Terry is an arse!
John Terry snubs Cristiano Ronaldo in Fifa World Player of the Year vote
When Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his latest award, Fifa World Player of the Year in Zurich, it was without the help of a number of his Premier League adversaries, principal among them Chelsea and England captain John Terry.
By Steve Wilson
Last Updated: 8:47PM GMT 13 Jan 2009
Thanks but no thanks: Manchester united's Cristiano Ronaldo wins the Fifa World Player of the Year award won with little support from Chelsea's John Terry Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Terry ranked Ronaldo only third best in the world, behind Xavi of Barcelona and Fernando Torres, with Michael Ballack, Craig Bellamy, Sami Hyypia, Yossi Benayoun and Shay Given also overlooking the Portuguese for top spot.
England's present and former managers, Fabio Capello and Sven Goran Eriksson, however, did place Ronaldo first with their vote, as did Javier Mascherano, Lucas Neill, Dimitar Berbatov, Didier Drogba and Park Ji-Sung.
The award saw the captains and managers of international sides pick their top three players of 2008, with five points awarded for a first preference, three for second and one for third.
Ronaldo accumulated 935 points, a clear victor over Lionel Messi (678) and Torres (203) in third.
Steven Gerrard was the highest placed Englishman, in sixth place, behind Kaka and Xavi.
That Terry placed Ronaldo down his choice is indication that painful memories of Moscow, in which both players missed a penalty in the shoot-out at the end of an epic Champions League final, may still be raw in the Chelsea captain's mind.
And in a season where Manchester United won the domestic title as well as the Champions League, that Ronaldo was the only representative from Sir Alex Ferguson's all conquering side to feature adds further to the sense of voting on personality as much as achievement and talent.
Two Arsenal players – Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor – and five from Chelsea featured on the 23 man list.
Given, as captain of Ireland, backed a goalkeeping peer in Iker Casillas while Benayoun of Israel and Hyypia of Finland rated club team-mate Torres above Ronaldo.
In Eastern Europe there was the kind of local favouritism that forced Terry Wogan to hand in his cards as compere of the Eurovision song contest last year.
Of Russian playmaker and Arsenal target Andrei Arshavin's four nominations, two were from the coach and manager of Tajikistan, one from Kyrgyzstan and the final from Bosnia Herzegovina.
Showing no discernible bias, only a confusing lonely path, was French coach Raymond Domenech who was the only man to select the combination of Samuel Eto'o, Messi and Arshavin.
And Peter Scudamore's ambitious aim of selling the Premier League product to the east appears to be working if Chinese Taipei's voting pattern is any evidence – Frank Lampard, Gerrard and Terry the three best players on the planet, according to Tsai Hsien-Tang.
Selected votes:
Country
Name -Captain of the country or manager of the country
First
Second
Third
England
John Terry
Xavi
Fernando Torres
Cristiano Ronaldo
England
Fabio Capello
Cristiano Ronaldo
Lionel Messi
Fernando Torres
Germany
Michael Ballack
Fernando Torres
Cristiano Ronaldo
John Terry
Argentina
Javier Mascherano
Cristiano Ronaldo
Fernando Torres
Steven Gerrard
Israel
Yossi Benayoun
Fernando Torres
Steven Gerrard
Cristiano Ronaldo
Portugal
Nuno Gomes
Ruud van Nistelrooy
Didier Drogba
Samuel Eto'o
Republic of Ireland
Shay Given
Iker Casillas
Cristiano Ronaldo
Lionel Messi
Togo
Emmanuel Adebayor
Cristiano Ronaldo
Lionel Messi
Steven Gerrard
Portugal
Carlos Queiroz
Xavi
Kaka
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Ukraine
Andriy Shevchenko
Cristiano Ronaldo
Fernando Torres
Steven Gerrard
Wales
Craig Bellamy
Lionel Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo
Fernando Torres
Mexico
Sven-Goran Eriksson
Cristiano Ronaldo
Lionel Messi
Fernando Torres
France
Raymond Domenech
Samuel Eto'o
Lionel Messi
Andrei Arshavin
Chinese Taipei
Tsai Hsien-Tang
Frank Lampard
Steven Gerrard
John Terry