Lionel Messi Crowned The FIFA - Balon D'Or 2010 World Player of the Year

In an absolutely proud night for FC Barcelona, Lionel Messi won the inaugral FIFA- Balon D'OR World Player of the Year. The award was presented by Pep Guardiola . Everyone of us expected either Xavi or Iniesta to pick it up this year, but have to admit that it finally went to the Best Player in the World. Since this award has combined both FIFA WPOY and Balon D'Or together, he has successfully defended both the individual award he won last year.

Brazilian footballer Marta won The Women's World Player of the Year. This is her fifth World Player of the Year award. The Ferenc Puskas award for the most brilliant goal went to Hamit Altintop. The award was presented by the goalkeeper against whom he scored that brilliant goal. The FIFA Coach of the Year for Men's football went to Jose Mourinho. Have to admit in a World Cup Year he was a surprise pick.

Marco Van Baasten announced the FIFA/FIFPro World XI which included six Barcelona players. The list is on expected line and is Casillas, Puyol, Pique, Lucio, Maicon, Xavi, Iniesta, Sneijder, Ronaldo, Messi and Villa. Haiti Under-17 team won the FIFA Fair Play award in recognition of the tremendous courahe shown by them after that horrific earthquake. FIFA Coach of the Year for Women went to Silvia Neid . FIFA honoured ArchBishop Desmond Tutu with the Presedential Award for his tremendous support and work for Football. It should be considered as a big honour for the "Game of Football" to felicitate such a tremedous Human Being. In his brief speech he entertained the whole crowd and World with his sensational humour and vision.

World Bows to the Brilliance of Lionel Messi

Fans Across the World is awed at the brilliance of Lionel Messi

The World is slowly coming to terms to what they saw last night at the Camp Nou. The appreciations are pouring on Barca's No.10 from all directions. After the hat-trick against Zaragoza, media houses based on Barcelona were struggling to find adjectives to describe what they saw. But last night that feeling spread to all over the planet, especially to England. Following the Zaragoza match I wrote an article about the hottest topic of Maradona vs Messi Debate, in that I pointed that after the successive hat-tricks even Madrid based Media houses were forced to feature Messi's heroics on front page, eventhough they could only figure him on a small corner. After yesterday's destruction of Arsenal FC, Marca featured "The Little Messiah" on the front cover asking the million dollar question - "How Are We Going To Stop Him?". The English based media always has a reluctance to recognize the superiority of Lionel Messi. But such was the effect of yesterday's demolition that all of the English press is still continuing singing praises to Messi. I am not going to write anything special here but just going to post some pics which I found around the internet. The best article I found on the net is this beautiful article written by Sid Lowe on Guardian - Spain Hails The Messiah. Do not miss that. If that article was all about the World's reaction to Messi's brilliance, find the best match reporting here by Dominic Fifield on the Guardian Messi Destroys Arsenal.

When the first leg of the Quarter Final ended with honours even, Arsenal Fans all around the planet were bragging about how they stopped Messi. But yesterday gave everyone a reality check, no offence intended. With such consistent and dazzling performance Lionel Messi is rapidly rising above his peers. As Xavi pointed out it is unfair to compare Messi with today's players, as he would make them look ordinary. Ronaldo may still not acknowledge the brilliance of Lionel Messi, but who cares what he thinks. Maradona, Pele, Cryuff, Stefano etc have been the greatest football players the world has seen. And if Messi continue this form he will end up becoming another great in the history, but for the time-being the greats won't mind a comparision with the "El Pulga".

