We all know that Ribery won the treble with Bayern Munich, but is Ribery the stand out performer in that team. Schweini, Lahm & Mueller too did well. In fact, Schweini won the Bundesliga player of the year and not Ribery. For me, Ribery is just one more guy in the team that won the treble. Yes, he performed better than most others in their team, but we must all acknowledge that Bayern's defence is far better than their attack. They conceded the fewest goals in 2013. They didn't concede a single goal in both legs of CL semifinal against the much famed Barcelona's attack. Understand it when I say that Bayern's defence deserves more praise than it's attack. So, in that sense, Lahm & Schweini contributed more than Ribery to Bayern's treble winning season. And, Ballon d'Or is an individual award and just because Bayern won three titles last year, doesn't mean that their best player must be the winner. Steven Gerrard didn't have a single league title, but he is best midfielder in England for the past decade. Even though, Ronaldo didn't win titles, it's not like his performances didn't matter. His team finished 2nd in La Liga, runner-up in Spanish Cup & reached the semis of CL. Last year, Bayern was better than Real Madrid as a team. But no player performed better than Ronaldo last year.
Now, Messi won La Liga and his team reached semi finals of CL & Spanish Cup. He scored 63 goals and could've scored more if he wasn't injured. But one must remember that staying fit is part of the game. I've read somewhere that Messi wouldn't want to be substituted and want to play each and every game. He wants to score the maximum possible goals every season and win all the accolades. Now, if you play first class football from the age 19 in such competitive league, and if you don't want to be rested, you are bound to get injured sometime. If you don't want that to happen, then your training regime must be like that of our CR7. Boy, what do I tell about our guy's training regime. Nobody takes training as serious as CR7. All his previous coaches Ferguson, Mourinho and now Ancelotti; his team mates Modric, Jese and others talk about how serious he is about staying fit and in good shape. Do you know that he does 3000 sit-ups a day. So, don't tell that because Messi is injured, Ronaldo won or some crap like that. This year belongs to Ronaldo and that's it.
Coming to Ronaldo, he scored the most goals this year 69 and assisted 17. He, single handedly was responsible in taking Portugal to World Cup Finals after beating Sweden in the play-offs.
- That Messi's Argentina didn't need to go through the play-offs and was directly qualified to WC talks about Argentina's collective strength and not Messi's individual calibre. Ronaldo's Portugal too could've qualified directly, if he had the likes of Higuain, Di Maria, Aguero to support him
- The argument that deadline was extended to help Ronaldo garner more votes is silly.
- For one thing, the act was performed in 2013 itself and whatever he did in this year counts as his contribution.
- Even Ribery's France played Ukraine and the extension didn't try to favour Ronaldo alone.
- And, the deadline was extended well before Portugal's play-off with Sweden. Nobody would know that Portugal would trump Sweden. Nobody would know that Ronaldo is going to score hat trick. So, it can't be argued that this extension was done to help Ronaldo gain more votes.
Now, all being said, I still know some of you aren't happy with Ballon d'Or award itself as individual accolades undermine team spirit and stuff like that. These are Wenger's words. Some of you say, FIFA & its President Sepp Blatter wanted to appease Ronaldo, after their hair dresser's comments evoked criticism that FIFA is biased towards Messi. Whatever be said and done, I very much understand that there are people who blindly support Messi or Ronaldo irrespective of anything that happens. They are both great footballers and rank among the very best to have graced this beautiful sport ever.
Apart from this award, one more thing to cheer this month is Xabi Alonso's contract renewal extending his stay at Madrid for two more years. For me, he is the next important person in Real Madrid after CR7. The way we improved once Xabi came into the team after missing the start of the season due to injury is a testament to that. He is a great player and also a leader on the pitch. These days, I've been not watching football as much as I used to do last year. One reason is that we no longer have television. But I've watched almost all Real Madrid matches and I've been regularly reading all that is happening in European Football.
Now, I don't know if I've mentioned it already or not, but I joined Public Administration coaching again in another institute. I made some broad outline for GS preparation and according to it, I must complete GS II by this month. I will try to post my plan sometime later in the blog. Coming to my hobby of reading books, I've finished reading Stiff Upper Lip by PG Wodehouse, The Slow Fix by Carl Honore. And now, I am reading two books in parallel - English, August by an IAS officer & Alex Ferguson's autobiography. Then, Mains results are expected by March's first week, not that I have much hope of clearing the exams, I mentioned it just like that. Okay then, nothing much to tell. I'll write my review of Alex Ferguson's autobiography very soon and till then Adios...
No comments:
Post a Comment