So once again FIFA have announced a group of candidates that they feel worthy of the prestigious FIFA Ballon d’Or award.

Here are the nominees…

Gareth Bale (Wales/Real Madrid), Karim Benzema (France/Real Madrid), Diego Costa (Spain/Chelsea), Thibaut Courtois (Belgium/Chelsea), Angel Di Maria (Argentina/Manchester United), Mario Gotze (Germany/Bayern Munich), Eden Hazard (Belgium/Chelsea), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden/PSG), Andres Iniesta (Spain/Barcelona)
Toni Kroos (Germany/Real Madrid), Philipp Lahm (Germany/Bayern Munich) Javier Mascherano (Argentina/Barcelona), Lionel Messi (Argentina/Barcelona), Thomas Muller (Germany/Bayern Munich), Manuel Neuer (Germany/Bayern Munich), Neymar (Brazil/Barcelona), Paul Pogba (France/Juventus) Sergio Ramos (Spain/Real Madrid) Arjen Robben (Netherlands/Bayern Munich), James Rodriguez (Colombia/Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany/Bayern Munich), Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast/Manchester City).

Now I don’t usually give two thoughts on this award. It’s an excuse for Sepp Blatter and Co to blow smoke up their own backsides and parade around with all the top talent.

Also, like La Liga, its been a very predictable two horse race for the top prize. With Barcelona’s Lionel Messi up against Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. Obvious both a wonderful players and stars of this generation but sharing the award in the last six years (if you include the Ballon d’or before the merge) has been very tedious.

But this year seems different (just like in La Liga where Atletico took the title) a new face may have entered the field of competition.

See I think this year we should forget about the creative wizards like Ronaldo (who once again failed to deliver at a World Cup) and Messi (who by his own standards had a disappointing year at the Nou Camp) and recognise the fact that goalkeepers can be just as important with their performances.

Germany and Bayern Munich keeper Manuel Neuer had a terrific year in between the sticks. His saves helped Bayern to another Bundesliga title as well as the DFB-Polka and the Fifa World Club Cup. The stunning shot-stopper also bagged himself the German footballer of the year award for 2014.

He also had a fantastic World Cup in Brazil, helping his nation secure the top prize. His performances also saw him awarded the Fifa World Cup Golden Glove after he kept four cleansheets in his seven appearances for Nationalelf (including in the final against Messi’s Argentina)

For Bayern, he was an ever present in their 52 matches in all competitions in 2013/14 and he never let his side down. At twenty-eight the Gelsenkirchen born goalie is only getting better! Which is scarily exciting!

His style is easy on the eye too. Yes his saves can be fantastic but his ability to act as sweeper quiet high up, inside his own half is extraordinary. It allows the defences he plays with more room and the chance to squeeze opponents further into their own territory. His stature and ability to rush out also puts the opposing strikers under immediate pressure and causing them to rush into making mistakes.

Just adding his name with the likes of Ronaldo and Messi shows you how great he’s been over the year as goalkeepers never usually get a look in with these individual awards. But its hard to overlook Neuer’s outstanding ability to keep cleansheets and help his sides to victories and keep out the likes of Messi and Co.

To show you how hard it is for a keeper to get recognised for such a trophy, only one stopper has ever won the Ballon d’Or before and that was the superb Lev Yashin back in 1963! Wonderful goalies like Peter Schmeichel, Gianluigi Buffon, Oliver Kahn, Dino Zoff and Iker Casillas have all been overlooked in the past.

Surely it’s about time the footballing world sees sense and recognises that having a great goalkeeper can be just as important in gaining ultimate success. Manuel Neuer is a fantastic, consistently word class goalkeeper that has won the lot as a number one.

For once we have to remember that football as a sport goes beyond the scoring of great goals and we should honour a man equally capable of preventing those great goals!

That is why I would vote for Bayern Munich’s German World Cup hero Manuel Neuer! He deserves it!

Posted on October 28th, 2014 by scott
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