Nigeria Content Online

When the Glo/CAF African Footballer of the year Award winner was
declared this past week not a single protest voice was heard.

In joint acclamation, Inter Milan and Cameroun striker Samuel
Eto’o was crowned king of African football for an unprecedented fourth time.

The Cameroon all-time leading scorer with 42 goals in 87 games
has always showed incredible acceleration towards goal and has great composure
at scoring in one on one situations. Enter then the new king of African
football, Samuel Eto’o Fils.

The FIFA awards, Ballon D’or, may not throw up such a clear
winner. The short list of three, already excludes two of the world’s best
players last season in Inter Milan’s Dutch midfield, Wesley Sneider and
Uruguay’s Atletico Madrid striker, Diego Forlan. FIFA’s list includes Xavi
Hernandez, the 30-year-old Barcelona and Spain midfielder, who is the heartbeat
of perhaps the most stylish team in the last two or three years.

Xavi is a sublime technician and is the orchestra master that
sets the tempo for Barcelona’s very exciting displays. Without a doubt a
candidate but in spite of being a world cup winner at South Africa 2010, still
rates behind Wesley Sneijder in achievement this season.

Andres Iniesta, 26, joined Barcelona from Albacete as a
12-year-old and showed very early he was a prodigious talent. Alongside Xavi,
Iniesta operates as an auxiliary forward and is a consistent performer and
widely acknowledged as one of the world’s best players today, playing a very
important role in Barcelona’s glorious six trophy-season. Iniesta capped an
excellent World Cup, South Africa 2010, with the winning goal, which gave Spain
the title for the first time.

A wonderful technician and arguably the first passer of the ball
in world football today, he is versatile, intuitive even if his physical
attribute are not great. He is the complete midfielder and again a credible
choice for the Ballon D’or crown.

Dropping Sneijder in
favour of Messi

Lionel Messi, 23, Argentina’s heir apparent to Diego Maradona’s
crown stands only 1.70m tall. Like his other illustrious Barcelona team mates,
Xavi and Iniesta; his ball skills and balance are exceptional while his runs
from deep position are almost unstoppable.

Guilty of often searching for ways to finish off moves himself
instead of a better positioned team mate to shoot at goal, Messi is a goal merchant
with 49 goals in 58 starts last season; he has a massive haul already this
season.

In spite for his amazing displays for Barcelona, his performance
for Argentina appears negligible. He performed below par at the 2006 World Cup
in Germany and again he failed to inspire Argentina against the youthful
Germans at the 2010 World Cup where he did not score a goal. Unlike his team
mates in the Spanish national team, Iniesta and Xavi, Messi has only the La
Liga title as silverware collection for the last season which raises question
on how FIFA arrived at his name as deserving of being on a final list that
excludes Diego Forlan and Wesley Sneijder.

Diego Forlan is Uruguay’s best known footballer. A very talented
player, he was Uruguay’s top marksman in the World cup qualifiers and finished
joint top scorer at the World cup 2010. He was named the tournament’s Most
Valuable Player for his wonderful contributions to Uruguay’s play and run at
the Mundial. He did not make the FIFA shortlist, but Messi did.

Wesley Sneijder was the difference between Inter Milan and all
oppositions they faced last season, Barcelona inclusive. And he added a
virtuoso performance with four goals in the World Cup and an appearance in the
final match; I cannot see why he did not make FIFA final shortlist. With these
credentials, Sneijder ought to win the Ballon D’or.

Once again, FIFA’s crookedness shows up in a vulgar manner in
its very subjective and questionable selection of candidates for the World
footballer of the year. I do not look forward to this year’s ‘arranged’
crowning of the FIFA choice.

In any case this is what you get when people and organisations
do not keep to what they know how to do best. There will always be
controversies with awards like this, but FIFA goofed big time this time around
with their unsellable shortlist.

Anyway like many things concerning FIFA, there are reasons to
believe that the 2010 Ballon D’or has been rigged in favour of Barcelona
players for reasons known only to FIFA.

But enjoy the yuletide period folks in spite of FIFA and its filthy stones.