The Ballon d’Or & The World Cup

March 15th, 2010 | by: chris |

Wayne-Rooney-Lionel-Messi-001

Though Gonzalo Higuain may protest, two names dominated the scoreboards this weekend: Lionel Messi & Wayne Rooney. Why? It’s simple: both are currently in blistering form, scoring goals at dizzying pace (Wayne a brace, Leo a hat trick) and thus breaking away from the pack in the dash (slow, consequential dash) for the ESM European Golden Shoe. Standings (games remaining in parenthesis):

1. Wayne Rooney 25 x 2.0 = 50 (8)
2. Lionel Messi 22 x 2.0 = 44 (12)
3. Didier Drogba 21 x 2.0 = 42 (9)

While mere goals don’t mean one nab the Ballon d’Or, they’re both two of the best in the world going into the final stretches of the domestic and continental seasons. They both also seem to have this aura about them, an inexplicable cloud of inevitable success no matter the opposition, and that does make you a Ballon d’Or candidate.

Most years.

There are two competitions which tickle the fancy of Ballon d’Or voters above all: the World Cup & the Champions League, and in that order. The Euros do matter, but not quite to the degree of either the club or country behemoth.

Which means normally we’d be now entering the stage of the season where Ballon d’Or whispers start to gain legitimacy. The first round Champions League knockouts are half over, Man Utd are through while Barcelona have a slight advantage going into tomorrow’s Nou Camp return leg, and this is when Ballon d’Or winners are made – some almost entirely (see: Kaka, 2007).

Yet this is a World Cup year, and if recent history tells us anything, you can almost forget the rest of the year. The final World Cup spot of the winners’ team tells the story starting from the last page:

‘06: Cannavaro – Winner
‘02: Ronaldo – Winner
‘98: Zidane – Winner

—

‘94: Stoichkov – 4th*
‘90: Matthaus – Winner
‘86: Belanov – 1st KO*
‘82: Rossi – Winner
‘78: Keegan – DNP*
‘74: Cruijff – 2nd
‘70: Muller – 3rd*

(England was not involved with World Cup 1978 for sporting reasons.)

The reason for the break in 1995 is a Ballon d’Or rule change which made non-Europeans eligible for the award, changing the entire scope of the honor, in the process also earning it a whole new sense of legitimacy. Thus the asterisk.

The asterisk indicates a World Cup won by a non-European side, meaning once in the last 10 World Cups has a European World Cup winner not featured the Ballon d’Or winner. And since the award was expanded in 1995, every Ballon d’Or winner in a World Cup year came from the winner. Which isn’t, of course, to discredit any of their awards, as leading your country to a World Cup is eclipsed by absolutely nothing in the sport, thus should be – and was – rewarded as such. But it means if you’re a professional footballer and individual awards are your bag, it may behoove you to put it on cruise control ’til June 10th or so.

And if you happen to be Lionel Messi or Wayne Rooney (hi, love your work), all you need to do to cap a brilliant season with football’s highest individual honor is shepherd your team to football’s highest team honor. No pressure.

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Elliot

It’s Rooneys this year.

The only way he looses is if Messi finally shows up for the NT and maybe scores a couple of goals and wins the World Cup

That’s not going to happen, therefore Mr Rooney will be the winner.
MoMONEY

I dissagree. England will choke as usual in the WC. QF at most I would think. Messi is still far and away the better player
Yogesh

I tend to agree with the sentiment in the article. This year might not pan out same though. Right now, Messi and Rooney are leading and if one of them wins CL, then they are going to be front runner. As you said though WC will change. If some one does put in sparkling performance in WC, they will take the vote and deservedly so. But if a team wins in WC on team strength and no stand out individuals, then the front runner from Messi/Rooney stand a good chance.

Realistically though, i expect some one from WC winner team (I hope Xavi) to take the honour at end of year.
fab

messi is better
Dex

The photo says it all: Rooney is hanging on deperately as Messi pulls away.
http://7pop.net/ 7pop.net

I love England!^^
Rachel

Even if Spain win the World Cup, the only players with any realistic chance of winning the Ballon d’O
Rachel

Even if Spain win the World Cup, the only players with any realistic chance of winning the Ballon D’Or are – regardless of events in the WC or their club sides’ seasons – Kaka, Rooney, Messi and C-Ron. Iniesta, Casillas and Xavi aren’t perceived by the media as “talented” or “dishy” enough.
vince

Rooney is a great player who is always willing to do more for his club, always working hard and with the right atittude on the field.
But…. Messi is a maestro with the ball at his feet.
Rooney is a finisher.
Unless he finishes with way more goals than Messi, the memory of Messi’s exploits are that of sheer poetry in motion.

Who cares about the Ballon?
The title that matters is FIFA player of the year.

Unfortunately these trophies are usually only given to scorers since only goals can be quantified.
PHM

Rooney is in it only because the English media are campaigning for one their own to finally land the tittle. Why else would they not be talking about Drogba since he is only five goals shy of Rooney’s tally to date, considering he missed some matches during the Africa Nations Cup and he has that game in hand in the league? Lets hear what they say when Drogba surpasses him. Rooney is a fine player I agree but I am not going to insult Messi by comparing him with Rooney. Messi is in a class of his own.