In a surprising vote for someone other than the past seven winners of the FIFA Ballon d’Or, Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal believes that the 2014 winner should not be Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but either Toni Kroos, Phillip Lahm or Thomas Mueller from the World Cup winning German National team.
Ronaldo was the winner of last year’s Ballon d’ Or prize and Lionel Messi the three years before that. For three consecutive years, Ronaldo or Messi have either finished first or second in the voting and are the overwhelming favorites to finish in that order again this year. In addition to the two greatest soccer players of our generation, other nominees include: Angel Di Maria, James Rodriguez, Gareth Bale, Manuel Neuer, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Goetze.
Clearly Van Gaal is putting more impetus on the World Cup, but the former coach of the Netherlands has to understand the meaning of the award itself.
“You always have to win something and the best thing to win is the World Championship,” said Van Gaal on Wednesday. “I hope it shall be a German player because they deserve it. In Germany, the level of matches in the Bundesliga is also very high.”
Perhaps Van Gaal is merely trying to stir the drink that is the debate over the award. Clearly the award goes to the best individual player of the year and not the best team. Germany was leaps and bounds the best “team” in the World Cup tournament, but Lionel Messi was a one-man wrecking crew who led Argentina to within minutes of a potential world cup championship and Ronaldo is having one of the greatest goal scoring season in the history of the sport.
The World Cup is a much more difficult and greater prize to win. It encompasses four years of hard work and working as a team. I don’t believe any member of Germany would trade in their Cupo del Mundo trophy for a Ballon d’Or and therein lies the vast difference between the two prizes. Messi and Ronaldo can win as many individual accolades they want, but will they ever win the World Cup for their country? Doubtful.
Louis Van Gaal should focus more on his tenure at Old Trafford which is off to its worst start since 1986. Van Gaal has the Red Devils at just 13 points through 10 games this season.
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