Marcelo making the 2019 FIFPro team has to be a contender, right? Another one (Internet vote though) would be Salah winning the Puskas Award last year What do you think? PS: in my examples there were at least ten more suitable choices for the award/XI spot, so please no Messi/CR nonsense
I might come back to this after doing some research because there are a tone of these I don't understand or that seem wrong.
Keegan winning the Ballon d'Or in 1978 (not 1979). Better player as is sometimes made out, but his teams and himself were far removed from achieving anything in 1978. This was a World Cup year. Sammer winning the Ballon d'Or in 1996. Just too many really big errors, conceded more goals than games played, ignored by ESM (10th most voted center back) ... arguably surpassed though by Cantona receiving the Onze d'Or in 1996. Gareth Bale winning the 2011 PFA player of the year with his 11 goals and 4 assists in 39 league + CL games.
Those might be the worst BDs, but where do you think they would rank in that year? I haven't looked closer into it. Outside of the Top 10-20? Looks likely for a player that didn't even make the WC, in a WC year.
Keegan definitely outside the top 10 yes, although he was on his way to competitive team finishes for the 1978-79 season (but: only 3 goals in all competitions for 1978-79 until the voting took place). He finished 10th in the league, early elimination in the cup, did little for the national side (unlike 1979 where he was very strong). Center backs are always hard to place (might be the other countries values them more than us over here) but I wouldn't have Sammer in the top 5 definitely. Look also at how many yellow cards he had (15+ yellow cards), and his red card vs Ajax when he was eliminated with his club (against an Ajax missing a handful starters, for perspective). He might be top 10 (like Varane '18) but not top 5 with him passing straight in the feet of the Italians (under no pressure) and conceding a penalty in the final with a rash tackle from behind. He had 5 assists and 5 goals that calendar year for club and country, but none of those came really against a noteworthy team (maybe Croatia; in the first half of 1995-96 he had an assist against Bayern, two assists and a goal vs Stuttgart). In each season between 1994 and 1997 (as sweeper) the team had about as good results without him than with him (36 missed league matches). 55% win percentage vs 57% win percentage without; 18% vs 18% loss. For the Champions League: 58% win percentage and 17% with him, 59% win and 23% loss without (17 missed games). This is not the case for a number of Ballon d'Or winners, with a strong difference. Tough to place center backs but Cannavaro is a much stronger proposition in my eyes (although later his league title was wiped out), with MOTM level displays in the semis and final of the World Cup. N.B. also a strange one is the 1990 SAPotY winner, even with the South Americans playing in Europe not eligible.
Arjen Robben for PFA TotY in 04-05. It should not have mattered how well he played. The man only played 18 league games (only 14 of which were starts). That's less than half the games! He missed the start and tail-end of that season due to injuries. He should not even have been eligible.
Think the issue is here those were voted in February 2005 and he still played 33 games in all competitions in the season. To me a better example is Kaka placed among the top 15 midfielders of the year by FIFA in 2011 (he was a sub for Real Madrid; zero national team games; had been below his best for several years) or Van Basten receiving votes for the World Player of the Year in 1996 (!!).
This needs to be considered with PFA awards and the TotY in general. Pogba looks like a subpar selection in 2018/19, but makes slightly more sense if you know that the voting was done right after United's hot streak.
Correct (I think), and he's still a locked starter for France. The instructions do not say only performances for the club count, or only domestic games. The only limitation is they're a PFA member. It is allowed to factor French NT games in, where he has been better generally though not reaching the Juve heights and plaudits. Those Inter games in the CL helped Bale to win the 2011 award (still way off imho, low WhoScored rating too for a top class winger - 7.38 in a position where high marks are not uncommon because of dribbling etc.). https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2011/apr/08/pfa-player-of-the-year https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thefootballtacticsblog/2011/04/do_you_agree_with_pfa_awards.html + getting to the final and winning the whole thing in 1996-97, with him missing many games (played 5/11 matches, 2/5 KO matches) as well as the Intercontinental Cup in which he didn't play. kicker rated him in the third tier of liberos or not at all for 1996-97. Think he even struggled with his knee injury in the matches he did play, including the final. Top 10 for 1996 looks defensible and in line with other examples from other years, top 5 or number 1 definitely not imho.
True that the flaw with the system played a role. I was just approaching the topic as "if the award was as objective as possible, who would not have been deserving of their award?". Robben was the first name that came to my mind because I remember being absolutely confused as to how he was included.
