View Full Version : Nominations for the 2004 World Fifa Player of the Year award:
Stezagud
05-10-2004, 11:45
Nominations for the 2004 World Fifa Player of the Year award:
Adriano (Brazil)
Roberto Ayala (Argentina)
Michael Ballack (Germany)
Milan Baros (Czech Rep)
David Beckham (England)
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)
Cafu (Brazil)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Deco (Portugal)
Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast)
Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon)
Luis Figo (Portugal)
Steven Gerrard (England)
Ryan Giggs (Wales)
Thierry Henry (France)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)
Oliver Kahn (Germany)
Kaka (Brazil)
Frank Lampard (England)
Henrik Larsson (Sweden)
Roy Makaay (Holland)
Paolo Maldini (Italy)
Pavel Nedved (Czech Rep)
Alessandro Nesta (Italy)
Michael Owen (England)
Robert Pires (France)
Raul (Spain)
Roberto Carlos (Brazil)
Ronaldinho (Brazil)
Ronaldo (Brazil)
Wayne Rooney (England)
Andrej Shevchenko (Ukraine)
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Holland)
Theodoros Zagorakis (Greece)
Zinedine Zidane (France)
Another top player list with Beckham on it....and as always there are some on the list that didn't have a great year at all. great to see younger, newer faces though like Baros, Zlatan.
triniman
05-10-2004, 12:03
in all fairness...this award should go to henry...our players have performed great over the year...but henry deserves this award for what he did for arsenal and what he did for france....second will be deco i believe....but i'm sure these a$$holes will call the usual suspects....ronaldo, zizou, figo and becks.......i swear real has them in their back pockets
@ triniman
What has henry exactly done for France in the full year 2004?
@ triniman
What has henry exactly done for France in the full year 2004?
Exactly.
I was kinda surprised that Maniche and Ricardo Carvalho were omitted from the list, considering their level of play with Porto & Portugal in Euro 2004 (ok, Portugal didn't win, but at least they reached the final)
If there are some betting websites which accept bets on the winner for this award I'll place my money on Deco, though my heart says Sheva.
Stezagud
05-10-2004, 12:35
I was surprised that Sol Campbell didnt get included, he has been an absolute rock ofr the gooners and was great for England too.
do journalists or coaches vote for this? If its the journalists then maybe Maldini could get it to top off his career.
Beckham, Owen and Raul????
Are they joking?? A bit of a shame that they haven't included a couple more of the Greek team. Ok they didn't play the most attractive football but that was still a hell of an achievement.
I suppose there isn't a real stand out winner, although the two standout candidates for me are Henry and Ronaldinho. I appreciate that at Euro 2004 Henry was quiet but at times for Arsenal last year he was simply awesome. Ronaldinho was the inspiration behind Barca's revival last year and again is breathtaking to watch.
Personally I didn't think that Deco had as good a season last year as he did the season before. However I suppose a Champions' League winners medal and a Euro 2004 RU medal constitutes a pretty decent season by anyone's standards. Individually though I thought there were better players last year than him.
Hopefully Kaka will get in there somewhere. Im sure he'll win it in the future. Shevchenko deserves a shout as well.
This forum is funny. We discuss these nominations every year like it is really important who wins, then when a Milan player does not win lots of people say that the awards are crap and that they mean nothing. :) Make up your mind people! :)
Personally I don't care who wins, it is not an objective evaluation of quality, because football is an art and not a science. If Sheva wins, then all that means is that some other people feel the same I do about his talant. Would this make me feel any better? No! Just like it wouldn't make me feel any better about Da Vinci's "Madonna on the rock" to know that a newspaper poll rates it highly too.
CuoreRossoNero
05-10-2004, 13:53
Well here is my biased opinion. When I look at Henry I definitely do not see a player that should be considered one of the best in the world. I remember his days with Juve playing against top defensive teams and top defensive systems and he did nothing. Now he is playing in a league that allows the players a little extra space and time therefore leading to more opportunities. If Sheva played in England he would probably score a gazillion goals (slight exaggeration). I think Arsenal wouldn't think twice of trading Henry for Sheva. Galliani on the other hand would laugh hysterically at the offer. Like I said this is my biased opinion because I am a fan of the Italian league and believe that it is the toughest league to play in and the fact that Sheva is having great success in this league means he should be SERIOUSLY considered for this award. I know he won't because he has not had the opportunity to show his skills internationally but I definitely don't think Henry deserves it. I would give it to Ronaldinho before him. But I hope for Sheva and even if he doesn't win he is still the best player in my book.
