Congratulations to Cristiano Ronaldo for winning the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year award. While Cristiano Ronaldo wasn’t my choice for the award, its easy to see why he won but the beef I have with this award has to do with the choices for the shortlist of candidates.

If this is supposed to be the “World” Player of the Year than how come only players based in Europe were on the shortlist. In geography class, we were taught that there were 7 continents and life has shown that Europe isn’t the only place that produces fine things, whether its goods & services or footballers.

In a year, when you had an Olympic tournament, a Euro 2008, a African Cup of Nations, World Cup qualifying, and various continental club tournaments full of outstanding performances, don’t tell me that FIFA couldn’t find players not based in Europe to put on the “World” Player of the year shortlist. COME ON, MAN!

Let’s begin. How could Deco be on the shortlist when he did nothing in ’08 and Joffre Guerron of Liga De Quito, the face of the 1st ever Ecuadorean side to win the Copa Libertadores is not on the shortlist. Gigi Buffon of Juventus is a great keeper but does he deserve to be on the shortlist over Sebastian Battaglia, the influential midfielder of Boca Juniors who actually won a trophy in 2008.

What about Mohamed Aboutrika? The Pharoahs playmaker had a double of his own winning the African Champions League with Al-Ahly and the African Cup of Nations with Egypt and he was not on the shortlist while Steven Gerrard of Liverpool was. Gerrard didn’t win anything and England didn’t even participate in Euro 2008.

The Chelsea duo of Didier Drogba & Frank Lampard are good players no doubt, but did not deserve to be shortlisted. Even Kaka who is a great player had a down year and shouldn’t have been shortlisted. Clear them out to make room for these guys who should have been on the shortlist:

Server Djeparov the Uzbekistan midfielder who won the Asian Footballer of the Year has helped Borat’s most hated rival into the final phase of Asian World Cup qualifying.

Guillermo Barros Schelotto, the ex Boca star won the MLS MVP & MLS Cup MVP in leading the Columbus Crew to its 1st MLS Championship.

Yasuhito Endo, the Gamba Osaka playmaker led the Japanese side to an Asian Champions League trophy and a 3rd place finish in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Lucas Barrios was a goal scoring beast for Colo Colo this year and didn’t get any love from FIFA or El Pais. Him & Guerron have legitimate beefs especially with El Pais.

Washington of Fluminense was deserving of shortlist recognition as he was a big part in the Tricolor Carioca reaching their 1st Libertadores final and was one of the co-leading goal scorers in the 2008 Brasileirao.

The fact is that the current FIFA “World” Player of the Year is not a global world encompassing award. Its a Eurocentric award, therefore the word “World” should be dropped from the name and simply known as the FIFA Player of the Year. That way, people know that a select few in FIFA’s leadership came up with a shortlist to acknowledge those players they deemed worthy of such an award.

FIFA’s Eurocentric minded selectors cornered national team captains and coaches into voting for European based players by only choosing European based players for the shortlist. The “World” in the FIFA “World” Player of the Year award is like when a U.S. professional sports team wins their league and claims to be “World Champion” that’s total bull$%^&!.

To legitimize the FIFA World Player of the Year award, winners of the player of the year for all the FIFA confederations should be automatically shortlisted. CONCACAF needs to get with the program cause the other confederations either give a P.O.Y. themselves or recognize their P.O.Y. through some media outlet. An idea would be to breakdown the shortlist in a manner similar to the break down of places each confederation receives in the World Cup tournament. It would be probably still be Euro dominated but at least there would be more of a global representation in the award’s shortlist. Now whether those nominated for the award actually win it, is a matter left to the democratic process. There just needs to be more variety on the ballot.

If FIFA continues to exclude non-European based players for its “World” Player of the Year award then the name needs to be changed to the more accurate title of FIFA Player of the Year. The problem is not the manner in which the winner is chosen or the winner themselves. Its the pool of candidates from which the award winner is chosen, it excludes many players that are worthy of nomination. Until non-European based players are included into the pool of candidates, FIFA’s award is not a “World” award and can never claim to be.

1st of all, Happy New Year to you and may 2009 be as exciting and intriguing as 2008. This past year was witness to some great moments and some truly historic performances from Liga De Quito’s monumental Libertadores victory to Spain shaking off their underachievers label with their impressive Euro 2008 title to Argentina repeating as Olympic champions. Many great players kept us suspended to our chairs or sofas or bar stools and made us realize that soccer players are the true sports magicians. As a fan of offense the 2008 WCB World XI will have a 3-5-2 look to it. That said, here are the magicians the 2008 WCB World XI:

Goalkeeper:
Iker Casillas

This is a no brainer, Real Madrid’s portero is the best in the world and my choice for Ballon D’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year, refer here. He was brilliant in the Euros as he anchored a Spanish defense that was not given enough credit for La Furia Roja‘s championship.

Defense:
On the right Barcelona’s Dani Alves.
 
The Brazilian defender has been the best & most used of Barcelona’s ’08 summer signings. He is obviously an attack minded right back (what Brazilian defender isn’t) but he is an underrated defender and for all his attacking, he is not a defensive liability.

In the middle is Manchester United’s Nemanja Vidic. 
 
Sir Alex’s Serbian Minister of Defense, Vidic might be Fergie’s best signing since he acquired Ruud Van Nistelrooy from PSV in 2001. It is quite possible that Vidic is Manchester United’s most valuable player even more than Cristiano Ronaldo. Not only is he a rock in the back, he’s shown a knack for scoring timely goals ask Hull City, Sunderland, and Gamba Osaka.

On the left is another Blaugrana defender, Catalan icon Carles Puyol.
 
The Barcelona captain is a natural center back but he’s so good that he can play any position on the backline and has. His partnership with Valencia’s Carlos Marchena in the middle of the Spanish defense was critical in Spain’s Euro success. Puyol managed to keep Barca’s backline serviceable when Lillian Thuram & Gabi Milito were consistently getting burned during the 07-08 season. You can’t have a a Best XI defense without Carles Puyol.

Midfielders:
Let’s begin with the central midfield and the men that back up the attacking players.  They don’t get as much attention as the attacking players but their teams would suck without them. 

Xavi
 
The player of the tournament for Euro 2008 and many people’s choice for the Ballon D’Or.  He is not spectacular but he does everything well. He has been Barcelona’s savior on many occasions and is mainly responsible for Barcelona being able to play in the Champions League despite the drama surrounding the team during the 07-08 season. 

Sebastián Battaglia

Boca Juniors were recently crowned Apertura champions after a dramatic 3-team playoff.  The fact they made it to that point is a credit to coach Carlos Ischia and Battaglia.  Without goal scoring icon Martin Palermo and public bickering amongst teammates, Battaglia helped to keep the team together on & off the pitch.  With a young group of talent forced into action, Boca’s #5 was the veteran presence in the midfield that helped Los Xeneizes become champions. El Pibe De Oro needs to include him for Los Albicelestes in World Cup qualifying.

In Part II, we’ll reveal the guys who get the goals, glory, and the women.  The attacking players will be revealed in Part II as well as the DT.