FIFA Announces 10-Man Golden Ball Shortlist – Wayne Rooney Doesn’t Make It
By Ollie Irish
The ten-man shortlist for the Golden Boot looks like this (in alphabetical order):
Nope, no Rooney in there. No sign of any of England’s Golden Generation, in fact. How did this happen?
Anyway, it’s a solid if predictable list. Messi? Hmm, not sure he did enough to get on there, certainly not ahead of more prosaic choices such as Carles Puyol and Dirk Kuyt. And Gyan smacks of a political choice.
* * * * *
And the very short shortlist for the Young Player of the World Cup award is: Thomas Müller (Germany), Gio dos Santos (Mexico), Andrew Ayew (Ghana). Müller FTW, no contest. Indeed, the young German deserves to be on the main shortlist too.
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wheres fabiano?
Messi?! didnt really do anything of note the whole bloody tournament! and wheres emile heskey?…
Xavi deserves this.
Klose?
Muller?
Puyol?
should be in the golden ball award shortlist.
Messi, for me at least, was undoubtedly the player of the group phase. So he has some credit I suppose. Gyan, to be fair, was Africa’s best player, but being on this short list is probably a bridge too far.
Having said that, the thing is, there’ve been a truck load of player who were “pretty good” but not a single player has been such a dominant figure like Platini in 82, Maradona in 86, Matthaus in 90, Hagi in 94 etc etc
The only player IMO who comes closest to that is Schweinsteiger. Has been consistently effective throughout the tournament. His role as DM rather than winger has made him somewhat of an obscure presence for a lot of people.
Messi was the most outstanding player of the group stage despite not scoring. He made more passes than anyone in the Argentine team and had more shots on goal than any of them too. In fact, the only person to have more shots on goal than Messi in the entire tournament so far is Asamoah Gyan who is the leader in that category and that kind of performance is why both of them are on that list.
list seems spot on, deffinitly a very tigth choice. i think sneijder should get he’s been a dominating attacking mid. him and kuyt are a strong force. also puyol has been in great form since the round of 16. the final is gonna have a huge impact. and im not surprised to see rooney on here at all. he didnt do anything this world cup except run, lose the ball and pout about the fans. it’s a pitty there’s no golden wank award for him
Sneijder will undoubtedly get it if Holland wins the WC. He might even get it if they don’t depends how Iniesta and Xavi play in the Final. Having said that, Sneijder’s had a fairly impressive WC but he can do so much better. Thus me saying no player’s been phenomenal this WC.