On Monday, a whole bunch of the most famous football names arrived in London. Although Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo did not participate in the ceremony, there was still plenty to see.
L. Messi did not attend the ceremony for the obvious reason - he did not make it into the top three finalists for the first time in the history of these awards. The Argentine's name ended up in the top eleven, but the fact that Messi finished fifth in the voting for the best player tells us that we should not take these awards seriously.
C. Ronaldo made it into the top three and posed the biggest competition to Luka Modric, but like Messi, the Portuguese was one of only two nominees who did not attend the awards.
During the ceremony, Fabio Capello's remarks were accurate - Messi and Ronaldo behave poorly by refusing invitations to the event. The legendary coach's argument was quite strong - both players would undoubtedly have attended if they knew that the main prize would go to one of them.
The voting for the best football player on the planet is one of the biggest flaws - we still do not know by what criteria the players' performances are evaluated by national team coaches and captains. Looking at the results of past years, it is easy to get the impression that the World Cup in Russia had the greatest influence.
We cannot say that Luka Modric did not deserve this award, but we understand that he became the winner mainly because of those seven matches. We know that the Croatian does not have impressive statistics, but we understand that he is valuable to his teams not only with goals and assists, but also with his dedication, hard work, and intellectual thinking on the field.
Congratulations, Luka Modric!
We understand well that if these awards were based on intellectual understanding rather than emotions, L. Messi would not have had a serious competitor in any year. Messi had the best statistics among all players playing in Europe last season, led his national team to the World Cup, won two important titles in Spain with Barcelona, but somehow still did not make it into the top three. It is both funny and sad at the same time.
The Best Football Player awards were not the worst part of these awards, by far - it is still pleasing that finally not only goal-scoring players are being recognized. Much worse than the award for the best player on the planet is the FIFA voting system.
It is almost the first time that the Puskas Award winner has been questioned in this way. Discussions arose unexpectedly - Mohamed Salah's strike against Everton was named the most beautiful goal, even though this goal was not even the most beautiful one that Salah scored last season.
In these awards, one essential factor worked - the voting of football fans. For 95.69 million Egyptians, M. Salah is not only the best football player on the planet but also a national hero, which is why M. Salah came to receive the goal of the year award.
Can we blame M. Salah and his loving fans for this? No. Should we throw stones at the FIFA garden? Yes.
Imagine scoring a goal in the biggest club football tournament final or in another important match, but then finding out that M. Salah's goal, which L. Messi dribbles past once every other week, wins the Puskas Award. It's not hard to imagine what the players think about the importance of these awards.
What about the other FIFA events - the best goalkeeper on the planet is selected Thibaut Courtois, who shone with the Belgian national team in the World Cup, and David De Gea is selected in the top eleven. The same situation occurred for L. Messi and M. Salah: one of them ended up in the top three players, the other - in the top eleven. It's hard to even find words to explain this phenomenon in football.
When it seemed that FIFA had finally removed Thiago Silva from their best eleven, somehow Thiago Silva, who had not even played in the World Cup due to injury, became part of the top eleven.
All these nominations and the names in them turn the award ceremony into a football parody. It is likely that Ballon d'Or winner L. Modric will not be outshone this year, but if the Golden Ball goes to someone other than L. Messi, we can also talk about the seriousness of these awards. For many, it should be clear - no player comes close to Messi's individual mastery. If only individual player performances were evaluated, as should be the case in these awards, no player, except the Argentine himself, would even come close to touching the award.
Aivaras Katutis, eurofootball.lt
