Debut
Messi has had a fabulous career and is still so young. He was born in Rosario Santa Fe in 1987 and joined Barcelona as a thirteen year old in 2000. At the age of sixteen, in 2003, he made his senior debut for the club in a friendly against Porto.
Two years later he led Argentina to the World Youth Championship and collected the top scorer and best player awards at the tournament. In that same year he made his debut for the senior Argentina side and also made his competitive debut for Barcelona.
Gold
In 2008 he won the Olympic Gold Medal with Argentina and finished second in the World Player of the Year award. In 2009 he scored one of the goals as Barcelona won the Champions League and helped Argentina to qualify for next summer’s World Cup.
Messi has played forty-one times for Argentina scoring thirteen goals. For Barcelona he has found the net ninety-one times in one hundred and seventy-nine games.
Treble
Last season he was instrumental in helping his club side to a treble of Champions League, the Spanish championship and Spanish cup.
It is fair to say that for a twenty-two year old, Messi has packed quite a lot into his career already!
There would not be too many people who would disagree with the decision to make Messi Europe’s best player but the rest of the top ten may well cause some debate.
Heights
In second place was Cristiano Ronaldo who helped Manchester United to the Premier League title and the final of the Champions League without ever really hitting the heights of the previous season.
Third was Barcelona and Spain’s Xavi with his club and international team-mate Iniesta in fourth.
Fifth
Sammy Eto’o, now with Inter, was voted in fifth place. Kaka, now at Real Madrid, was sixth and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, now at Barcelona, was seventh.
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney was eighth, Chelsea’s Didier Drogba ninth and Liverpool’s Steve Gerrard tenth.
Difficult
In my opinion it is difficult to see why Cristiano Ronaldo would finish ahead of Xavi, Iniesta and Eto’o who all had fabulous seasons and won three trophies. What did Kaka help Milan to achieve over the past twelve months? Has he really been the sixth best player in Europe? The same could be said for Ibrahimovic who is clearly a fine player but didn’t manage to help Inter to push on to the next level. Wayne Rooney has played well recently but it is surely difficult to justify a place in Europe’s top ten for the Manchester United man.
If we can pretty much agree on Messi deserving the award, who do you think should have made the other places in the top ten. Do you agree with the jurors or have they got it wrong?
- Soccer News Like
- Be the first of your friends!