I think that Thomas Muller should win because he scored some very crucial goals like his goal vs Juventus, his 3 vs Barca, and his goal vs Arsenal. If he doesn't win then I think Ronaldo deserves it because he was the champions league top scorer and carried Madrid to the semi finals.
(coming from a Barca fan I know this only sounds like a biased support for one's own favourite) I'd say Messi. Barca was far from being the best team in Europe last season, obviously, but I think Messi was the best player still. Cristiano is another good option, and would be my second pick. As for Bayern, I think they suffer in all kinds of "best player" votings for a luxury reason I'd be happy to have as "curse" for my team: they have quality sort of evenly distributed all around their team, and when their team does well, the votes ought to be split among their best players - whereas in the case of teams like Madrid, it's Cristiano all the way, and with Barca, it's Messi (though Iniesta has obviously been a notable vote-getter lately). This is also reflected in that Barca and Madrid have one candidate each, whereas Bayern has 4. That said, when the award is announced, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Bayern player win it (and I wouldn't have much against it either).
I'd say Schweinsteiger. While Messi and Ronaldo were indeed superb, and the prominent figures carrying their teams to victory and to the point which they advanced, neither, in particular Messi, really made an impact against the German semifinalists. Schweinsteiger dominated matches against some of the finest midfields in Europe, from Juventus' ruthlessly functional trio of Marchisio, Vidal, and Pirlo to Barcelona's pass-masters consisting of Busquets, Xavi, and Iniesta. When Schweinsteiger was out in the Arsenal second leg, Bayern lacked direction, leadership, and creativity, demonstrating just how critical he was to Bayern's CL campaign. His rather muted performance in the final is his one significant blemish, but I believe this can be overlooked when one looks at his whole body of work in Europe.
I think this top ten list is pretty accurate, much better than the Goal.com 50 which is very dubious.
Really think Schweinsteiger. I understand the votes for Messi and Ronaldo, but Bastian was simply the best player this season and I don't get why people aren't talking about him like they used to (or still do) talk about Xavi. Different type of player, but he's every bit as good as Xavi was right now.
How the hell does messi deserve it?!? he didn't win the competition, nor was he top scorer, sat on the bench 2nd leg vs Bayern to do damage control to his rep/ego.
That's your opinion, not a fact, and many would disagree. Not saying he isn't quality and up there, but your comment is imo taking it a bit far.
Schweinsteiger wins best player in Europe Messi wins best player in the World Since they play in completely different parts of the world.
Last three shortlisted are Ronaldo, Messi and Ribery. Personally, my first choice would be Ribery. He basically led Bayern Munich to the finals and then to the cup. He had an amazing season, and I am sure that without him, Bayern wouldn't have been able to win the CL. While Bayern had a lot of talent, and a lot of players were instrumental in the victory, including Muller, Schweinsteiger, Robben, Gotze and Manuel Neuer, Ribery stood out as the most prominent. If, by some chance, Ribery is not chosen, then Ronaldo for sure. He was CL top scorer and had an overall good season, but it was him teams's fault that they were not able to win La Liga. Xabi Alonso is getting old now and age made him have an average season, Di Maria, for his standards, had an okay season and many other players did not play to their full potential. However, if people are more leaning towards achievements than individual skill, then Ronaldo doesn't has much to account for, besides carrying Madrid to the semis and being top scorer, which is a big acheivement in its own right, but compared to Ribery isn't good enough. Messi? Just no. He may have had a very good season in 2012, 2011, he didn't deserve the 2010 and 2009 Baloon D'or. Again....? It'd be kind of dumb and biased is Messi won it this time.