This biased opinion was brought to you by Shevaholic!!!
A very fair point Henrik.
Shevaholic. I take all your points about the quality of the English Premiership against Serie A and I actually agree with you. I also think Sheva would score goals, well, anywhere really. However I do think you're being a bit harsh on young Thierry. There were times last year when he was simply unplayable and if I remember rightly he scored two in the San Siro against Inter and a hat-trick against Roma the previous season. I dont quite hold your confidence either regarding Mr.Wenger's views on any swap deals. Anyway Im not gonna argue too much about Shevchenko with someone who's name is Shevaholic because Im probably going to lose!!! :u56:
I think they're both great players.
triniman
05-10-2004, 14:25
Henry played a vital role in france making it to where they did in Euro 04, couple this with his goals and display for arsneal in the CL and the English league...then yes i would say he is a favorite , same as deco who did the same for portugal.....
Stezagud
05-10-2004, 14:29
This forum is funny. We discuss these nominations every year like it is really important who wins, then when a Milan player does not win lots of people say that the awards are crap and that they mean nothing. Make up your mind people!
In truth i dont mind who wins as long as they deserve it. The honour of being crowned the best player in world football should matter but the selections tend to be dubious. Owen, Beckham and Raul have already been mentioned as questionable choices, as a Utd fan i was surprised to see Rooney on the list as this award is for the whole year and he spent large parts of on Evertons sub bench or injured....As i mentioned before Sol Campbell should have been recognised but as a defender he is less obvious in his contributions (which in my opinion have been as crucial as Henry's in prolonging Arsenals unbeaten run)
If the winner is Henry, Sheva, Ronaldinho etc then great, if its an undeserving Real player then i'll consider it another nail in the coffin of what could be such a prestigious award.
Henry was brillant in Euro 2004 qualification against the likes of Luxemburg and Andorra. At Euro2004 both him and Deco were huge disappoinments (even Rui Costa in his short appearences was WAY more impressive than Deco). Luckily for them nearly all stars had a quit Euro tournament.
Stezagud
05-10-2004, 14:39
Now he is playing in a league that allows the players a little extra space and time therefore leading to more opportunities. If Sheva played in England he would probably score a gazillion goals (slight exaggeration).
I know thats the theory but it doesnt neccesarily work like that. I remember the fuss over Veron, Crespo and Mutu and they didnt make much of all the extra space and time. That said, i do think that Sheva would adapt better than them and would score plenty, its just each player should be judged on their own merits :D
I dont quite hold your confidence either regarding Mr.Wenger's views on any swap deals.
I've got to agree with this, there isnt much doubt in my mind that Wenger would keep Henry no matter who he was offered.
CuoreRossoNero
05-10-2004, 15:56
Shevaholic. I take all your points about the quality of the English Premiership against Serie A and I actually agree with you. I also think Sheva would score goals, well, anywhere really. However I do think you're being a bit harsh on young Thierry. There were times last year when he was simply unplayable and if I remember rightly he scored two in the San Siro against Inter and a hat-trick against Roma the previous season. I dont quite hold your confidence either regarding Mr.Wenger's views on any swap deals. Anyway Im not gonna argue too much about Shevchenko with someone who's name is Shevaholic because Im probably going to lose!!! :u56:
I think they're both great players.
I realize that I was a little harsh on Thierry but I just don't see the comparison between the 2, I feel Sheva is in a class of his own (there I go again bashing Henry, it's like I have no control of my fingers). That's why these boards are so good, everyone is able to express his/her opinion. Unfortunately when it comes to this award lately it has been more of a popularity contest rather than who's the best.
Congratulations to whoever wins it!!!
Well said Stezagud!!
Im not too sure about these theories though about the English game giving players extra time and space. English football is played at 100mph and for a number of years English teams ruled Europe arguably because of this and their gritty approach to the game. It seems to me that the reason so many players from the continent are successful in England is because of their excellent technique and their ability to give themselves that extra yard of space. Look at Di Canio for example, he was just another decent player in Italy but he came to England and was considered a genius.
I think this business about Henry being dissapointing at Euro 2004 is a bit unfair. As has been stated above he wasn't the only one to have a hard time in Portugal and arguably a long hard season with no winter break didn't help. In truth Zidane didn't have the greatest tournament but we dont question his class. Henry was in the same team in '98 and '00 when the French lifted their trophies and scored important goals along the way. The theory about Henry not performing in the biggest matches seems to go out the window when he does exactly that. As I've mentioned above, his goals last year in the CL against Inter and do you remember those goals against Chelsea last year and that rocket past Barthez the year before (if my chronology is wrong Im sorry but Im flowing now!!). Henry would score goals now in Italy in the same way as Sheva would score in England. Would Milan supporters seriously have a problem if Henry was brought in to play for them??? Surely not??