Marca Cover

Maradona vs Messi, A Never Ending Comparison

Maradona vs Messi is the Hottest Debate in Football Circles

News rooms around the world have been searching for adjectives to explain what they saw at the La Romareda stadium on Sunday night. Barcelona based media houses declared him the "Greatest in The History of the Game" after his second consecutive hat-tricks, media houses and fans around the world has seconded it. Madrid based newspaper were forced to give into the brilliance of Lionel Messi featuring him on the cover, may be not at the best of the spot. Messi with his consistent performances in recent weeks has re-opened the old debate of "Who is Better - Maradona or Messi?" Many Barca fans has proclaimed him already as the best in the history, way ahead of Maradona. The Zaragoza coach, who was at the receiving end on Sunday declared and I quote - "Tonight, I saw Diego Maradona, but at more revs per minute". Cristiano Ronaldo might be feeling like he has put his foot in his mouth after recently overlooking Messi and declaring that Kaka, Rooney and Drogba are the only World class players around, ofcourse apart from himself. It looks like Messi has taken that snub seriously and has been in devastating form since then.

Lionel Messi is the Natural Successor to Maradona's Throne

Cyrus from Goal.com recently wrote a piece about Messi arguing that he is far ahead than Maradona considering that today's defenders are more skillful and in his words more tactically intelligent because of the heavy commercialisation. For me that is a very weak argument, especially when we take Maradona's case. Maradona played in an era where defenders were way more brutal and ruthless than today's times. They may not had technological advances of these times but surely they were more talented. The likes of Scirea, Barresi etc were more skilful and blessed than any of the lesser mortals playing at this moment. Maradona has to withstand some of the best defenders in business, some of the most ruthless challenges and tackles in the history of the game and never had the protection like the modern attacking players have. Maradona is a legend because he could single handedly take his lesser blessed sides to greater triumphs. The Argentinian side of 1986 wasn't blessed with great talents apart from Diego Maradona and the 1990 Argentinian World cup team was one of the worst in terms of quality. Even then a fading Maradona could take the team somehow to the final. Same with his club Napoli. After getting transferred from Barcelona FC, Maradona took Napoli to two League triumphs and only European Triumph, something unheard in the club's history.

Messi in contrast plays in one of the most talented side in the history of the game. Messi might be the catalyst behind the triumphs of Barca in recent times, but he was well assisted by a huge number of exceptional talents. A similar argument is always laid on th table in the in the debate on Pele vs Maradona. Pele was surrounded by some of the greatest talents of those times, and many rightly believe the Brazilian teams were capable of emulating those feats with or without Pele. But there is a serious problem with such an argument, isn't it? It was none of Pele's problem that he was surrounded by some of the greatest talent, that he played in the most talented national side in the history of the game. Actually he did outshine many of those stars consistently and that should be taken as a vote to Pele's greatness. Similarly it is not Messi's problem that he plays in one of the most talented club side in the history. On the contrary it's his blessing.

Messi had made no secret of his admiration to Maradona. Actually being an Argentinian, it should have occurred naturally to him, a wish to step in to the shoes of "El Diego". Messi has already emulated some feats of Maradona - some great , some terrible. The goal against Getafe was the greatest and the emultion of the "Hand of
God" was the worst. But Messi is least interested in emulating his idol off the pitch, and that's very good news for Barca. For all the achievements of Maradona, there always was that feeling that he had more to offer. He is one guy who destroyed his career at the peak. With Lionel Messi let's hope that is not the case. He appears to be a very down to earth fellow and the fact that he moved to Barcelona at a very young age also helps in him this. To be considered a legend Messi has to reproduce his club form for his national side, something he has failed consistently. Maradona has been blamed for most of Messi's problem by Barca fans, but to be a legend he has to simply overcome all those.

In reality Messi is in his start of his real career. At 22, you don't consider a player to be at his peak. Messi's peak is at least five to six years ahead of him (touch wood). And that is a prospect every Barca fan look forward to. A true mark of a legend is how he rises from failures. After taking the reign from Ronaldinho, Messi had two wonderful seasons and some more should follow hopefully (because of the talents working with him). But there will be a time in future when things will be difficult and it is those times which will make the legend out of him. As Guardiola pointed out recently, it is better to measure Messi's greatness when he actually finishes off his career.

