I think it’s fair to say that personal awards in a team game are, essentially, meaningless, but quite how FIFA have managed to overlook Robin van Persie for the 2011 Ballon d’Or is something of a mystery.
In this calendar year van Persie has scored an astonishing 38 goals in all competitions for club and country yet cannot find a place on a list which contains Luis Suarez and Diego Forlán. Fine players both, in their way, but neither of them has come close to having the impact van Persie has in 2011.
Éric Abidal (France), Sergio Agüero (Argentina), Karim Benzema (France), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Dani Alves (Brazil), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Cesc Fàbregas (Spain), Diego Forlán (Uruguay), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Müller (Germany), Nani (Portugal), Neymar (Brazil), Mesut Özil (Germany), Gerard Piqué (Spain), Wayne Rooney (England), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), Luis Suárez (Uruguay), David Villa (Spain), Xabi Alonso (Spain), Xavi (Spain).
And look, on a human level I’m as delighted as the next man that Eric Abidal has overcome his illness and got back to playing football again, but to include him as a candidate for this award when you compare his on-pitch performances to that of Robin is simply ludicrous. It’s almost insulting to Abidal. Why not simply put a star beside his name and qualify his inclusion as ‘Best comeback from a tumour’?
Even our former captain, Cesc Fabregas, while beginning his Barcelona career in fine style, has spent more time out injured in 2011 than on the pitch so to nominate him seems odd indeed.
By omitting the Dutchman FIFA have diminished a once prestigious award even further. Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger has been shortlisted for the FIFA World Coach of the Year award:
Vicente Del Bosque (Spain/Spain national team), Alex Ferguson (Scotland/Manchester United FC), Rudi Garcia (France/Lille OSC), Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Barcelona), Jürgen Klopp (Germany/Borussia Dortmund), Joachim Löw (Germany/Germany national team), José Mourinho (Portugal/Real Madrid C.F.), Óscar Tabárez (Uruguay/Uruguay national team), André Villas-Boas (Portugal/FC Porto, Chelsea FC), Arsène Wenger (France/Arsenal FC).
Again, as much as I love Le Boss, I don’t think our performance last season merits a place on that list, but then, as has been proved with the van Persie stuff here, we’re dealing with some very strange people.
FIFA. Oh yeah.
travesty
Bizarre. He’s scored 28 goals since Jan to Rooney’s 19. And is not on the list. FIFA, you are wankers!
The credability of FIFA continues to fall…
Utter lamentable c*nts!
I suspect that van Persie is like the honey badger though. He don’t give a shit
Maybe the honeybadger should just take it.
Dont worry, Verminator will go round Messi’s house and just take it.
whatever.. that shortlist is pointless, everyone knows Messi will win it anyway. And the coach list.. it seems that Fergie and Wenger are always in it no matter what.
Ridiculous, I can see why Surez is there after his man of the tournament performance in the Copa America, which I guess is why Forlan gets the nod.
But Muller? Rooney? Villa? Benzema? Casillas? Great players, but none have them have been in their best form for the majority of the past year, some might deserve honarble mentions but the Ballon D’or, ahead of RvP? Fifa stealing this award has ruined it utterly.
Benzema don’t desrve Shit!
One can argue that Benzema is shit at the moment.
Nani over van persie is also a complete joke ! But then again as FIFA is corrupt as fuck then who gives a shit anyway ?
Up the Gooners
When was the last time an Arsenal player won the golden ball?
On a strange note though, how is Bendtner not in the list? I thought he’s the best footballer in the world?
52 up votes…co-incidence….?
FIFA = Federation de International Fuckers and Assholes
I’m pretty sure this is an elaborate ploy to destabilise our club. It sends the message that if you play at arsenal, you will be o verlooked and if you want to win the golden testicle, you must tr ansfer to a testicular level club. Pure underhanded tactics by Barcelona to sign van persie
You need to get out more!!
… fifa are out of touch and its run by a bunch of corrupt phillistines!! and they continually proove this over and over again!!
Sepp Blatter the man who stood up for the rights of the horribly mistreated and oppressed millionaire footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, comparing his Real Madrid transfer saga plight to the suffering of slaves!! Jog on you fossil!!
Van is the man…. the stats and more importantly his football has done all the talking!!
Some problem with DNA, maybe?
Fabregas is on that list and we let him go for £35m approx. That is the one thing that bugs me about last summer. Not any of the other players who went. Nasri was good business, Enormous and the rest had to leave if the club was to progress. But The Arse were stuffed by Barca over Fabregas.
Well you also had the fact that Barca were the best in the world and Fabregas’s former and hometown team against us
still shouldnt have buckled like we did
Cesc had 4 years on a contract and the Euro’s next summer so he would have played out of his skin for us (if there was ever any doubt).
Barca are cunts.
Eboe not enormous! Predictive text!
FIFA are a bunch of twats who seem to hate arsenal. Fucking morons. TRAVESTY!
Lol what a joke, they think the world’s best striker is no better than benzema?