Incidentally I also seem to remember a certain J D Tomasson struggling to find his form for Newcastle before coming to be a success in Serie A. The same goes for Materazzi at Everton. It works both ways.
there I go again bashing Henry, it's like I have no control of my fingers[QUOTE]
:rotfl:
This thing about more space in EPL and Serie A being more defensive is nothing less than bull****. EPL is played in a higher tempo, partly because the refs don't interfere as much for good and worse. I clearly prefer the serie A style.
Henry is great, but not as great as he looks for Arsenal when he scores and assist loads of goals on counterattacks.
Considering these awards are based on a whole year's worth of football, i think most of them shouldn't be there. Why do you need a list of 35 players, it's a waste of time. Surely it would be alot easier to just have the 10 best throughout Europe ? It's too vague, it's like "Yes, we'll include him because he played half a dozen games quite well last year and a good international" ... most of the nominees don't deserve to be there, how many of them have performed consistently over 12 months ? For me these players are there to make up the numbers. I know i'll be wrong about alot of these so cut me some slack if i'm not up to date on every league match in portugal or Germany.
Michael Ballack (not sure, has he played well ? i don't know)
Milan Baros (great euro 2004, injured/didn't play much the rest of the season)
David Beckham (lost it)
Gianluigi Buffon (did ok)
Deco (i think other porto/portugese players were more important than him)
Didier Drogba (Cisse scored more goals than him, yet Drogba's made the list, why ?)
Samuel Eto'o (great since moving to Barca, before that he was alright at Mallorca)
Luis Figo (good euro 2004 after being dropped)
Ryan Giggs (Why ?)
Oliver Kahn (did ok)
Michael Owen (lost it)
Robert Pires (hasn't been that good at all)
Raul (major dip in form)
Roberto Carlos (why is he even there ?)
Ronaldo (everyone else from real is there so you have to have him, although he has played quite well now and again)
Wayne Rooney (great euro 2004, but like stezagud said, spent most of his time injured or on the bench for Everton)
Zinedine Zidane (can't even be bothered to take a throw in properly now)
That's just what i think anyway.
Considering these awards are based on a whole year's worth of football, i think most of them shouldn't be there. Why do you need a list of 35 players, it's a waste of time. Surely it would be alot easier to just have the 10 best throughout Europe ? It's too vague, it's like "Yes, we'll include him because he played half a dozen games quite well last year and a good international" ... most of the nominees don't deserve to be there, how many of them have performed consistently over 12 months ? For me these players are there to make up the numbers. I know i'll be wrong about alot of these so cut me some slack if i'm not up to date on every league match in portugal or Germany.
Michael Ballack (not sure, has he played well ? i don't know)
Milan Baros (great euro 2004, injured/didn't play much the rest of the season)
David Beckham (lost it)
Gianluigi Buffon (did ok)
Deco (i think other porto/portugese players were more important than him)
Didier Drogba (Cisse scored more goals than him, yet Drogba's made the list, why ?)
Samuel Eto'o (great since moving to Barca, before that he was alright at Mallorca)
Luis Figo (good euro 2004 after being dropped)
Ryan Giggs (Why ?)
Oliver Kahn (did ok)
Michael Owen (lost it)
Robert Pires (hasn't been that good at all)
Raul (major dip in form)
Roberto Carlos (why is he even there ?)
Ronaldo (everyone else from real is there so you have to have him, although he has played quite well now and again)
Wayne Rooney (great euro 2004, but like stezagud said, spent most of his time injured or on the bench for Everton)
Zinedine Zidane (can't even be bothered to take a throw in properly now)
That's just what i think anyway.
i agree with alot of what u said but i disagree with alot too:
deco: last season he won: 1 CL, runner up at the euros, 1 portuguese title, and 1 port. cup runner up, and if theres a player on the pitch that lead porto it was deco, eventhough i believe porto won ebcause of teamwork and mourinho. whoever said rui played better than deco with his few minutes is very wrong, rui started the 1st match and did absolutly nothing (lets be honest, i love rui too), when deco came on vs greece he managed to pull back a goal for portugal atleast and showed good glimpses, and portuglas performance improved eversince he became a starter. i think hell win it.