In Lionel Messi Barca is blessed with one of the most exciting talents around. But the constant comparison with Maradona may increase the pressure on Messi, something which he has handled well till now. Guardiola realised that and tried to ease the situation by saying and I quote "For my generation, Maradona is the greatest ever and I don't think that will change. One needs to allow Leo to have his career because he is very young and he needs continuity. One will see when he decides to leave football". We can debate all day around about how Messi is better than Maradona, but he has a long way to go. If he continues the same form, by the time he finishes we will most probably place him in the company of Stefano, Maradona, Pele, Cryuff etc. With his recent form he has proved that he is the best player around at this moment. Rooney may be in the form of his life, but Messi is way beyond him at this moment. The only person who may still disagree is Cristiano Ronaldo, in his own words "The First, Second and Third Best Player in the World".

FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi Nominated for Laureus Award

The nomination list for the prestigious Laureus award, often referred as the OSCAR of Sports has been revealed. FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi has made into the final five nomination for their respective category. Lionel Messi is nominated for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award along with last year's winner Usain Bolt, four time winner Roger Federer, long distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi. FC Barcelona has been nominated for the Laureus World Team of the Year Award along with Los Angeles Lakers, New York Yankees, Germany Women's Football Team, Brawn Formula One and the South Africa Rugby Team. The nominees for Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award are Serena Williams, Federica Pellegrini, Britta Steffen, Sanya Richards and Lindsey Vonn. Current Bundesliga Champion Wolfsburg has been nominated in the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year. In 2006 FC Barcelona has won the Spirit of Sport Award.

FC Barcelona Leads the Team Award

Usually the chances of a football star winning the Laureus award is very less. When pitted against individual Sportsperson , the fact that they participate in a team sport always work against them. In that scenario it is time for Laureus foundation to change the format of the award. They can have a Laures Sportman of the year in individual Sports and a Laureus Sportsman of the year in Team Sport awards. For Lionel Messi, getting into the prestigious list itself is a great honour. But the chances of winning it would be very less. Usain Bolt has not taken his foot off the pedal nor has Rossi. Federer's incredible year sound like four Grand Slam finals with two winner - but then it is lower by his standard. Bekele and Alberto Contador both can hold their fort and all these gentlemen are playing in individual sports. My prediction would be Rossi as he has not won this or Bolt.

In the Laureus Team of the Year category FC Barcelona's perfect season make them a serious contender. Don't get surprised if we win this one as in my opinion we lead the pack. But then a look at the nominees will certainly tell it is the most closest competition in recent years. A look through the previous winners give an impression that a football team definitely has an advantage. My prediction for this will be FC Barcelona. The Spirit of Sport award didn't had a winner last year, but this year may be FC Barcelona can win this one too. The fact that we have so many home grown players in our side and we play the most beautiful football in the world, plus the fact that the club spend a lot of resource in bringing joy and enlightenment into the lives of the under-privileged will also be a factor helping us.

Lionel Messi vs Getafe

Messi Wins the World Player Of The Year Award

Lionel Messi of Barca Adjudged "The Best Player In The World"

Exactly one day after helping Barca secure the World Club Championship with his "Goal from the Heart", Lionel Messi was adjudged the as the FIFA World Player of the Year. It come as no surprise as everyone expected him to win this hands down. Messi secured 1073 points and the second placed Ronaldo secured 352 points. Barca's Xavi Hernandez came third with 196 points followed by Kaka with 190 points and Iniesta with 134 points. The inaugral FIFA Puskás Award for the 'most beautiful goal' of the year went Ronaldo for his goal against FC Porto. Ronaldo's goal secured 17.68 percent of total votes, meanwhile Iniesta's important strike against Chelsea came second bagging 15.64 percent of votes. Lionel Messi has expressed his hapines of becoming the first Argentinian to win the award - "It’s lovely to get this recognition from colleagues and coaches. That makes it even more important. The fact that I’m the first Argentinian to win it is also a great honour." FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award went once again to Brazil's Marta, who incidently has created history by winning her fourth World Player award. The voting pattern went in expected lines but I still believe it is a great injustice to Xavi and Iniesta after being ranked at three and five. Xavi had a better season than Ronaldo for Spain and Barca but still finished thrid behind Ronaldo. The same with Iniesta who also had a very good season atleast better than what Kaka had. But it looks like this is the order of the day, you got to be flambouyant to secure votes in these awards.

