Liverpool's Luis Suarez is among the nominees for this year's Ballon d'Or award, and although the Uruguayan is in scintillating form this year, the chances of him actually winning are slim-to-none. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will once again be big favourites to take home the trophy, but Reds legend Jamie Carragher insists that the the La Liga duo should be ignored in favour of a trio of Bayern Munich players.
In his column for the Daily Mail today, Carra dismisses the possibility of any Premier League player winning the Ballon d'Or, and urges the voting committee to select a winner from the Bundesliga champions. He observes:
"Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery [combined cost: €50m], Munich's wing-wiards, have been exceptional. They are Treble winners and Ribery won UEFA’s Best Player award after Bayern lifted the Champions League. Their 7-0 two-leg annihilation of Barcelona should also stand for something".
Carra's personal vote, however, goes to Bayern captain Philip Lahm:
"He [Lahm] captained the Treble winners, broke through the 100-cap mark for Germany this year and is the best full back in the world. At 29 he is operating at the peak of his powers. There would be no more deserving winner".
The Ballon d'Or has become boring and predictable over the last few years, with Lionel Messi winning four years in a row (!), so it would be refreshing to have a new winner this time, and after Bayern's total domination of Europe last season, Ribery, Robben or Lahm would be worthy winners.
If Suarez had not disgraced himself with the bite on Ivanovic, he'd probably be in with a much bigger chance of the award, though since he's not in the Champions League, the chances of the Uruguayan winning would still (arguably) be pretty slim.
Just out of interest: who is the better player out of Suarez, Robben, and Ribery? If you had to choose one of the three to play for Liverpool, who would you have?
Author: Jaimie K
In his column for the Daily Mail today, Carra dismisses the possibility of any Premier League player winning the Ballon d'Or, and urges the voting committee to select a winner from the Bundesliga champions. He observes:
"Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery [combined cost: €50m], Munich's wing-wiards, have been exceptional. They are Treble winners and Ribery won UEFA’s Best Player award after Bayern lifted the Champions League. Their 7-0 two-leg annihilation of Barcelona should also stand for something".
Carra's personal vote, however, goes to Bayern captain Philip Lahm:
"He [Lahm] captained the Treble winners, broke through the 100-cap mark for Germany this year and is the best full back in the world. At 29 he is operating at the peak of his powers. There would be no more deserving winner".
The Ballon d'Or has become boring and predictable over the last few years, with Lionel Messi winning four years in a row (!), so it would be refreshing to have a new winner this time, and after Bayern's total domination of Europe last season, Ribery, Robben or Lahm would be worthy winners.
If Suarez had not disgraced himself with the bite on Ivanovic, he'd probably be in with a much bigger chance of the award, though since he's not in the Champions League, the chances of the Uruguayan winning would still (arguably) be pretty slim.
Just out of interest: who is the better player out of Suarez, Robben, and Ribery? If you had to choose one of the three to play for Liverpool, who would you have?
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Author: Jaimie K
suarez is better then ribery and sturridge is better then robben
ReplyDeleteliverpool are gonna be better then bayern in a years time
suarez,sturridge,coutinho are the best trio in world football
only lack a bit of depth
and a wilshere type midfielder
There are people who say Suárez is top ten, top five or even top three player in the world right now and based on his form, (when not suspended) so I'm not surprised that the vote is heavily with Suárez.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think Suárez is definitely top five and there's only one player I'd definitely swap him for and that's Messi. Are you disappointed that the vote is so heavily in Suárez' favour, or are you going to blame this on voter's lack of knowledge of Bundesliga?
Too far?
ReplyDeleteribery is the best IMO, no doubt
ReplyDeleteA team that has Ribery plus top class other players around him are always a better team than the one that has Suarez and top class other players around him. Point to be noticed.
ReplyDeletethis is (again) nonsense ...
ReplyDeleteYou are asking Liverpool fans to choose between a liverpool player and two others. I expect the result would be close if it was messi and ronaldo. Love is blind.
ReplyDeletePS .The ads on this page are getting really annoying and inrtrusive now
I don't care if anyone agrees with me or not, but Luis Suarez is one helluva player that are on a very scarce supply. Even though he's a character still he has something that I don't see any other player have, he has the mentality to do things as much good as he can. If you put half the players that Bayern around Suarez, I assure you he'll look no less than Messi.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to look past Messi for the award, but maybe Ibra, Ribery could get, possibly Lahm - Robben I don't think has had an over all impact as big as the others. Suarez, not this year, maybe next, but has had great contributions for club and country in more challenging circumstances. If he keeps up form, takes Uruguay to the world cup, and puts on a good performance, he's got a shot. Money is on Ribery.
ReplyDeleteAt present Suarez is on the best form in the world - only 4 games, but if he keeps it up, he'll get lots of gold.
Messi is a little cleaner, but suarez is more audacious. Top 2 to watch, but personally I think Suarez is more entertaining. Both are well rounded, take free kicks, score all kinds of goals with both feet, head.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to see if Messi could do it on a cold wet night in Stoke, or see what Suarez could do in La Liga to get a proper comparison, but both no doubt are top top players - Messi edges it - however atm Suarez is on better form.
Suarez hands down. Ribery winning that CL award ahead of Messi and Cronaldo was a joke. Actually, he should even have been behind Robben who is a very overrated player in his own right.
ReplyDeleteI've long argued that Robben is under-rated and Ribery is massively over-rated.
ReplyDeleteRobben is a top quality player also, but Suarez offers far more than either of them imo
I think Suarez is the best of the 3, but if people are so intent on someone other than Messi/Ronaldo winning, it should be Ibra. I think he is the 3rd best player in the world. Suarez runs him close but can't be considered due to the games he missed and due to the fact that despite how well he played for Liverpool last season, he basically made no impact in the wider sense, because, unfortunately, we were an irrelevance last season.
ReplyDeleteBetween Ibra and Ribery. Ribery obviously did fabulously well last season, but personally, and I know this isn't a fair criterion, if someone other than Messi or Ronaldo must win it, I feel like it should be the next best player, a player who has been excellent for years and is unlikely to win it any other time: Ibra.
Lahm is a good shout from Carra. Wont happen though.
boring? so are you suggesting they give out a consolation winning prize just because messi has been better than anyone else for such a long time? think of it this way ... you work for some company and the top sales person gets an additional bonus. you have won it for 4 years running and people are getting bored. so on the 5th year, the consensus agreed to change the rules and give it to the guy who took it the 2nd or 3rd highest sales figure, and you get the rod for being so good at what you do. would you like that? you think that is fair?
ReplyDeleteguess not.
it's not as simplistic as you make out. There are other players every year who would've been equally deserving. This year, Ribery/Robben deserve it more for helping Bayern will the CL, and the treble overall. Messi does not deserve it just for scoring shedloads of goals in a league that is basically a 2-horse race every single year.
ReplyDelete