Maybe that’s what nasri meant when he said he can’t win the ballon d’Or at arsenal
i can easily see RVP bag around 30 goals in the PL this year…and then Fifa will have so much egg on their face, plus when holland win the Euros nxt summer with RVP bagging another couple of goals..then they will be covered in egg and then hurry and give the golden boot nxt year…
Hey blogs Ive heard that this years award is based on 2010 performance. The rules state that it is presented to the player who had been considered to have performed the best over the previous calendar year which in this case is 2010. But I could be wrong considering that the award is handed out in 2012.
Maybe that’s what the cunt meant*
Fuck the Ballon d’Or van Persie! He has still won the Ballon d’Arsenal which was awarded to him by every Arsenal fan around the globe!
Well played blogs, the honey badger is a tremendous beast who cares for no one. The YouTube video is hilarious.
With rvp, this stinks of when they once give it to nedved over Henry14, and Owen over bobby7.
FIFA are indeed are a bunch of cheese eating cunts.
I’m pretty sure Van Persie would rather win silverware with Arsenal this season than getting nominated on the FIFA list!
Haha, that picture made me chuckle! FIFA are a bunch of cunts, I wouldn’t get yourselves worked up folks. Quite happy for RVP to just keep on going without any extra attention personally…
FIFA is the dumps and it gives a bad name to the FIFA games franchise. I’ll pick Winning Eleven anytime anywhere.
In an effort to appear relevant, they have simply proved their irrelevance.
Who cares what they think?
Henry never won that, fifa had the balls to overlook him. You can say that it’s not surprising that rvp is not included.
Indeed, I have very little respect for fifa or any of their awards, especially when Ronaldo (original) and Zidane ‘won’ it the third time and Henry, who was miles ahead twice, was also denied.
However, I know that this award is for 2010 and RvP was injured for most times.
But, in view of the ridiculous names on that list -Abi who? Benze what?- then, based on his effectiveness when he was fit, he deserves to be there.
The next one covers 2011 and RvP will surely be there as only one man owns 2011-RvP.
If it was for 2010,y wasnt dat cunt*nasri* or bale in dat list,d list is fucked up
Sure Cuntinere Nasri had a good beginning to his 2010-11 season (same with Bale) but his end to the 2009-10 season was not that good (same with monkey man)
dannrodeo, remember Nasri was fantastic for only 6 months and this was early days, and sincerely, i was not blown away by Bale’s performances-only superb in a handful of games. Too much inconsistency IMHO. The real reason, however, is that fifa have lost the plot. Period!
I personally think FIFA have made the right decision… If they had included RvP, that would mean FIFA are reasonable and have good judgement. Now that they haven’t it’s ongoing proof of their “clownsmanship”.
.
Hilarious. But how would you explain the presence of messrs messi, cr7, eto’o and xavi on that list. Was it a ploy to mislead the world? Still laughing.
Have you all forgotten what they did to Henry twice while at Arsenal? Those wankers, they don’t hate RVP but Arsenal football club, and we here at AFC don’t give a flying fuck about their fucking corrupt awards. COYG!
What about that lower league bloke that broke his neck, he almost died to so surely he should be nominated?
Seems to be the critieria based on Abidals inclusion
The list may as well be titled as ‘Great fun to play with of Fifa 2012’
As side note… Why the hell isn’t Steve Kean included? Bet he’s gutted.
if my memory serves correctly, Robin Van Persie became one of the top scorers in the PL last season after being injured for almost half the season.
But Rooney, and Benzema still made the list while they had a whole season.
smh, FIFA=FAIL
At least Na$ri is on the list. He’d win the Bell-en d-Whore though.
I was disgusted by the Omission of van Persie, but hardly surprised. The only good thing associated with FIFA is on a shiny disk I stick in my 360.
Just goes to show if you’re not in Barca, Real or ManUre then you’re hard pressed to get any recognition for outstanding performances.
RvP knows the Gooners love him.
Balls!! that should read “At least Na$ri ISN’T on the list…”
FIFA can go suck the cheese of a dead tramps bell end for all I give a toss. I’m pretty certain that RVP doesn’t care about it either. Relax Gooners, we all knew FIFA were a pack of cunts before the list was released, what’s changed now?
What a joke… Only one Dutch player in that list… Me thinks the CUNTS at FIFA have a vendetta against the Dutch due to their tactics against Spain in the World Cup final…
Okay, van Persie wasn’t included because this list is based on form from Jan 2010 to Dec 2010. Cesc’s inclusion and van Persie’s ommision make a lot more sense now.
But Falcao, Sahin, Cavani and Di Natale should have been included for sure. Would exclude Benzema, Nani, Neymar and ROONEY. Can’t believe no one’s crying about Rooney’s inclusion in that list. What exactly did he do in 2010?
it wasn’t even a cancerous tumour and he got the best medical treatment money can buy so who giz a shit. Fuck him and his tumour. ROBIN YER PURSIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is a priceless trophy. Genius!
How did FIFA leave out Bayern’s goalie? Last year he took lowly Schalke all the way to the semi’s of the Champions League. He was the best in the business last year and should be on this short list as well.