Four FC Barcelona Players Feature in FIFA World XI

Meanwhile FIFA has announced a FIFA/FIFPro World XI - Iker Casillas in goal, Daniel Alves, Nemanja Vidic, John Terry and Patrice Evra in defense, a dream midfield line up of Steven Gerrard, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta and a forward line up of Fernando Torres, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Messi Presents Balon d'Or to Camp Nou

Messi Receives Golden Ball Of The Year

Lionel Messi Wins Balon d'Or

As expected Lionel Messi won this year's Ballon d'Or to be crowned as the best player in Europe. It was an expected result with a record margin of victory. Cristiano Ronaldo finished second with 233 points while Lionel messi amased a record 473 points. Xavi received 170 points finishing third while Iniesta received 149 points finishing fourth. Samuel Eto'o finished fifth while new Barca recruit Ibrahmovic finished seventh. It was quite surprising to see Ronaldo finish second. He had a good season last year, but not an exceptional. For me last year Rooney was Manchester United's best player. And it is surprising to see the football's greates pundits in Europe failing to recognise the contribution of midfielders or defenders. Puyol never made it to the top thrity list whereas Toure finished 28th with 1 point. But for me the biggest dissappointment was not seeing Xavi finish second. He along with Iniesta was the creative organiser in the Barcelona side. His national team form was exceptional unlike Ronaldo or Messi. But then it is not a surprise as the Europe's soccer pundits proved their bias by not including Iniesta in the nominees last season.

The enitire list is give below :
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

A Pichichi without Barcelona Presence

To get a testimony of how bad this season performance is, don't have to look beyond the present Pichichis table. I can't remember the last time when we had a total absense from the Pichichis table top ten. The only guy who is near the top is Lionel Messi. This just shows how much we have missed Eto this season. He used to be in the top five evry season. Victor Valdez leads the Zamoras table just ahead of Cassilas. That also shows that our defense and Goal Keepers are not doing much wrong season. What is hurting us the most is inability to create Goal. Above all the shots on target and off target statistics looks like coming down this season by huge. Barcelona never used to convert everything they create. The maximum they used to convert was 30% of all shots on target. With those shots on Target coming down, logically goals have dried up. Anyway Messi and Eto still can make it to top ten.



Pichichi League Cup Europe Total(Penalties)
Luis Fabiano (Sevilla) 14 2 7 23 (4)
Kanouté (Sevilla) 8 4 5 17 (2)
Milito (Zaragoza) 14 2 0 16 (5)
Van Nistelrooy (R Madrid) 12 0 4 16 (2)
Agüero (Atlético) 9 1 6 16 (0)
Nihat (Villarreal) 11 0 3 14 (0)
Diego Forlán (Atlético) 7 1 6 14 (1)
Güiza (Mallorca) 11 2 0 13 (1)
Oliveira (Zaragoza) 10 2 1 13 (0)
Raúl (Real Madrid) 9 0 3 12 (1)
Messi (Barcelona) 8 0 4 12 (4)

A Nice Lionel Messi Compilation - Video

Found this amazing video compilation about Lionel Messi in net. Thought of sharing it. Its done by milankakabaros - visit him at www.milankakabaros.com

