FIFA GOLDEN BALL 2011 WINNER LIONEL MESSI | GUARDIOLA BEST COACH

FIFA handed tonight the 2011 GOLDEN BALL ( BALON D´OR) AWARD - the Best Player in World Football - to FC BARCELONA player LIONEL MESSI. Its his third straight Golden Ball & puts the 24 year old Argentine in the elite class of 3 x winners like Platini, Van Basten & Cruyff. 


The second place was given to REAL MADRID player CRISTIANO RONALDO & third to FC BARCELONA player XAVI HERNANDEZ.

FIFA also made public the "IDEAL 11 WORLD TEAM" with 5 FC BARCELONA & 4 REAL MADRID PLAYERS...as listed below:

Iker Casillas; Dani Alves, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Ramos, Vidic; Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, Xavi Hernández; Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo & Rooney.

Here is the full list of the "GB" voting:
Messi 47,88%
Cristiano 21,60
Xavi 9,23
Iniesta 6,01
Rooney 2,31
Luis Suárez 1,48
Forlan 1,43
Etoo 1,34
Casillas 1,29
Neymar 1,12
Özil 0,76
Sneijder 0,72
Müller 0,64
Villa 0,53
Schweinsteiger 0,50
Xabi Alonso 0,48
Agüero 0,48
Abidal 0,36
Benzema 0,34
Alves 0,34
Fábregas 0,29
Nani 0,26
Piqué 0,22

Lionel Messi

In the "BEST COACH" for 2011 catagory, FC BARCELONA Coach JOSEP GUARDIOLA was voted as the winner, ahead of Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson & with third place going to Real Madrid Coach José Mourinho.

Pep Guardiola

Full list of votes for the "Best Coach":
Guardiola 41,92%
Ferguson 15,61
Mourinho 12,43
Del Bosque 9,12
Tabárez 7,47
Lw 4,40
Villas-Boas 4,16
Wenger 1,91
Klopp 1,54
Rudi García 0,89


There was an element of pure Marketing - there had to be - as Brazilian NEYMAR was Awarded the "Best Goal of the Season" (Puskas Award). One can debate the true merits as the Wayne Rooney overhead "screamer" could be considered as better. Anyway, some multinational sportswear had to get their value from all this as well. 

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LIST OF 23 CANDIDATES | FRANCE FOOTBALL - FIFA GOLDEN BALL AWARD 2011

As advanced yesterday, the full list of the 23 player candidates for the upcoming FIFA GOLDEN BALL AWARD is now officially known after coming down from the initial 50 names. France Football has made it official today,  with 3 finalists to be named on the 5th of December. The winner will be named on the 9th of January 2012 in Zurich (Switzerland).

FIFA Golden Ball Award

Here is the full list of 23 players candidates:


Eric Abidal (France, FC Barcelona)
Sergio Agüero (Argentina, Manchester City)
Karim Benzema (France, Real Madrid)
Iker Casillas (Spain, Real Madrid)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Real Madrid)
Daniel Alves (Brazil, FC Barcelona)
Samuel Eto'o (CAM, Anji Makachkala)
Cesc Fábregas (Spain, FC Barcelona)
Diego Forlán (Uruguay, Inter de Milán)
Andres Iniesta (Spain, FC Barcelona)
Lionel Messi (Argentina, FC Barcelona)
Thomas Müller (Germany, Bayern de Múnich)
Nani (Portugal, Manchester United)
Neymar (Brazil, Sntos)
Mesut Özil (Germany, Real Madrid)
Gerard Piqué (Spain, FC Barcelona)
Wayne Rooney (England, Manchester United)
Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany, Bayern de Múnich)
Wesley Sneijder (Holland, Inter de Milán)
Luis Suárez (Uruguay, Liverpool)
David Villa (Spain, FC Barcelona)
Xabi Alonso (Spain, Real Madrid)
Xavi Hernandez (Spain, FC Barcelona)

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FIFA GOLDEN BALL 2011 - 23 CANDIDATE LIST | FC BARCELONA HAS 8 CANDIDATES REAL MADRID HAS 5 CANDIDATES

SPANISH SPORTS paper based in Barcelona "Mundo Deportivo" has advanced the "exclusive" news that EIGHT FC BARCELONA players have made the cut of 23 player candidates for this years FIFA GOLDEN BALL AWARD. REAL MADRID has FIVE players in the 23 candidate cut, "leaked" tonight by the Barcelona paper.

Days back FRANCE FOOTBALL handed in their initial list of 50 FIFA Golden Ball players, that has been now cut back to 23 players.

FC Barcelona FIFA Golden Ball 2011 candidates
courtesy: Mundo Deportivo

The eight Barça players are Pique, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Cesc, Villa, Alves & Abidal. The five Real Madrid players are Casillas, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso , Ozil & Benzema. France Football will make the full list of 23 players official tomorrow. Along with the list will be published the 10 Top Coaches Candidates which includes Vicente Del Bosque ( Spanish National Team), Josep Guardiola ( FC Barcelona) & José Mourinho (Real Madrid).

The lists are "odd" (some "obvious names are missing) & this has lead many media observers to suspect that "Big Marketing" interests may be "pressuring" to give the list variety & new names. Plus the "conspiracy" theory journalists suspect that those same interests wish to avoid a final 3 candidates situation from the same Club as occurred last year with Xavi, Iniesta & Messi all from Barça.

Note, this is a "leaked" Mundo Deportive "exclusive" & we should all await the official list from France Football tomorrow to be 100% sure.


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FRANCE FOOTBALL 50 CANDIDATES FOR FIFA GOLDEN BALL 2011 | FC BARCELONA 10 PLAYERS - REAL MADRID 5

France Football has handed in the list of the initial 50 candidates chosen for this years FIFA GOLDEN BALL AWARD. These are now the following procedures:



1. 1st of November the list of 50 will be shortened to 23 players
2. 5th of December , three players will be named as finalists
3. 9th of January 2012 the winner will be announced

Spanish Football based players: courtesy of Marca.com

SPANISH FOOTBALL is well represented & especially FC BARCELONA which has 10 players on the list, while REAL MADRID has 5 players. 


The 10 candidates from FC Barcelona are:
Eric Abidal, Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, David Villa, Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Dani Alves & Alexis Sanchez.

The 5 candidates for Real Madrid are:
Iker Casillas, Ozil, Khedira, Cristiano Ronaldo & Xabi Alonso. A notable name missing here is Sergio Ramos.

Another Spanish Football born player is on the list, David Silva (Man City) along with Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Gómez, Thomas Müller, Ribery, Klose, Sneijder, Van Persie, Robben y Van der Vaart, Samuel Eto'o, Kun Agüero, Luis Suárez, Diego Forlán, Chicharito Hernández, Wayne Rooney, Neymar & Antonio di Natale.

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