Although football’s primary governing body has made an effort to recognize several gifted athletes in the world of the beautiful game, bettor.com analyzes the odds that these nominees actually have of taking home the golden ball.
Every year FIFA awards the FIFA Ballon d’Or to the one, most influential footballer of the season/year. The individual accolade is something that separates a good player from a great player because only the greatest among athletes have been able to lift
it over the years.
Also known as the Golden Ball, the award was formerly known as just the Ballon d’Or. Back then, only European players or players playing European leagues used to be saluted for their contributions towards the sport. However, ever since FIFA took over the
show at Ballon d’Or, the award now recognizes players from all leagues from around the world.
This year the story is the same as the people at FIFA are busy in determining the players who deserve to be recognized as the most inspirational footballers over the past year.
However, the question is not about who has been nominated to win the Golden Ball. The question is whether all of these players deserved to be here and what are their chances at actually winning it.
The last three years have seen Barcelona’s http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 take home the award consecutively. The Argentine wizard has proved himself of the worthy of the accolade on all the three occasions and he has received approval from all around the footballing world.
It is astonishing to see that the attacker’s performance on the pitch keeps improving as time passes. At least on an individual level, the footballer has shown that he is among the very best that the beautiful game has to offer.
His main competitor is http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cristiano-Ronaldo-c9629, the Real Madrid star player who has managed to prove his mettle in two of the most competitive leagues in the world.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ronaldo-c31734 and Messi have been compared in almost every aspect of the game and the two men are the best players around at the moment.
Their talent, skill, finishing and desire to win is something which sets them miles apart from their other competitors.
Ronaldo has won the Ballon d’Or once before and the Portuguese international is hungry for another opportunity to lift it.
It would not be wrong to conclude that the two are significantly responsible for the success achieved by their respective teams over the past few seasons. Messi scored a whopping 73 goals during last season’s campaign, whereas Ronaldo scored 60.
Moreover, the Barca number 10 was influential in leading the Catalan giants to their success in the Copa del Rey. Although he could not help his side win the Spanish La Liga or the UEFA Champions League, his individual performance was simply outstanding.
On the other hand, the Madrid number 7 was massively instrumental in helping Los Blancos secure their 32nd La Liga title. The Whites lifted the silverware after scoring the highest number of goals and securing the highest number of points in the history
of the competition.
In addition to this, the ambidextrous attacker was also phenomenal with his national side in this summer’s Euro 2012. The former Red Devil led http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032.
To be continued...
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