The mind-boggling omission of Ashley Cole from Ballon d'Or nominees
The Ballon d’Or nominees were announced a day ago and there has been at least one glaring omission from the list of 23 players.
The FIFA Ballon d’Or, as the award is now known, has just come into existence after the French Football Federation along with L’Equipe decided to merge the Ballon d’Or with the FIFA World player of the year award to give birth to this new accolade.
Ballon d’Or had been in existence since 1956 and initially, it was only awarded to European players but rules were changed in 1995 and since then, any player playing in any European League was eligible for this award.
But, this year’s development means that now any player playing in any league of the world is eligible for the award.
When the list of nominees was announced on Monday it was obviously dominated by Spanish players after their team’s heroics at the World Cup but what was shocking about the list was the fact that it did not even have a single English player on it.
Ashley Cole has been in mesmeric form over the past year or so and it by no means is justified that he should not be on the list.
Cole isn't an average man’s cup of tea. He is always on the receiving end of some foul mouthed abuse wherever he plays and the abuse gets even worse when he pulls on the colours of England, yet his performances on the pitch remain top notch.
Ashley may be a hate figure for many but that doesn’t change the fact that he is a class act on the football pitch. And how can he not be in contention for the award is beyond any sensible comprehension.
Cole has been at his defensive best for a couple of years now and under the canny vigilance of Carlo Ancelotti, he has flourished to beyond greatness. Rarely does the England left back get caught out; he maintains his natural instincts of going forward.
His crosses are pin point, finishing is as good as it gets and he supplements his team's attacking forays with invention and intent.
His tackling and positional sense have come leaps and bounds ahead and he surely was one of the few success stories for his country at a disastrous World Cup campaign. He has also played a pivotal role in maintaining the unbeaten run for England in the Euro
2012 qualifiers.
And yet the dynamic Cole misses out on that glorious list.
It is not that as if there is Bixente Lizarazu or Roberto Carlos who are ahead of him in the pecking order, it’s the Brazilian duo of Maicon and Dani Alves along with Philip Lahm of Germany.
Maicon may be great in an attacking role but he is not at his best when it comes to defending and same can be said about Dani Alves.
As far as Lahm is concerned, he is undoubtedly a footballer with great intelligence but if you go and ask Ancelotti – who with all his legacy, stature and pedigree will surely know a thing or two about defending, being an Italian – whether he will swap Ashley
Cole with any of the Ballon d’Or nominees, the answer will as sure as h**l be in a negative.
Cole is a complete footballer. He has speed, skill, trickery and above all, intelligence. He has played a massive role in Chelsea’s rise to the top of English football.
It simply cannot be believed that there are three full backs in the world that are better than Cole.
Maybe the committee that decided the nominees is a big fan of X-Factor and has a soft spot for Cheryl Cole but other than that there seems to be no reason why Cole would be omitted from that list.
Shortlists for the 2010 Ballon d'Or: Xabi Alonso (Spain), Daniel Alves (Brazil), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Côte d'Ivoire), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Diego Forlán (Uruguay), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana),
Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Júlio César (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Maicon (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Müller (Germany), Mesut Özil (Germany), Carles Puyol (Spain), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Bastian Schweinsteiger
(Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), David Villa (Spain) and Xavi (Spain).
Tags: