Pick your Fifa Ballon d'Or 2010 winner

Expect to see future Ballon d'Or Jack Wilshire on the 2011 list.

*future Ballon d'Or winner*, natch.

Wait, only two representatives from The Best League In The World?

i see 3*. or 6**.

*Sky's Barclays Premier League.

**Bundesliga

Three - Drogba, Fábregas and Gyan, who has played four games.

told ya.

voted drogs. tempted to say cronaldo 2nd, for even wilder challops.

Sorry Gyan. I'd vote for you because it'd be nice to have the Ballon d'Or presented to a Sunderland player, but I already voted for Forlan.

Boring obvious answer, but it's Messi.

Robben did have a pretty great year for Bayern, but yeah, it's Messi.

Or possibly Sneijder.

Messi won it last year, though, and there doesn't seem to be a history of the judges picking the same player two years in a row.

Van Basten won in '88 and '89, and proper Ronaldo won in '97 and '02.

some people don't consider 97 & 02 to be in a row, though

Michael Owen won in 2001, off the back of his hat-trick in Germany I take it

http://www.sporcle.com/games/ballondorwinners.php

41. Should probably have got 5 of the others.

3. Spaniard
2. Sneijder
1. Forlan

haha, OK, I forgot all about Kaka in that sporcle quiz.

Forlan doesn't deserve this, great World Cup but it's about more than the World Cup. Decent season with Athletico as well but Best Player In The World? Really?

can't see past messi

BALLON D'OR SHORTLIST - MANAGERS

Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea/ITA)

Vicente del Bosque (Spain/ESP)

Alex Ferguson (Manchester United/SCO)

Pep Guardiola (Barcelona/ESP)

Joachim Loew (Germany/GER)

Phil Brown (Hull City/ENG)

Jose Mourinho (Inter Milan/Real Madrid/POR)

Oscar Tabárez (Uruguay/URU)

Louis Van Gaal (Bayern Munich/NED)

Bert Van Marwijk (Netherlands/NED)

Arsène Wenger (Arsenal/FRA)

There can only be one.

Iniesta ftw

What about the women's awards?

Can't see beyond Mourinho, Del Bosque and Brown for the managers.

sneijder will and probably should win, but i voted for best atm = eto'o

Golden Boot winners tend either to win or come second, so I'd go for Thomas Müller.

Decent season with Athletico

that's putting it mildly. i'm weighting achievements only a little over quality.

Can't see beyond Mourinho, Del Bosque and Brown for the managers.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 26 October 2010 14:38 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

These three standing side to side would resemble the evolution of man.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/media/ronnies.jpg

Forlan Maradona'd them a Europa League trophy guyz. Not exactly just a 'decent' season. And Cronaldo scored 4 at the weekend = better than Eto'o atm.

Eto'o's on 19 from his last 16 iirc - it's not just a survey of the last thirty seconds

Ronaldo has scored 43 goals in 46 appearences for Real, that's some strike rate

wow, he's really scored that many? i knew he was on a streak but... wow. he's only one goal away from scoring as many this season as he did the one previous (where he looked about as useful as goran pandev?)

that's the "mess" benitez has put himself in. when milito got injured eto'o basically just said "i'm not gonna play lw anymore" and started playing the best football of his career. no idea what will happen when milito comes back, as i'm sure he would be rubbish as a winger.

I thought Forlan had a pretty ropey first half of the season last year iirc. But then again so did Athletic in general. Once Quique Sanchez Florez took over he was brilliant however and had a great WC obviously.

well this is a 2010 poll not a 2009 one so

Oh right. I always think in terms of seasons. So carry on.

xavi has to win one sooner or later

There is no h in atletico.

When forlán starts without kun for atleti he can disappoint and his world cup was also a team effort.

the atletico side that won uefa cup were abject too but I still don't think forlan is the best player in the world however much I love him

Finding out Utd sold him for about £2m made my week

pretty sure this will go to either Xavi or Iniesta

this is messi.

i mean stop.

Two more for Ronaldo tonight - he's almost on a goal-a-game for Real now. That's pretty amazing, I hadn't realised he was on anything like so hot a streak.

read yr blogs ffs.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

it's not my usual line in these things, but a vote for other than messi is de facto challopian

trouble is iniesta being nominated for 1 goal, rather than sneijder who would certainly have won it had holland scraped a penalty shootout victory

fuck fifa's world cup bias tho, has to be messi for just being ridiculously good

voted for dude from best league in the world

stir, stir, stir

xavi = heart of two landmark teams & creator of messi's oxygen

i retract challops accusation for xaviesta, tbh

xavi is acceptable
iniesta is great but has done less than xavi this year

xaviesta
schiggs
torrard

roonderson

torrard almost onomatapaetically hints at the retardation to the team caused by playing this sad childbeast

ardard = old english for incompatibility

why onomatopoeic?

unless as in torrar' to any chance of proper glory for tarnished relic of bygone era

omg

Gerrard lampard combo gives gerrard or lampard.

OLDE ENGLISH KNEWE

it's that ardard story

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

acceptable

Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta has backed Inter ace Wesley Sneijder for the Ballon D'Or.

Along with Barcelona team-mate Xavi, Iniesta is expected to fight with the Dutchman for the award. He believes Sneijder will get it, despite UEFA chief Michel Platini backing Xavi on Wednesday.

"Sneijder deserves it without a doubt," Iniesta told L'Equipe.

"I don't deserve it, behind Sneijder there is Xavi, Lionel Messi and Iker Casillas."

iniesta is a mensch as well as a great player

gonna be embarassing if as rumoured he gets the award

hardly embarrassing, but xavi, schneider and messi ahead of him certainly

embarassing cuz it isn't justaward show humility

his top four makes a lot of sense

Didn't know about this final three man Messi-Xavi-Iniesta shortlist until just now.

All times given here are in CET, local to Zurich, and are given for events on Monday 10 January 2011.

· 13:00 LIVE coverage starts on Goal.com!
· 14:00 Women's World Player of the Year and Women's World Coach of the Year press conferences begin.
· 15:00 Men's FIFA Ballon d'Or and Men's World Coach of the Year press conferences begin.
· 17:00 "Red carpet" procession outside the Zurich Kongresshaus for fans and media to get up close and personal with the star players.
· 18:30 Seats taken for the FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala.
· 19:00 The FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala begins.
· 20:00 FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala ends, and a mixed zone begins for player and coach reactions.

aw, misread that as a fine example of our boy Nicklas' limitless self-regard.