FIFA World Player of the year contenders
There are a good five months left till FIFA PLAYER OF THE YEAR is awarded to the player who has performed exceptionally well throughout the season. There are some quality players in the running and it would be hard to pick one of them over the rest, but here’s a list of the prime candidates for the award.
Messi was the undisputed winner of the player of the year award in 2009. But this time around things would be significantly different for him. He scored forty seven goals in fifty three games for Barcelona and was the top scorer in the La Liga and the Champions League.
Based on these numbers Messi shouldn’t face a problem in retaining his title, however, there are other players who have won more trophies then Messi did with Barcelona and the fact that he failed to score a single goal in the World Cup, would be a major drawback. He is guaranteed to make the top three but whether he wins the title or not is something that no one can say for certain.
When Real Madrid sold Sneijder to Inter, most Madrid fans were left crying and feeling confused. Those fans would have cried even harder after the completion of the last season of club football. Sneijder may have only scored eight goals last season, but he was the architect to every attack Inter Milan had launched throughout the season. The fact that he scored five goals in the World Cup will just add to his wonderful season of winning the Treble with Inter Milan. If Netherlands had won the World Cup he would have been the strongest contender to landing the World Player of the year award, but he still has a pretty good chance of winning it.
Xavi finished third in the 2009 World Player of the year rankings and when asked how he felt, he said Messi deserved to win. This clearly proves the point that Xavi is a team player and doesn’t care much for individual awards. He scored only seven goals last season but was brilliant throughout with his defense splitting passes and control of the game. He was the constructive genius behind most of the goals that Messi scored. He won the World Cup with Spain and was a very important piece of the Spanish team, had Barcelona won the Champions league he would have most probably been going home with the World Player of the year award, but he may have to settle for a top three finish again.
Diego Forlan has easily had his best season ever. He scored thirty goals in fifty five matches with Athletico Madrid and almost single handedly helped Athletico win the Europa league. He managed to carry his national team on his back and guided them to an unexpected fourth spot finish. He scored five goals and took home the Golden Ball. This just proved how great his impact was. However he isn’t very likely to win the Player of the year award based on just that and we’ll have to wait and see who actually ends up winning.
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