FIFA's award ceremony is tonight... the Team of the Year, the Puskas award and also of course... the Ballon d'Or are up. Updates and thoughts as it happens... DTLW
Team of the year was leaked earlier by Sergio Ramos; Ronaldo zlatan Messi Iniesta Xavi Ribery Lahm Ramos silva Alves Neuer
CONFIRMED - FIFA TEAM OF THE YEAR - 2013 GK: Manuel Neuer DEF: Dani Alves DEF: Sergio Ramos DEF: Thiago Silva DEF: Phillip Lahm MID: Franck Ribery MID: Xavi MID: Andres Iniesta ATT: Cristiano Ronaldo ATT: Zlatan Ibrahimovic ATT: Lionel Messi
Interesting FIFA XI - well FIFA X after Sergio Ramos gets sent off early on. stolen from twitter - DanThomasESPN
Revealed in the USA... Clint Dempsey's ballot: 1. Ronaldo / 2. Messi / 3. Ibrahimovic Jurgen Klinsmann's ballot: 1. Ribery / 2. Bale / 3. Falcao
The full breakdown is here: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/bal...2/26/02/68/fboaward_menplayer2013_neutral.pdf It's quite interesting, and disheartening when you see players who have clearly just voted for their mates. Fair play to Gerrard for not doing that (though Suarez gets his third vote). Also quite surprising to see that Zlatan didn't vote for himself, maybe they're not allowed?
On a Southampton note... STEVEN DAVIS: 1. Lionel Messi / 2. Cristiano Ronaldo / 3. Franck Ribery VICTOR WANYAMA: 1. Cristiano Ronaldo / 2. Lionel Messi / 3. Franck Ribery GORDON STRACHAN: 1. Lionel Messi / 2. Cristiano Ronaldo / 3. Franck Ribery MARIAN PAHARS: 1. Lionel Messi / 2. Franck Ribery / 3. Cristiano Ronaldo
What's everyone's favourite footballing names from this list? Has to be a toss-up between Thailand captain Sintaweechai Hathairattanakool and St Vincent and Grenadines coach Cornelius Huggins for me.
All teammates of his. I guess Ronaldo has that excuse for Bale and Ãzil. Maybe he knows something about Falcao's future?
Read the list I linked to above and you'll see: International managers, captains and 'media' (though how they choose them is anyone's guess).