drogba: 2nd goalscorer in the ligue, but more importantly he scored a goal in every single european match marseille played except for the final against valencia where he played with no support against great defenders like ayala and in a way marchena. besides drogba single handedly got marseille to the final, and his perfomance has been canstant thru out the season.
figo: wasnt dropped by the way.
ronaldo: was la liga top scorer, and was on fire simply!
zidane: had a great euro and was the only good player for france that tournament but with real he was invisible i agree.
if all those names were listed because of a good euro then wheres karel poborsky??? wheres maniche?? and dellas??... hey even worse wheres vicente???? he IMO should win the award with ease... despite the fact that spain went out early i belive only he and puyol had a good euro, and he almost single handedly took valencia to the liga win and the UEFA cup.
LMFAO! I still cannot belive how retarted Fifa is!?
This list is sooo 2002..do these people even watch football!?! This is more the glamorous star players..then the skilled players
OmG..this is too pathetic ..Except for the Milan players,Ronaldinho and Adriano[I hope one of them wins]
Batigol was just like Sheva, sensational and consistant, but did he win this private title? Never. Weah did seldom to bring his national to intercontinental stage, but he won the national coaches. There's no ration in this competation.
Henry is the favorite.
Forza Milan
The list is by far too long. 1 striker, 1 midfielder, 1 defender and 1 GK from the each of the major european leagues + 5 open slots for players in other leagues should be enough.
To include Raul and Ronaldo makes no sence as Ronaldo clearly outperformed Raul last year.
From Serie A I would personally choose, Sheva, Totti (if Totti is disqualified for spitting, then Kaka), Nesta and Buffon
From EPL I would choose Henry, Lampard, Terry (and pass alltogher on nominating a GK
From La Liga I would pick Ronaldo, Ronaldino, Ayala and Canisares
Add Deco, Cavalho from the Portugal, Zagorakis from Greece (I Euro2004 winner might be nice to include),Ballack from Germany and Tevez from Argentina and voila! you have a smaller list.
CuoreRossoNero
06-10-2004, 10:41
The list is by far too long. 1 striker, 1 midfielder, 1 defender and 1 GK from the each of the major european leagues + 5 open slots for players in other leagues should be enough.
To include Raul and Ronaldo makes no sence as Ronaldo clearly outperformed Raul last year.
From Serie A I would personally choose, Sheva, Totti (if Totti is disqualified for spitting, then Kaka), Nesta and Buffon
From EPL I would choose Henry, Lampard, Terry (and pass alltogher on nominating a GK
From La Liga I would pick Ronaldo, Ronaldino, Ayala and Canisares
Add Deco, Cavalho from the Portugal, Zagorakis from Greece (I Euro2004 winner might be nice to include),Ballack from Germany and Tevez from Argentina and voila! you have a smaller list.
This would make WAY MORE SENSE. I agree 100%, I would still pick sheva of course :) :)
Stezagud
06-10-2004, 11:09
Im not too sure about these theories though about the English game giving players extra time and space. English football is played at 100mph
This thing about more space in EPL and Serie A being more defensive is nothing less than bull****. EPL is played in a higher tempo
These are both right :D its the speed of the game that gives defenses less time to organise and midfielder less time to fall back into a shield when they lose the ball. What i meant before is that this doesn't necesarily help out strikers like Crespo and Mutu, instead the main beneficieries of this are players who can the role behind the strikers but ahead of the midfield. Like Steve said, Di Canio was one who came to England and found it much to his liking, Zola, Bergkamp, Cantona, Ginola etc are all other examples of this. Its also one reason for the hype around Rooney, as he can play this role but with added English aggresion ;)
Stezagud
06-10-2004, 11:20
if all those names were listed because of a good euro then wheres karel poborsky??? wheres maniche?? and dellas??... hey even worse wheres vicente????
unfortunately the term "good euro" is defined in terms of goals scored, meaning RvN, Rooney and Baros get nominated but the rest of their teams don't.....
Considering these awards are based on a whole year's worth of football, i think most of them shouldn't be there. Why do you need a list of 35 players, it's a waste of time. Surely it would be alot easier to just have the 10 best throughout Europe ?
it is a strange system, its as if they dont trust the judges to provide them with a clear cut group from which to form the final shortlist so they have given them this. I agree with almost every player you cut out and if we can see this is a 2 tier list then surely proffesionals can :confused:
zidane: had a great euro and was the only good player for france that tournament but with real he was invisible i agree.
he didnt have that great a tournament did he? He had a great 2 minutes against England but the rest of the game was quite average and against Crotia and Greece he was among the first of the French to lose his edge. I dont remember the Switzerland game much but didnt Henry bail them out in that?
