The Federation Internationale de Football Association, FIFA, has always been political when it comes to honouring players that have performed well.
The just-concluded prestigious award in Milan is a good example of the politics that exists in the international governing body of association football.
Lionel Messi won the FIFA Men’s Player of the Year. Like seriously, ahead of the Liverpool and Dutch center half, Virgil Van Dijk, and five times Ballon D’or Winner, Cristiano Ronaldo.
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Pep Guardiola missed out on the Manager of the Year Award to Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp despite his domestic treble-winning season. That’s a joke.
The shocker – none of the Man City players made the FIFA Players Pro XI, that is, the team of the year and Liverpool left-back, Andrew Robertson didn’t make the team. What’s Sergio Ramos doing in the team? Still finding it difficult to believe.
Juventus Cristiano Ronaldo should have even won that award ahead of Barcelona Lionel Messi considering the fact that he had a good season with Juventus despite he just joined them, and also won the Euro Nations League.
Lionel Messi also had a good season by winning the Spanish League with Barcelona and came third in the Copa America with Argentina, but that wasn’t enough reason to be given the gong.
Virgil Van Dijk, a worthy winner has been robbed by the ever political FIFA just like his fellow Dutch, Wesley Sneijder. Sneijder was robbed in 2010 after a stellar performance with Inter Milan and Netherlands. Virgil helped Liverpool to win the UEFA Champions League last season. Besides that, he was not dribbled past all through the season. That’s unbelievable for a defender that played against quality strikers. It should also be noted that Liverpool lost only one game in the Premier League, which was down to the solid performance shown by the former most expensive defender. With Virgil claiming the PFA Player of the Year, Premier League Player of the Year, and UEFA Player of the Year, there’s no worthy winner than him.
Although Lionel Messi is a quality player, the Argentine doesn’t deserve the accolade he got last night. He’s always favoured by the International governing body of association football. We’ve seen scenarios where he has won when he should not even make the list. He’s always favoured over Cristiano Ronaldo.
The two players, Ronaldo and Messi are world-class players that we’ve ever seen in football history, no doubt, but I think some players deserve the award over them in some cases like that of Frank Ribery, Wesley Sneijder and Virgil Van Dijk.
Let’s hope to see a free and fair FIFA Awards in the future.
Congratulations to Lionel Messi and other professional players and managers that won an award last night in Milan.
I agree with everything you have said except the part where you say Messi does not deserve the award. You forget to add his total number of goals, the highest in every category, nothing less than 40 per season. You name it. Champions League, La Liga, in Europe, in the world. A record not match by even Ronaldo.
Champions League isn’t only thing to look at. Van Vigil is good but his best haven’t matched the individual stars of his rivals