In 96/97 Ronaldo was simply unbelievable, in his one season at Barca he scored 47 goals in 49 games. In 2002 he won the world cup scoring the most goals of any player since 1970. The star of the world cup always wins the World player of the year award. It's that simple. If Ronaldo was Italian or Spanish they would have won the world cup.
So we both agree on 1996?? great! That thing with the world cup maybe right, but if I remember correctly, was Kahn the winner of the golden ball for the best player and not Ronaldo..... And the best player of the whole 2001/2002 season was Michael Ballack, leading his teams into 4 of 4!!! possible finals that year. He was the dominating player in the CL, the Bundesliga and the World Cup, so why didn´t he win?? Right, he has no deal with Nike!
Who votes for the world player of the year? The coaches of the national teams, not Nike as you seem to think. Kahn was superb at the world cup, but was at fault for the first goal, arguably costing germany the WC. Ballack had a superb season, but he lost in the CL final, Germany lost the WC final (I know he was suspended) and Leverkusen failed to win the Bundesliga. He won nothing. Ronaldo scored 8 goals and won, therefore he was the dominating player of the WC.
I think this is because people don't like to think of British or Irish players as being as good as continental European or South Americans when it comes to their very best players, which really irks me. If Shearer was Italian or German, he would get a lot more international acclaim (he gets a lot, but it would be more), Giggs would be see nas an all-tiem great if he were Argentinian or Brazilian. Turn Keane into a German and he's one of the greatest defensive players ever, and so on. Shearer Lineker Barnes Giggs Keane Brady Adams Sheilton Irwin and probably soem more All of these players deserve at least a few mentions in a thread like this, yet only Keane & Giggs (due to their undeniable class) have got more than 1 mention. Keane is in contention with Vieira & Davids... this is a tight three, with everybody having a choice of their own (Keane being mine), so he has only got a few mentions. Giggs has had no real competitors, and thus is the only person that it is flat out ignorant to leave out, even though to some it just doesn't feel right to have a Welshman in there. Just my opinion 1000 posts! Oh yeah!
Ah I get it now...lol you hate Ronaldo eheheheh ...now i get the bitterness and all that venom.. Sheez what's the guy done to you? I thought only Inter fan's hated Ronaldo
1st XI Kahn Roberto Carlos -- Sammer -- Baresi --Maldini Maradona -- Matthaeus -- Zico -- Platini Ronaldo -- Van Basten Subs: Schmeichel, Junior, Sammer, Kohler, Thuram Gullit, Davids, Baggio, Rummenigge, . Klinsmann.....
Oh yeah, British players are terribly underrated, it must be the lack of exposure that they receive. I feel so bad for all of those fans of teams on the British Isles, they are so ignored by the press, even in their own countries.
Well, your post kind of backs up what billyireland is saying. People tend to dismiss British and Irish players as 'overrated' or 'overhyped', without giving them any credit at all. It seems on BigSoccer you can only be rated as a class player if you can do 10 stepovers and have a Latin-sounding name. Beckham is a perfect case in point. I lost count of the number of times clueless morons on here made snide comments about Real Madrid only buying him for his commercial value and how he wouldn't be able to command a place in their first team. 'Overrated' was the term most often applied to him. Good to see that he's proved them all to be a bunch of know-nothing fuckwits.
As mobile said, you just proved my point. I didn't say that all British/Irish players were udnerrated, most people won't hesisate much to call a class player from 'round here class. But when it comes to the cream of the crop, they get exclusive.
Oh please, I never said that they were over-rated, but it is ridiculous to suggest that a British player is under-rated with all of the exposure they get. Sure any rating of Beckham is probably not going to be accurate given the amount of overexposure and emotions this conjures up, but you can't take one person and try to extrapolate that to an entire nation. There are some world class British players, and most of these lists have included a couple, what, you won't be satisfied until a team has many British players on the list? It shows the stupidity of this group that Francescoli has not been included on one list, but do you see me going off about how he's underrated because he's from Uruguay?
i agree with soccerfreak that ballack should have won the 2002 award - i didn't include ronaldo over romario because... well longevity i suppose - a couple years from now i might say ronaldo other than this, your post is spot on - ronaldo didn't beat HOLLAND - he scored the opener, kluivert equalized near time and brazil went through on PK's
So, what you're saying is that because I point something out that you haven't (that can easily be applied to a player such a Francescoli) and you haven't - it makes me wrong? My reasoning for there being a lack of British/Irish players on the lists - that there is perhaps a bit of 'snobbery' against them, not in a "they're crap" way, but just in a "this guy was Italian - he's got to be better" sense. Your reasoning for Francescoli not being on the lists - "You're all idiots, you're all stupid"
"Romario was more thrilling than Ronaldo, and together with Bebeto the best striker-duo Brazil ever had. Ronaldo is hyped by the media". the best striker duo of Brazil are you forgetting of Pelé, Garrincha with this two Brazil never lost a game. not just then but others like Tostão, Jairzinho and Ronaldo, Rivaldo 02. I will just name some of them.