I see what you mean but generally he played well in the 33 games he played (in august 2005 also two great goals vs germany). He was productive for a winger (over 10 goals and over 10 assists) and he was by facts influential for the results. Including good performance and assist vs your team https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/4778592/Capital-thriller-a-class-apart.html I'm sure there are many XI inclusions of players who didn't play well AND weren't starters. The FIFA and FIFpro has a few instances of those, voting for low performing players with a lack of games, and who were past it for a few years. Kaka in 2011. And 35 years old Cafu was the best right back in the world in 2005 according to FIFpro? Domestic ratings were solid but below his best for him. Was at times played out of position too, with Stam as right back.
Steve Sutton was my favourite Nottingham Forest goalkeeper, and among the best ones after Shilton I guess, but he didn't deserve the 1992/93 Player of the Season award! https://www.nottinghamforest.co.uk/club/history-landing-page/player-of-the-season/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992–93_Nottingham_Forest_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992–93_Derby_County_F.C._season If it is not a mistake/typo on both Wikipedia and the official site (seems unlikely on the latter) then it must have been an ironic vote from fans in the relegation season! I don't remember hearing about it at the time. Probably fans were talking about it among themselves before casting the votes. It'd make some kind of sense (as an ironic vote, not a sensible choice obviously I mean) if he started the season at Forest so was at some stage of the season a Forest player, but it seems suggested he completed a permanent transfer during the previous season (I don't remember exactly but perhaps it was a loan at first).
How was Giggs' 08-09 award viewed? I remember being so hooked to that Barcelona side and Del Piero rolling back the years at Juve, I barely watched the PL that year.
He had a purple patch around the time the award was voted. It was clearly more of a lifetime achievement thing but he was good that season.
Have to agree with writer, Salah goal was not even his best goal in that year and even a liverpool fan would argue it was just a normal goal in EPL, not extraordinary spectacular but then again Mo Salah has transformed when we needed him the most
I'm almost certain that if Ronaldo didn't win in the two year prior, he would have won 08-09 as there would not be winner fatigue. Even Vidic was a better nominee than Giggs. Giggs must have started like half the league games only?
At the time of voting those KO goals against Porto and Arsenal were still to come. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/f...orthy-winner-of-PFA-Player-of-Year-award.html Vidic has some things going for him like that he was the only one of the backline (apart from the goalkeeper) to not miss a string of games during the clean sheets run. Another thing is the win percentage and the difference. Vidic has the highest win percentage of anyone playing 200+ games, and there is also a difference with him not playing. Going against him are the red cards and yellow cards that season, as well as him struggling vs #2 Liverpool (not entirely his fault, but he was sent off there after fouls on Torres). But that's if you want to be critical.
I will not make myself popular with this, and it is not mentioned for the first time but Buffon's high placements for 2017 were also a bit extreme in my view. Buffon in 2017 was the UEFA club goalkeeper of the year, ESM team of the year (he's now 3 monthly selections ahead of VdS, 4 ahead of Casillas, 5 ahead of Neuer), 4th in Ballon d'Or, world's best goalkeeper by FIFA and IFFHS among many other honors. Arguments for why this is overblown: 1) Since 2014, he is in the top five of goalkeepers with the most clear-cut errors (and some more have come since that tweet). 2) There was stability and depth at the back of Juventus in 2016-17 (cf. Man United 2008-09). Barzagli and Benatia as back-ups. 3) He wasn't too glorious for his national team, although Italy was/is not at their best state. Sure, defending is a collective effort but the amount of goals conceded with a defensive playing style was quite high by the team. Number of weak interventions and dives by him. 4) Buffon made 2.7 saves per goal conceded in the league, 3 saves per goal conceded in the CL. While that is indeed very good, there are a few keepers with 3+ for their career. Furthermore, he has missed some games the past decade and it's clear to me his deputies (and the defense) took care of it (but yes, his impact is probably in the top range). 5) Juventus conceded 27 goals while the expected was 24. From open play it was 19 while the expected was 18.2 So while Buffon is for his peak and career likely the #1 goalkeeper of the last 25 years (I did place them there), those awards around 2017 are overblown. He didn't need lifetime recognition either, because he was already decorated and recognized many times. 4th in Ballon d'or was 15 places too high, if not more.