The best football player was selected as a result of a poll conducted by FIFA among the coaches, captains of national teams and journalists from around the world. Before Messi the "Golden Ball" was given three times to Dutch football players Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten, as well as to the current head of UEFA Michel Platini. Many specialists and experts were convinced that the Argentine forward would be nominated as a winner once again. Messi had an outstanding season and continues to score for "Barca" in almost every match. The Argentinean has no weaknesses, his technique, the vision of the field, scoring flair and speed are outstanding. Not to forget that he is only 24 years old! The superiority of Messi was obvious even to his rivals. Messi's Argentine teammate Xavi Hernandezdeclared that Messi deserved the title of best football player of the world even before the announcement of the winner.
And yet there is a circumstance which casts doubt on the evidence of three consecutive decisions to award Messi the title of best football player of the year. At the moment the Argentine cannot be proud of a major national victory, taking into consideration the significance of his team. The Argentinean team came with good players to the World Cup in South Africa and was considered one of the potential winners. However, the poor game by the team at the world championship was a major disappointment of the tournament. Messi did not score in South Africa at all. The 2010 awards ceremony ended with a scandal. The newspaper "Sport Express" has reminded its readers that the organizers were accused of compromising the voting by uniting two awards – an award granted by journalists and the FIFA prize, whose winner is usually determined with the help of a poll among the captains and head coaches of all the existing football teams. The press elected Snyder as the best football player, however he was not among the top three winners in the award nomination.
Even Xavi, who scored no fewer goals for "Barcelona" than Messi did for Argentina this year, became the European and world champion as a member of the national Spanish team.
One of the few football experts, Andrey Talalaev, sided with Xavi. "Most people are not experts and they do not look at the way people play without the ball. The most striking actions are the actions performed with the ball. And no one can beat Messi in this domain. His victory is quite natural. If we consider all the factors independently, Xavi should have won the award. The brilliance of Messi depends on how well the game is controlled in the midfield by Xavi and Iniesta," Talalaev said in an interview to the Eurosport website. Xavi would have had the chance to be elected as the best player if the prize was to be awarded only by football professionals. But the title of the best player is now a part of the football business, and from this perspective the spectacular, bright and successful forward Messi looks better than the clever and subtle midfielder Xavi. However, Messi is indeed an outstanding football player and earned all his awards, but he still has something to prove and strive for in football.
Author: Gia Saralidze, exclusively for VK