Henrik...no Drogba in the EPL?
Stezagud
06-10-2004, 11:23
Drogba? he's only been here 5 minutes ;)
In Henriks system he would competing for a place against Henry and imho Henry would walk it.
Gio-mania
06-10-2004, 11:35
i think that there should be circa 25 players to choose from.
there is more selection, anyway who's the judge for this?
i think most of the realmadrid players shouldn't be on this list, most of them are simply known as stars, and used to be good, the only one who is still good is ronaldo,- he might lack physically, he might not be good for long periods, but if u give the guy the so called "moment", he will show u pure soccer class.
anyway the winners in my opinion should be sheva, ronaldinho, deco of henry,
Let's wait for the World Soccer's version. ;)
Henry was brillant in Euro 2004 qualification against the likes of Luxemburg and Andorra. At Euro2004 both him and Deco were huge disappoinments (even Rui Costa in his short appearences was WAY more impressive than Deco). Luckily for them nearly all stars had a quit Euro tournament.
i agree on the rui costa part. people always point to rui first match when he didn't play well. i will tell him to take a look at the final. Deco did nothing for the final, the most important match and he is an ultimate failure, did much worse than rui did in the first match. even all the ratings point toward him as sh*t in that match. rui costa came in as a sub and drag portugal thru so many matches on their way to the final. if u will to consider the average ratings then i would say rui costa is better than Deco.
my top three will be
1. Sheva (cause he played really well for the past one season)
2. Henry (well, he also did very well but he did nothing at the euro and also miss alot of chances, just take a lot at the number of shots he took in the CL)
3. Ronaldinho (fantastic player. i prefer kaka's style than his but still he is a very good player)
Drogba? he's only been here 5 minutes ;)
In Henriks system he would competing for a place against Henry and imho Henry would walk it.
Well Drogba played all of last season in the French League, so he could possibly be included. But I didn't follow french football enough to tell if he deserved a spot.
My system is just a thought (Last time I checked I was not in charge of Fifa, but it may have changed ;)), but I think it would mean more for the players too, to know that just by making the list means you are number 1 in your position in the league you are playing in.
Stezagud
06-10-2004, 12:35
My system is just a thought (Last time I checked I was not in charge of Fifa, but it may have changed ), but I think it would mean more for the players too, to know that just by making the list means you are number 1 in your position in the league you are playing in.
what works about your system is that it has a definate plan behind it. players are nominate primarily on how they rank in their position in their league.
The current FIFA system offers no real clue as to why each player is there.
Some did well over 3-6 games of an international tournament, some did well in the champions league, some did well domestically etc
In "The Henrik System" as we shall now know it ;) there is a definate logic of how to narrow the list down, as they are selected by position they can be compared immediately to the other players in their position and gradually eliminated. Its not perfect as different leagues offer different challenges, but it is imho better than what they have now.
I should conduct a number of polls to get the nominees according to the system :) Then we can annonce "the Henrik Awards" ahead of the FIFA awards and hopefully influence the real vote ;)
i dont get this... if raul is on the list, if beckham is on the list, if any liga player is on the list, please explain to me how the **** is vicente not nominated?????
i love shvchenko but i think vicente deserves to win this trophy the most, and i think he was la ligas best player (better than ronaldinho).
I LOVE VICENTE
Yeah I thought Vicente was outstanding last season for Valencia and it looks as though he's started the new season in the same vein. He was surely one of the best and most consistent performers in Europe last year.
Why is Patrick Vieira not included??!! He was one of the biggest and most important players in a team that went through the whole season unbeaten in the league.
I think these ommissions just go to underline how this award too often rewards celebrity and shirt sales over footballing achievement. That's obviously not to take anything away from the players on the list who performed brilliantly over the year and I think we have all come to a general consensus on who those players are (or maybe we haven't!!).
sehnsucht79
07-10-2004, 02:32
This might sounds a bit too harsh and forgive me if it's too offensive, but honestly. Anyone who plays in England and scores a lot of goals do not really flatter my taste. As Zizou himself said, the real test begins OUTSIDE england, namely Italy. And I think that's a silly list of players they have there for Fifa player of the year.
They should give an award to the most nominated player, then it surely goes to AC Milan - Paolo Maldini
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