Ballon d'Or 2009 (6 Barça players + 24)

[adedawson]

1 Lionel Messi (Argentina, Barcelona), 473 points

2 Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Real Madrid), 233

3 Xavi (Spain, Barcelona), 170

4 Andres Iniesta (Spain, Barcelona), 149

5 Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon, Internazionale), 75

6 Kaká (Brazil, Real Madrid), 58

7 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden, Barcelona), 50

8 Wayne Rooney (England, Manchester United), 35

9 Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, Chelsea), 33

10 Steven Gerrard (England, Liverpool), 32

11 Fernando Torres (Spain, Liverpool), 22

12 Cesc Fábregas (Spain, Arsenal), 13

13 Edin Dzeko (Bosnia, Wolfsburg), 12

14 Ryan Giggs (Wales, Manchester United), 11

15 Thierry Henry (France, Barcelona), 9

16= Luis Fabiano (Brazil, Sevilla) 8

16= Nemanja Vidic (Serbia, Manchester United), 8

16= Iker Casillas (Spain, Real Madrid), 8

19 Diego Forlan (Uruguay, Atlético Madrid), 7

20 Yoann Gourcuff (France, Bordeaux), 6

21= Andrey Arshavin (Russia, Arsenal), 5

21= Júlio César (Brazil, Inter), 5

21= Frank Lampard (England, Chelsea), 5

24 Maicon (Brazil, Inter), 4

25 Diego (Brazil, Juventus), 3

26= David Villa (Spain, Valencia), 2

26= John Terry (England, Chelsea), 2

28 Franck Ribéry (France, Bayern Munich), 1

28= Yaya Touré (Ivory Coast, Barcelona), 1

30 Karim Benzema (France, Real Madrid), 0

10-11 out of 30 from the English leagues...

 

[Arnau]

baffling... English teams dominate Europe for a number of years now...

but only Liverpool and united become champions.

 

[Jaboldinho]

10/30 isn't too bad for the English, when there's players from 5 different leagues. It's more than their share.

 

[pede54]

And they say cheats never prosper. In these awards two of the worst cheats come first and second. What a load of bollocks. Oh wait.....the French are behind the Ballon D'or are they not? Well that explains everything.

Hey kids do you want to win this award one day? All you need to do is dive a lot, or punch the ball into the net and the award is yours. What a message this sends out to the players of the future.

It doesn't matter to me how skillful a player might be. If he is a cheat then he is NOT the complete player. You need to be a true sportsman for that. Something that Messi and Ronaldo fail to comprehend. Shame really.

 

[Arnau]

you are clueless, messi isn't a diver, use to recive some violent tackles and rises up fast.

 

[pede54]

you are clueless, messi isn't a diver, use to recive some violent tackles and rises up fast.

I never said Messi was a diver did I? I notice that you didn't say anything about punching the ball into the net though. HA GOTCHA

 

[Arnau]

diver, cheater, whatever. Messi isn't, i saw all of his matches sinze his debut and he is not a cheater or a diver. Dani alves is, sergio busquets as well, but messi? no! .

he has scored a goal with a hand, ok, but dont made him a cheater...

 

[pede54]

Are you blind Arnau? You know what I'm talking about so why deny that it happened? He is a cheat whether you like to think so or not. You have to be pretty biased and small minded to deny what the whole World witnessed mate.

 

[Arnau]

england won his only world cup with a nonexistent goal and dont made them a cheater country. You can't judge him only for that goal... has played 412412 matches and never cheat.

 

[Dytza]

Are you blind Arnau? You know what I'm talking about so why deny that it happened? He is a cheat whether you like to think so or not. You have to be pretty biased and small minded to deny what the whole World witnessed mate.

No he's right. Messi is the man who never dives, and he rises up fastly after going down. Look at the last Bilbao match. He recieved a very hard hit, with the boot in the face. He didn't say anything, just went out on the pitch, and than entered again. Then he followed a ball that 99/100 players would have called itlost, but he came to it first, though his opponents were 3 meters in front of him, they tackled him, he went down but he rised up faster and continued, than he dribbled the keeper when he could have easily fall and receive a clear penalty. Messi, Iniesta and Xavi are very fair-play players. As said, Dani Alves is a cheater. If I'd be his opponent I'd punch his mouth for those cheats. Oh and don't tell me you'd recognize that you scored a hand ball in a very important match for your league title. And he was only 19.

Best possible example you could have:

 

[Arnau]

he's talking about the handball goal against Espanyol, rate him cheater for a single action...

 

[Bobby]

And they say cheats never prosper. In these awards two of the worst cheats come first and second. What a load of bollocks. Oh wait.....the French are behind the Ballon D'or are they not? Well that explains everything.

Hey kids do you want to win this award one day? All you need to do is dive a lot, or punch the ball into the net and the award is yours. What a message this sends out to the players of the future.

It doesn't matter to me how skillful a player might be. If he is a cheat then he is NOT the complete player. You need to be a true sportsman for that. Something that Messi and Ronaldo fail to comprehend. Shame really.

It'd get boring if Ljungberg won it every year though.

 

[Dytza]

he's talking about the handball goal against Espanyol, rate him cheater for a single action...

Yes and I approached that one.I said none would recognize he scored that goal in such an important match for the league title. And Messi was only 19. That goal could have made us champions again in the end... Maradona scored that goal and none rates him now as a cheater, but as maybe the best footballer ever...His gesture was a reflex, same as Henry's... I can't rate him as a cheater because of that, even if he'd be a Madrid player...

 

[Mandieta6]

No one calls Maradona a cheater? Right. You sure know your football.

 

[Filipower]

So you also have a problem with Drogba being on the list then, Pete?

 

[Dytza]

No one calls Maradona a cheater? Right. You sure know your football.

Can you give me 5 examples of Maradona being a cheater? I never saw Maradona playing but I didn't hear something about him being a cheater.If he was his gestures would get popular as that hand-goal...

 

[Mandieta6]

I don't need anything other than his Hand of God. It was delibarete, it was cheating, and it kocked England out of the WC if I'm not mistaken. Maradona was a cheater (he also did drugs and attacked people on the field, marvelous guy), Henry is a cheater, Messi is a cheater. Drogba too. You cheat, you're a cheater. You can discuss the gravity or importance of the offense, but they're cheaters.

 

[Arnau]

Maradona is an undesirable human being with an un-human talent to play football. is 50 and everytime he open the mouth reminds my adolescense.

 

[Filipower]

You have a point, I'm all for that, but still, everytime there's a discussion like this I can't help but wonder if the people who jump so swiftly to crucify players who merely handle the ball ever played football themselves...

 

[Dytza]

I don't need anything other than his Hand of God. It was delibarete, it was cheating, and it kocked England out of the WC if I'm not mistaken. Maradona was a cheater (he also did drugs and attacked people on the field, marvelous guy), Henry is a cheater, Messi is a cheater. Drogba too. You cheat, you're a cheater. You can discuss the gravity or importance of the offense, but they're cheaters.

Messi, Henry, and Maradona gestures ar far from what Drogba, Dani Alves or Ronaldo do on the pitch.

First ones are reflexes made for the team and saved great matches, the other ones are dives and stuff made to make the opponent angry and get yellow or red cards. They are completly diferrent things.

You have a point, I'm all for that, but still, everytime there's a discussion like this I can't help but wonder if the people who jump so swiftly to crucify players who merely handle the ball ever played football themselves...

exactly. Mandieta6 said he played. But again those reflexes aren't something everybody can do. That's why Maradona was considered such a genius on the pitch.