No, what I'm saying is that you're paranoid. Everyone has different reasons for picking certain people. I don't recall anyone saying anything pushing one nationality over the other. I'm calling people stupid for not picking Francescoli because I want someone to challenge me and actually give a reason why he shouldn't be on a at all. I'm not out there complaining about why more people don't have at least half their list made up of players from one corner of Europe.
What can I say. I'm not the expert (most people aren't0 but you either know football or you don't. What i mean is not simply scoring goals. i mean scoring decisive goals 100% regardless of what the rest of the team does. I've seen Ronaldo not score very often. Mostly, admittedly, because he could have been assisted better or because other players could have taken better position, etc. I don't know how much Romario you've seen... but I've seen just about all of his career except the latest few years... and I know that this guy could make goals from situations that seemed quite hopeless. This guy screwed up whole defences like Ronaldo never even encountered. I'm pretty sure about that. BTW... I'm not saying Ronaldo's no good. he's a very good striker and always dangerous. But not in the way Romario was. BTW... he didn't win the 98 semifinal for Brazil. Just thought you should know.
One of the reasons Ballack didn't win was because he didn't win in any of those four games. Also, the world cup holds the most weight. And the voting for Kahn winning the golden ball was *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#. Everyone will remeber that wc as Ronaldo's, not Kahn's. THere is no question ROnaldo wasn't best player in 1996. BTW, my lineup is: (3-5-2) Shmeical Sammer Baresi Maldini Mathaus Keane Zidane Maradona Platini Ronaldo Van Basten
How people can argue that Kahn wasn't the man at the 2002 WC is beyond me. Look at the Brazilian team, they all played well, with Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Rivaldo & Ronaldinho as other distractions to opposing defences. The German team, however did not do as well... Ballack was the only outstanding outfield player that springs to mind. Kahn was THE reason they got to the finals. Look at his performances vs. Ireland and America... they were absolute top drawer
So why doen´t they just call it then"best offensive player in the world cup"-award?? It´s called "player of the year" and Ronaldo hardly played in that year, so how can he win?? Ronaldo made some good games with Inter at the end of the season (without achieving anything), but realy svcked in the beginning at Real. And what makes you so sure that Ronaldo was the best in 1996? The fact that he played in worlds best league? in Holland...... Or the fact that he played in no big tournament that year?? Sammer was the best player of the eropean championship an the bundeliga, so he definitly deserved the award, but the FIFA obviously though:"Hey, the best player(Sammer) already won the UEFA-award, so we can do Nike a favour in giving the FIFA-award to Ronaldo" He was awesome in 1997, but thats it.
You win your country the WORLD CUP the ULTIMATE TROPHY a player can ever recieve..and you tend to win the award....
Before Ronaldo came along Romario was my favorite player for a long, long time. Romario has always been rated for his clinicality and ability inside the box..and for also being 'against the odds' a short player who woud score headed goals or out think the opposition. Romario had to use alot more guile than Ronaldo because of the difference in their builds, strength and running speed. So of course it's going to look more imprssive when Romario cunningly outsmarts a defence before using his superb short burst speed over 10yards or so and his phenomenal precision finishing, then Ronaldo and his freak of nature speed and power. That thing about defences they came up against is nonsense. Romario didn't score against the best defence he ever faced in his life did he? (Italy '94) And Romario never went to Italy and made the league look like his plaything right? Ronaldo gets knocked because he's a freak of nature and not comarable to anything that's gone before him so often his goals and efforts look so simple because of his ridiculous natural ability..people overlook the things he does as 'just what Ronaldo does' lol his gift and curse I guess. The only thing I would have wished for was that the Ro-Ro partnership could have played together for a good half a decade...It would have been the best partnership the world had ever seen
Brazil won because they were a better TEAM than Germany... take Ronaldo out of Brazil and they'd still be very good (but not great), take Kahn out of the German setup and they'd only be above average