United's Cristiano Ronaldo came, not surprisingly, runner-up to AC Milan's Brazilian star Kaka who has been named World footballer of The Year after winning the most votes to secure France Football magazine's prestigous Ballon d'Or award.
Barcelona's Lionel Messi came third in the voting.
Not a lot of fans will be aware of the recent rule changes which coincided with this year's competition. The Ballon d'Or came to being in 1955, prior to 2007 the award was more popularly known as the European Footballer of The Year. The rules stated that nominees had to play for a club within UEFA's jurisdiction, and until 1995 all nominated players had to be European.
However, from 1995 until 2006 all players at European clubs were eligible. In 2007 France Football magazine announced that they had opened to the competition to players from across the globe making it a truly international award.
On winning the 2007 Ballon d'Or Kaka secured the most votes from the group of 96 journalists of which and for the first time, only 53 were Europeans. The judges had to choose five players from the list of 2007 nominees. Each of the five selected nominees is then awarded either one, two, three, four and five points.
Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten of Holland and Michel Platini of France are the only players who managed to win the award three times. With the recent rule changes the competition has surely become a lot harder to win.
Every one was expecting Ronnie to shine but sigh it was KAKA.Atleast i was hoping for him to win or give tough fight with votes atleast.But KAKA managed to make a win with 100+points in his hand than Ronaldo.
ReplyDeleteNot to worry with this one cause still FIFA player of the year.Who will win this one buddy.? Lets hope its Ronnie.I think KAKA again or may be some one else.I hope its one of the Reds.(i meant devils) :D
I'm not sure it's become harder to win to be honest. Though I think the gap between Kaká and Ronaldo should have been much closer - it's down to the opinion of 96 people at the end of the day.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day 100 points is not much of a difference. If 96 judges all voted 5 points for Kaka and 4 points for Ronaldo then there is a 96 point gap to start with between first and second place.
ReplyDeleteIt would probably reflect better if the judges each had one vote and that was it.