The funny thing is, I rooted for Ribery and said that Ronaldo does not have enough achievements this year to be considered a clear winner. Ribery has the best chance, if the voting is fair and just. Lol, are you gonna repeat this dumb statement throughout the whole forum with no reasoning to back it up? It was a mistake....I meant Gomez, I was writing this on my mobile.... What's wrong with my paragraph? Ribery should be the one to win it, and I don't see why not. He's had the best performance. If you have a problem, then argue against it with clear logic. lol
I think you think Ribery was the better is a fact, whereas it is just your opinion. What we have in three final candidates is three players who all have different arguments for being the best. Ribery was the best player (though that too is debatable) of the best team, Cristiano was the top scorer in the top competition, Messi was the top scorer CL and domestic leagues included. Then, add to that the eternal debate about teams performances regarding individual trophies, and it's all complicated and up-to-opinion, especially if you consider the players have different circumstances to work with. My personal opinion is that Messi was the best single player, but I do get that since I'm a Barca fan, I can only sound so unbiased. Cristiano's problem is that he won nothing with the team, and was outscored by Messi, playing in the same competitions the whole season. Bayern was obviously the best team, but I think their strength was the collective: they won because they had lots of great players. But I'm just not sure if any of them was the best individual in the world. Ribery, last season, played 43 matches and scored 11 goals. Messi played 50 matches scoring 60 goals. Both won domestic league with no serious problems, Bayern won CL while Barca lost the semi. Can't obviously compare goals at face value, but it doesn't take a Barca fan to say Messi has a very legitimate shot at the trophy. That said, I think Ribery will win it (as the voting system in the final he doesn't have to compete against other Bayern players for the "Bayern team votes") and I'm cool with it, the only name I'd be surprised to see winning it is Cristiano.
You wrote "Ribery should be the one to win it, ... He's had the best performance." I mean yeah you also say he'd be your personal pick, and that's fair game, but it's just not a fact he had the best performance.
That's reasoning for my personal pick. What else evidence do you need that I was just voicing my opinion and giving logic behind it so it's not a groundless statement...? I wrote personally before it, so the correct implication would be 'IMO Ribery had the best performance' not stating it as a fact. I'm not gonna write that before every sentence now, am I? Obviously, if I stated that it's my personal pick than gave my reasons, they're also my personal opinions and arguments. Is this like 'Hate on Me' day or something, because you're nitpicking something I said and trying to put it into a different context. What point are you trying to make?
Frank Ribery just won it. That gives conclusive proof to my personal pick and my opinions, which are now: 'fact.'
When you say "X should win because he was the best", you state that X being best is a fact. The point I'm trying to make? That the award is about opinions, not facts. (Here's a free tip that I risk to give, you being new here: a lot of times people will disagree with what you say, regardless of whether you make sense or not. The advice: take it easy, nobody's "hating" here.
Um, no. I mean that's the whole point: some journalists voting doesn't make it a "fact" no more than it was a fact that, say, Messi was the best player in the world in 2010. They are people, they have a poll, someone wins it. Also: when you give opinion on a result, the fact that you picked the winner in your opinion hardly makes your opinion a "fact" lol.
Ribery won.. why!? because his team won the Champions league... Not always the best player is on the team which won the top tournament, just saying. And on another note... Messi will in best player in the World, since Europe is not included in the World.
This has more to do with voting taking place at different time, regarding different period of football, and by very different style of voting - rather than the illogicality of Europe not being in the World.
The period is the same, the voting is done at a different time. The style of voting sure that's different also since you have all of the world voting. But unlike Iniesta that edged out Messi as best in Europe and wasn't even close to Messi on the Ballon, Ribery won this by a landslide. C.Ronaldo only got 3 votes and Messi 13 to Ribery's 36
The period isn't the same. UEFA award is for the season, Ballon d'Or for the calendar year. Ribery getting landslide in UEFA was (partially; not trying to discredit him here) down to him not having to fight it out against his Bayern teammates in the final round. In UEFA, they vote the final three from a clean table. In Ballon d'Or, they also have the final three, but the original voting from the group of 23 decides the winner.
I just think it's great that Fifa Ballon has been 1 Messi 2 C. Ronaldo while UEFA has been 1. winner 2. Messi 3. C. Ronaldo