FIFA Ballon d'Or 2014: Arguing the case for Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer
The Ballon d’Or Gala is scheduled for the 12th of January next year at Zurich. With all the votes now having come in to decide the top three of the Ballon d’Or ballot, the race to decide who takes home the trophy has just begun. Will Cristiano Ronaldo having won two Ballon d’Ors and Lionel Messi four, it’ll be interesting to see if the two of them can continue their duopoly over the award, or will Manuel Neuer be able to upstage the two of them and become the first goalkeeper to ever win the Ballon d’Or? Let’s take a sneak peek into the train of thought of the average voter for the award, and see why each of the nominees deserves the award.
#3 Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi has had one of the most tumultuous years of his career – one steeped in personal excellence on the field, but agonizingly bereft of the trophies that his talents so richly deserve. He fell short in the La Liga and Copa del Rey right at the last hurdle in 2013-14. As if that weren’t enough, he also missed the chance to get his hands on the World Cup trophy, losing to the overall superior German team at the end of extra time.
Messi did, though, walk away with the Guldbollen for the Best Player of the World Cup, emphatically silencing cynics who thought he couldn’t bring his Barcelona form on the international stage with Argentina.
Messi continued to produce moments of magic and pure genius all through 2014, finally recovering from the hamstring injury that had bugged him ever since that ill-fated encounter with Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc de Princes which left him with a pulled hamstring, one that he didn’t make a full recovery from till the turn of the calendar year. Messi finished the season with 20 goals in the latter half of the season in La Liga, pulling him above Diego Costa in the scoring charts.
Messi really came into his own at the FIFA World Cup, scoring four times and creating one more as he almost single-handedly led Argentina’s surprisingly anaemic attack past the stubborn defending of Switzerland and Belgium, converted a crucial penalty in the shootout against Netherlands in the semi-finals and threatened Germany all through the final.
Under Luis Enrique in the new season, Messi has taken up a deeper role, one that he has always preferred as it gives him the space and time that lets him run at defenders and create chances, doing what he does best. In 18 matches, Messi has 17 goals and 9 assists for Barcelona this season, maintaining his status as their biggest creative and attacking threat, even with the emergence of Neymar as a lethal finisher.