses. Then again, there is no more amoral industry on Earth than the English Premier League, which is why it leaps on every woke bandwagon to mitigate its rapacious cry-bully reality." ---- An M16 rifle tattoo to show 'lives matter'... (with thanks to the black gangsta rap culture; if that is the 'liberation' going forward...); and kneeling with a large banner of 'Visit Abu Dhabi' displayed behind you. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/...-Just-stop-stupid-protests-getting-silly.html The odds of Mbappe (3rd according to William Hill; behind Messi and Ronaldo), Mane, Sterling and even Pogba have all shortened as a result. If this keeps on escalating, with the authorities going for repression, I see it incoming Sterling will pip a few of his team-mates and will again finish high for "the story", and that was the literal reasoning of the majority of voting journalists (he has also 5 goals and 2 assists in 4 games in the CL this campaign...). If Barcelona doesn't win the league or Champions League and Ronaldo 'only' wins the league - continuing his current bad form - a lot can happen.
Maybe the Champions League final rounds in front of empty public don't have the same impact and therefore the 'default' options stand stronger anyway. For either Lewandowski or KDB it will be hard to beat the block voting and behind the scenes lobbying, too.
This isn't the place to be denigrating giants When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw. Again you fail to grasp basic concepts (ie human rights) The right to live without fear of racial violence and oppression https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/human-rights/ comparing imperialists(Churchill)to freedom fighters (Mandela) Likening subjugators to the subjugated The absurdity It's really just madness
Perhaps. I just think Lewandowski has the chance to create a narrative so powerful no block voting can stand in it's way. He could end up with close to 40 league goals this season. If he scores a hattrick to help Bayern win the UCL on top of winning the league, I think he becomes the favourite. No other Bayern player has the narrative to steal his votes either. Similar to KDB, who I think will have a harder time because he won't win the league. However, winning Man City it's first ever UCL, as a protagonist, is also one hell of a narrative.
You can make all the long winded posts about voting politics you want, but when you refer to a black man as a boy everyone knows what type of person you are.
Distasteful But as a black man with a dutch passport i have seen how some Dutchman refers to ppl of color there i have a lot of friends in the Netherlands and all of them have not so great stories about life there. "Het is wat het is" i suppose. thats why im not so surprised at these type of comments. and its not a personal attack against you, i know its "culture" there. but hopefully you one day see the negative in your comments Peace out my brother
Lewandowski is 33 on the league, the highest since Dieter Muller (34) in 76/77 and could break that with two goals, Dieter Muller was (by my calcs) the last 50 plus in all competitons player in German football in that season which Lewandowski should break, given he is on 48 and he has a league game, a Cup game and minimum one CL game, likely three minimum. KDB should get the FWA player of the year in my view, but I doubt he will, lets see, but for other of these two to stop Messi they need a strong CL in the mini tournament, that is in case Barca lose to Napoli in the last sixteen and then it is blown wide open.
But becoming Bundesliga top scorer doesn't carry much weight imo, it will come down to his UCL performance (where Bayern have a big chance of winning it) For De Bruyne its all or nothing for the UCL And for Messi if he wins la Liga he is in the pole position (awaiting whats to come in the UCL....where he only has to perform well not necessarily win) even tho Ronaldo still has a chance of winning the UCL he has had a average season for his standard.
Agree re Bundesliga top scorer but that is the same for other leagues also if that is the only achievement, however for Lewandowski its the total, i.33 and counting versus 22 last season, plus other achievements along side, Lewandowski is the CL top scorer too and Bayern are in the quarters almost and have a decent chance as any other in the competition. Agree with comments though that UCL could be a shoot out for the Ballon d'or but if there are no stand outs other factors will come into play given no Euro Champs, Copa America...
Lewandowski has 9 CL goals in 6 games If he goes the distance he could end up with anything Once he breaches the 14 Cl goal mark he is already in ballon dor territory Altafini held that record for 50 years Messi equalled it in 2011/12 Ronaldo has since gone on to surpass it 3 times And almost everytime he did he went on to clinch the ballon dor Almost The only time he didn't (2018) was a world cup year With Euro 2020 cancelled until next year The way is paved clear for lewandowski He has a 30+ season in a top 5 European league Potentially double digits in a single champions league edition To put into perspective how great robert lewandowski is close to becoming Not Luis Alberto Suarez Marco van basten Ronaldo de lima Romario Andriy shevchenco Zlatan ibrahimovic Hugo sanchez Thierry Henry Jean pierre papin Ian rush Van nistelrooy Samuel etoo KHR None of them Has ever scored 30+ in a top 5 European league and double digits in a single edition of the champions leagues(in the same season) With 1 more champions league goal It puts him with the untouchables really The likes of Gerd muller 72/3 Prime Cristiano ronaldo Prime Lionel Messi Even euesbio with 1 gpg in the defensively suspect Portuguese league never scored more than 9 goals in the champions league Dieter Müller played in a really crazy time 1976/77 bundesliga averaged 3.47 goal per game It was the wild wild west Fourth place Eintracht Frankfurt conceded 57 goals A top 4 team conceded 57 goals In this climate Dieter Müller 76/77 scored 4 goals against TB Berlin(relegation zone) 2 goals against RW essen (relegated) 4 goals against vfl bochum(1 place above relegation zone) 4 goals against karlsruhner (relegation zone) 14 out of 34 goals against the bottom 4 Combined with the fact he Only scored 1 goal against the top 4(1 goal against 2nd place schalke) League runners up Schalke conceded 52 goals!!!! This is absurd really Whatever lewandowski does or doesn't do for the remainder of the season he has already had the best season by a bundesliga striker since muller(Gerd that is and definitely not Dieter)
If Barca win one of UCL or La Liga, then Messi will win it. But if they don't, then thats when things will get interesting. Whoever wins the UCL, will have a major contender. If its Bayern, it will be Lewy. If its Juventus, it will be Cristiano (lol), if its PSG then probably Neymar or Mbappe. But if its some outsider like say Atleti, then probably one of the Liverpool players has a shout. May be Virgil or Mane.
I wouldn't say Henderson should be amongst Liverpool Top-3 players for Ballon D'or. But Hendo has been Liverpool's best midfielder this season. He is a great leader, often organizing the team, is a really good passer and his ability to press and cover for Trent when he overlaps is one of the thing why he is so essential in Klopp's system. People expected Liverpool to struggle when Fabinho got injured in December but Hendo was fantastic replacing him. That phase before the Covid-19 lockdown happened where Liverpool struggled and dropped points, Hendo was missing.
Man. Two things. First, Daily Mail is trash. This is the reason behind the gun tattoo of Sterling. Secondly, the reason why its a worldwide phenomenon is because racism is everywhere. Not just US or UK or Europe. Its in Asian countries as well. Its in China, Japan, India, Australia, African countries. Obviously its not just the racism against the blacks. Its also the racism against Asians/Indians etc. Gandhi had racist views in his early years but he later realized he was wrong and changed his views. We can't compare his racist "views" to a genocidal maniac like Churchill or slave owners.