Now, it’s down to three players – Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. One of these players will win the FIFA player of the year award on Dec 19. Who, among these three, do you think deserves this crown?

To start with I don’t know how Lionel Messi got himself in there. Of course, he is a great young talent setting Europe on fire, assisting and scoring with every part of his body but when it comes to achievements and his contributions to the team’s successes, he should rank lower. Barcelona were eliminated early in the Champions league early this year and ended up second in the La Liga. Chelsea fared better this year than Barca. Messi is not quite the star in his national team, like he is with Barca. If Messi is in the short list, Drogba should have been there as well.

Then comes Kaka. Again a great player, no doubt. Great human being as well, if you know his personal side of things. Kaka did play a major role in Milan’s champions league success, along with some important contributions from Seedorf, Inzaghi and also few others. As far as their domestic season goes, Milan did not do anything too impressive or Kaka could not inspire them to come up with something special. Even in this season so far, Milan have been poor (they’re without a win in San Siro after 7 matches!). If Kaka deserves this award based on his champions league contribution, Steven Gerrard must have got nominated if not awarded when he won the champions league for Liverpool. I believe Gerrard’s contribution to Liverpool’s champions league win was much more than Kaka’s contribution to Milan’s European success last season. Like Messi, even Kaka has been mediocre for Brazil. In the Brazilian team, Kaka is completely dispensable.

Cristiano Ronaldo has a terrific season. He absolutely drove Man Utd to success in many matches on his own. He was many times the difference between 1 and 3 points. Ronaldo was the most important and biggest contributor to Man Utd winning the premier league title again. His team reached the champions league semi finals and lost to Milan. On an equal platform, Man Utd had everything in them to beat Milan. It was fatigue which made the difference (just like the Chelsea-Liverpool semifinal), otherwise Ronaldo might have taken them to the final or even won it. Ronaldo is magnificent for Portugal in the world cup as well as in the Euro qualifiers. The only gripe against Ronaldo is that he is not as consistent against the bigger teams as he is against the smaller ones.

When it comes to European and International football awards, the south european bias tends to be there. The players from Spanish and Italian league have an edge when compared to the ones from the English league. Believe this, no player from the English league has ever won the FIFA player award which is presented every single year.

So what’s my verdict? Cristiano Ronaldo. With due respects to Kaka and Messi and their achievements in this year, Ronaldo is way above them this year. As I’m writing this, Kaka has just won the Ballon d’Or beating Cristiano Ronaldo. If the race for FIFA player of the year is between Kaka and Ronaldo, Ballon d’Or shows that Kaka would win the FIFA award as well. But I still think Cristiano Ronaldo should be the FIFA player of the year.

{democracy:81}

What do you say?