i not begrudging the chi chi man his award, because he was head and shoulders above everyone over the last year. However its important to remember that the award is meant to recognize the best player in a calendar year; not the best player.
I think this is what Toppa and others are trying to get at.
Sometimes I feel like a football was a nicer place without the plethora of stats and information available to us. It was more innocent... You could give a fair and honest assessment of a player without googling up his assists, goal - conversion ratio, or supplying some youtube snippets of his outstanding moments.
Case in point Makalele. If it was up to me, he would have had at least one world player of the year to his name. But someone like him would never come into serious reckoning given that he lights up no statistical lists or doesnt live in the highlight reel. Goalkeepers will never get it... Defenders might get it as retribution if they have been excellent for the duration of their entire career.
Assessing players like this doesn't mitigate against the multitude of factors that contribute to a player's stats. For example, I believe that La Liga is a much more competitive league than the EPL because it is highly unpredictable. Right now, Valladolid and Gijon severely testing the best teams in La Liga right now while the best teams in the EPL rack up fully expected wins against any of the bottom 6 teams in that league. Say nothing of the fact that in the Man Utd system, Ronaldo operates more as a forward than anything else. I could bring forth a few other reasons..
I still maintain that he disappears in big games. The one anomaly was the CL final where he finally showed up, and i give him full credit for that, but against the best opposition he is nullifyable. After all, us fantasy league peongs can attest to this since we consistently see no returns in any gameweek where Man Utd plays a team in the top 4.
Now whoever between Filho or Kicker was the criminal who cited his goals against Liverpool (the game where Mascherano get send off early) and Arsenal (did absolutely nothing for the whole game then score a soft goal in the dregs) last season as examples of him overcoming this need to take ah serious backtrack.
Why I think Messi is a better player than Ronaldo is that he is unplayable against all comers. Be it the worst teams or the best teams, no one has shown the ability to hold him down. In the biggest fixtures, he still shines through and even if his team loses, you can still say he was hands down the best player on the pitch. Boy barbie Ronaldo is not on that level yet.
But hey... when you can rack up stats against the Wigans and West Broms of this world, win the EPL for your team and win the Champions League, then yes... a title fully deserved.
