FIFA Ballon d’Or: Why Lionel Messi Is In Top Three?
FIFA and French Football magazine announced the names of three players shortlisted for this year’s FIFA Ballon d’Or award. This would be the first time that the two awards, i.e. FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d’Or, have
been combined into a single title. Last year, Lionel Messi won both the honours after a great treble winning season with Barcelona.
This year, Lionel Messi has been nominated once again, along with two of his Barcelona teammates, Xavi and Andres Iniesta. In winning this nomination, some of the big players have been neglected despite having a fair chance to
win the title. Wesley Sneijder achieved the same honours with his club as did Messi in the previous season. Also, he did exceptionally well with Netherlands in the World Cup, as he led his team to the final in South Africa where he was the joint top-scorer
as well.
Diego Forlan has been neglected as well, despite winning two titles, including Copa Del Ray and UEFA Europa League, and the honour of Golden Ball in the World Cup. Despite having these two players in the previous shortlist, Lionel
Messi has still managed to get into the final cut. Lionel Messi did not have an exceptional season, in terms of honours, as he won a Spanish La Liga title only. Also, Messi did not have a great performance in the World Cup as Argentina went out at the Quarter
Final stage.
Apparently it seems that Lionel Messi should win the award because of his great performance last season. If we look at the individual players from this year, no one was as brilliant as Messi, who was exceptionally consistent as
well. If Messi’s performance from 2009 won him the awards last time, this year’s performances should be more than enough for the youngster to retain the award. He scored more goals and was more instrumental in Barcelona’s success in the season.
In 2008-2009 season, Lionel Messi scored 38 goals in 51 appearances for Barcelona. Among these goals, 23 goals were scored in the league. In Europe, Messi scored 9 goals including one in the final of the tournament. Last season,
Lionel Messi surpassed all his previous performance with an incredible 47 goals in 53 matches. Messi scored 34 goals in 35 league matches and came up with another eight goals in Champions League. In both these tournaments, Messi was the top scorer and the
best player in the competitions.
Even the start of this season has been great for the Argentinean maestro. Already, Messi has come up with 25 goals in 21 matches, which is again an incredible achievement. Therefore, in the current year, Lionel Messi has scored
more than 70 goals in almost the same number of matches. If we look around the globe, no other player has achieved this kind of success in a year. Therefore, Lionel Messi is there in the top three contestants for the award as not including him woulld have
been the biggest injustice in footballing history.
Many would believe that Lionel Messi would not be able to win the title this year considering he didn't score in the FIFA World Cup. This also reinforces the claim that Messi is only successful when he is getting help from the
superstars of Barcelona. However, this claim is not true, because Lionel Messi has played much better than the rest of his teammates, coming up with goals on his own. One remarkable performance of Lionel Messi would be the one against Arsenal at Camp Nou,
in which he scored four goals. This speaks a lot about the talents of the Barcelona forward, who has helped his team on a number of occasions.
Lionel Messi might not win it but no one should be surprised if he gets the crown in the end. This award would be a great way to end a remarkable season, one which is unprecedented in modern football history.
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