Lionel Messi Pips Barcelona ‘Friends’ To Ballon d’Or
By Chris Wright
After netting 60 goals for club and country during 2010, Barcelona’s littlest ball of awesome Lionel Messi has been bestowed with the inaugural FIFA Ballon d’Or award (this is the first time that FIFA’s Player of the Year award has been merged with France Football‘s golden trinket, both of which Messi won last year), pipping teammates Xavi (you get the feeling this was probably his last chance to have his artisan talents formally recognised by FIFA during his playing days) and Andres Iniesta into second and third place respectively.
So said the ever-modest Messi:
“I’m surprised to win but pleased to be here with my friends, to win it makes it even more special. I want to share it with all of my friends, my family, all the Barcelonistas and the Argentinians.”
Apparently, neither Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was voting as Sweden captain, nor Inter’s Samuel Eto’o, voting as Cameroon’s skipper, plumped for their former Barca cohort, with Real Madrid pair Iker Casillas and Cristiano Ronaldo also choosing to snub the diminutive Argentinian.
Make of that what thou wilt.
Real coach Jose Mourinho took home the Coach of the Year gong for his work in the field of ‘siege mentality’ with Inter last season, whilst the Ferenc Puskas Goal of the Year award was handed to Hamit Altintop for this absolute stonker against Kazakhstan…
…BOOF! A worthy winner I’m sure you’ll agree? Though I can’t help but feel Glentoran’s Matty Burrows should be slightly miffed that his ‘flying backheel’ effort missed out on the night.
Do Arsenal Artificially Enhance The Emirates Atmosphere? – OTP
Big Cup Bullshit – The FCF
Guess UEFA Cup Finalists From Their Shirt – Three Match Ban
20 Damning Steve Kean Quotes – Mirror Football
'Abandon All Hope…' – Sunshine Room
Leaked Blackburn Letter Shows Extent Of Turmoil – EPL Talk
Genius Who Couldn't Exist Today: Dragan Stojkovic – LBITCR
German Philosopher Reflects On Jose Mourinho – Futfanatico
Rule Changes That Could Hand Title To Man Utd – FourFourTwo
Welcome To Posh – Danny Last for IBWM
how do us aul normal people find out who the coaches and captains voted for?
Matty Burrows’ was 10x better!
@Tony: FIFA have released the following PDF with all the details of the vote…
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/classic/awards/01/36/25/40/ballondor_award_men_player_finalx.pdf
I’ve been getting sick on hearing all these bull $hit coming from the Spanish media and their fans about MESSI winning this award. Clearly he deserves this more than anyone simply because he was outstanding all year. I don’t think its right to just pick someone on the virtue because he had a good one month in South Africa.
Well in case if you haven’t the TRUTH, well I got one interesting one. Spain bribed itself all the way to World Cup glory thanks to the Russian’s mafia. How come? Well just read the following article.
http://johnny-ong.blogspot.com/2010/05/is-world-cup-2010-fixed.html
You will notice that the article was written about a month before the ball was even kicked in South Africa (18th of May to be exact).
And in return, Russia get’s the job of hosting the 2018 World Cup.
So Spain won the 2010 WC, Russia get’s the 2018 WC hosting right. What do you think?
Mere coincidence? The writer killed 2 birds with 1 stone theory? YEAH RIGHT!!!
Now I hope the whole world knows that it was FIXED in South Africa in favour of the jealous Espana. So don’t complain about Lionel winning this ward when you DESERVE NOTHING IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
IT WAS ALL FIXED!!!
FIXED!!! FIXED!!! FIXED!!!
FIXED!!! FIXED!!! FIXED!!!
FIXED!!! FIXED!!! FIXED!!!
FIXED!!! FIXED!!! FIXED!!!
FIXED!!! FIXED!!! FIXED!!!
FIXED!!! FIXED!!! FIXED!!!
FIXED!!! FIXED!!! FIXED!!!
For once, it’s nice to see an Argentine putting FIFA and all their puppets in their place.
VAMOS VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!
Can anyone see Ireland in the list of countries that voted because I can’t!
HAMİT!!! <3
Messi deserved it 100%. He is the best.
Btw, it seems pies loves to add any controversy anywhere they can…adding ‘friends’ to the title.
I think besides the friendship between Iniesta, Xavi and Messi you should be more concerned at why the english national team sucks and why the best player from the premiership are not English, nor breed in any of the youth systems there.
Fabregas, Nasri, Nani, Torres, Drogba, Essien, Tevez, Yaya (well, half of man city), etc etc etc.
Also, NOT ONE player from the premiership…NOT ONE! was at the ceremony last night to pick up any awards. The funny thing is that premier league lovers still think that they have the best league in the world.
Cheers!
Hi,
Can I ask where you obtain the photo’s for this website.
A response would be much appreciated
Best regards,
Mark
@Mark: Seeing as though you asked so nicely, Pies has an account with the Press Association.