A Decent Win

The victory against Bilbao was secured in the first half. Barcelona went in to the match with al lot of criticism for their lackluster performance last week. Early on the first half, barca players hunger to keep the critics away was evident. They played like a team possessed. Athletic Bilbao should had considered themselves lucky at half time for trailing by only 2 goals. The second half in itself was a sharp contrast. Ronaldinho and Messi were setting the tone for the first half, every time Messi gets the ball there was a big anticipation for something big. And he didn't disappoint. Ronaldinho stellar performance should have subsidized all the Transfer rumors for now(its going to return in January, take a break). From the last some Liga games , its look like his free kick technique is coming back. But for me the star of the show was Eric Abidal - My God what a player. Its not surprising all of the Barcelona's attacks came either through him or Zambrotta. He should have solved our Left back misery, hope so. But whatever he is showing he is worth to watch.

In contrast to the first half, second half saw the last year Barcelona coming back(unfortunately). They were losing ball very easily, there was no conviction in the passing and it took the supporters booing to remind players they are there to win games. In contrast to first half - where the defence looked like compact and sealed, second half defence sometimes had no idea of what they were doing. The problem with Barca last season and still continues- is that after taking the early lead or control they tend to sit back. Because of which they end up conceding late equalizers. How many time did that happen last season. Rijkaard has to pay attention here.

It will be big injustice not to mention these two players in this article - Deco and Henry. Deco as usual is the marshal of Barca's Midfield. He was there all the time with all those tricks and turns. Hope he continues to find such form every night. When he moved to Barca, I thought he will not gel well with Barca system, I was proven wrong - He is looking good and he is due for his goal, mark my word he is going to get a lot.

Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi - Two sides of same Mirror

Whatever be the result of the Fifa investigation to WestHam's Tevez transfer saga, he is going to be alive in the hearts of millions of WestHam fan's for many more years to come. Let's hope they don't get relegated as their story in the latter part was one of hope and struggle. Before 10 matches if somebody told me they are going to survive the League I would have gladly said "Buddy I am not a fool to buy that". But yet again as many times i was again wrong, but this time it had a happy feeling. Tevez and Messi are the future of Argentinian football. They both are real contrast to each other. One is an unbelievably skillful maybe a once in a generation player, but the other one is very talented, hardworking and unselfish player. When Messi was brought into 1st Team everything was on his side - the Media, Management, Fans and Players. If you remember the players all of them used to protect him like anything. The best example was the CL 1st leg in Chelsea. Whenever Messi was fouled there was kind of scuffle between players. In contrast when Tevez came to WestHam along with Mascherano, he was welcomed by a contrasting feeling - Distrust by Fans, media and players. The one which mattered the most was the players were not ready to accept him as one of them. And things predictably should have gone worse with Javier Mascherano's loan to Liverpool. I believed he would have been a lone figure in the dressing room. But when you have Carlos Tevez in your hand predictions have no value. Now at the end of the season the fans have declared him a "Hammer legend 4 Life"(It just took one season). How can he do that? The answer is you have to be "Carlos Tevez" for doing that. He never gave hope and with his performance he started inspiring the players to believe in him(I think one man who believed in him more than everyone was Anton Ferdinand). The key was he didn't try to impress media or his coach but his fellow colleagues. The WestHam's Great escape is not a one man story, it is a story of a bunch of people(Noble,Zamora, Benyayoun,.....) led and believing in their Hero and trying to do something impossible. At last they did it in style by beating the Champions at their den.
One attribute which makes Tevez differ from other strikers of his age is his "Unselfish character". Always we have seen that young strikers tend to be more selfish than everyone. Till last season Ronaldo was one of that category, this season he reinvented himself and look at the result. This makes Tevez doubly dangerous as he is a striker who is made of a fatal combination of Latin American flair, Hardwork and unselfishness. Let's hope he stays in WestHam for next season(i.e they are not relegated).
There is soccer players of different kind - One with flair, One with Grit, One who struggles and then there is the Tevez type.

Lionel Messi - Impossible is Nothing