Opinion – PVC: FIFA’s award for the best in the world is the victory of the collective game

This Monday (17) FIFA hands out the award for the best player in the world for the thirtieth time and it will be the 15th edition in which the winner will not have won any of the most coveted trophies by their clubs. Neither the World Cup, nor the Champions League, nor the Eurocup.

The Best is likely to be awarded to Messi, Argentina’s Copa America champion. Eleven of the last fifteen awards went to individual highlights from ultra winning teams. Of the four exceptions, Messi won three.

In 2010, when he fell in the quarterfinals of the World Cup and the semifinals of the Champions League; in 2012, the year he won only the Copa del Rey; in 2019, Spanish champion.

When there is no one who is in the condition of the best in the world, he gives himself to who he really is: Messi.

Liverpool’s Egyptian Salah and Bayern’s Polish Lewandowski, Messi’s competitors, also missed out on the most coveted titles.

The counterpoint is that the best teams of 2021 do not have any individual finalists: Chelsea and Italy. Donnarumma is in the running for the best goalkeeper in the world. He was champion and chosen as the best player of the Eurocup, but he doesn’t compete with Messi, Salah and Lewandowski.

Among goalkeepers, Neuer competed in 2014.

This year’s contest marks Cristiano Ronaldo’s first absence since 2010, but primarily expresses the year of team play. Who from Chelsea, champions of the Champions League, could compete for the best in the world? Perhaps the Kante steering wheel. It is rarer to see a defensive midfielder rewarded than a centre-back like Cannavaro or Beckenbauer.

From Italy, only Jorginho, besides Donnarumma.

It is not fair to say that Italy represented the victory of defensiveness. On the contrary, Azzurri Roberto Mancini was remarkable for his offensiveness and, always in search of a goal, reached the biggest unbeaten streak in the history of the national teams – 37 matches.

Chelsea beat Manchester City in the Champions League final with 42% possession and allowing only one shot from Pep Guardiola’s team. Which is why it is possible that Tuchel, or Mancini, will win the trophy for best coach, although everyone knows that the highlight of his profession is Guardiola. The Messi of coaches.

It is curious the fascination for the individual prize in such a collective sport and that every year it depends more on the rehearsals of plays to allow the best players to be in one-on-one situations. If there is no collective strategy for this, geniuses succumb to double, sometimes triple, marking.

The fact is that Chelsea and Italy were the best teams of the year and they don’t have any competitors to The Best, among the players. Among women, the situation is different. The favorite is Alexia Putellas, already awarded the Ballon d’Or by France Football and honored in music by Skank, composed in 2013.

Samuel Rosa and Nando Reis added the name of the Champions League ace, champion for Barcelona, ​​to Messi and Gaudí. The three finalists were in the European decision: Alexia and Jennifer Hermoso, from Barcelona, ​​Sam Kerr, from Chelsea, from Australia.

You can’t say it’s a trend, because since 2004 men have always had a champion finalist in the Champions, Euro or World Cup. But at The Best, this year, it was the collective game.

Is not fair

The pressure on the Palmeiras board to hire a striker doesn’t seem fair. First, because the club has already signed Navarro. Second, because it has been more common to celebrate titles than when going to the airport to celebrate the signing of Miguel Borja.

The German

German coaches were offered to Atlético, before the signing of Antonio Mohamed. The reaction was to judge that Brazil has not yet become Saudi Arabia, to need coaches who need interpreters. Fact. Even though Lothar Matthäus directed Athletico in 2006.