MESSI PLAYER OF WORLD CUP

On a par with the Brazil penalty vs Croatia and the freekick to Germany when the keeper has almost killed the Argy.

Absolutely Embarrassing from Fifa, James Rodrigues for me  !!

to be fair to messi I've never seen anyone more embarrased

The German goalkeeper was good.Manuel Neuer,if any of the premier league teams had him he would would be a big + (POINTS)at the end of the season,he is a bit of a header but a good shot stopper.

james was kicked out of it by brazil

he probably was the best player at this world cup

but sponsors probably wanted messi in their next adverts

not a bad result for them

Nearly as bad as Jimmy Anderson getting Man of the match today

Barcelona always give Messi the ball ,the argintina players starved him,its very difficult to make an impact on a game when you can not get the ball.James is a good player and i believe that real madrid are more than interested in him.The cheque book will be out i guess very soon.

I'm sure Adidas know what they are doing, just as they did when Forlan, Zidane and Kahn won at previous World Cups

Messi is not the besr world cup player. James and robben for me. Messi did nothing! embarassing from fifa. Everything  being prepared for messi receive the next balondor

What did Rodriguez do ? He scored 6 goals but played in a group of Ivory Coast, Greece and Japan , once his team started to play the better teams they were soon dispatched, can hardly make a case for Best player there.

Messi not only scored 4 goals he also had an assist and caused havoc for many defenses, his team made the final and only lost that in the last few minutes of extra time.

Even if I knew nothing of Football, I would think Messi seemed a far more likely choice than Rodriguez. No one else in the tournament really stood out, from watching the matches Messi certainly seemed far more dangerous than any other players, maybe Robbin the only one I would rate next to him in this tournament.

Messi haters , not much different to Ronaldo haters and Apple haters, but he got a deserved award

Messi did 0 goals in 2010, dont forget that.

player of the tournament for me justabout, robben was very good and could of won it himself really, definitely not james, although he scored the best goal.

Every german was better. IMO remission wouldn't have made top 20.
Messi looked embarrassed .

Remission- messi.       Ipad word check c rap

Hummels player of the tournament for me

Odious little r unt   FIFA would give him heaven if they could .
Just marketing.
Neuer 244 successful passes in w cup.
Messi. 243 successful passes in w cup.
Think that sums up .

messi did very little in this world cup so this was probably chosen for sponsors before tournament started.

he even looked shocked himself to win it. has to be the worst world cup ever.

"What did Rodriguez do ? He scored 6 goals but played in a group of Ivory Coast, Greece and Japan" 


whereas messi only scored 4 goals in a group of Nigeria, Iran and Bosnia H. 
he couldn't score when they met better teams.

Who scored ratings (opta stats that take all the stats into account) for the top players:

Argentina Messi 8.52 (4 goals, 1 assist)
Columbia Rodriquez 8.4 (6 goals, 2 assists)
Holland Robben 8.37 (3 goals, 1 assist)
Brazil Neymar 8.22 (4 goals, 1 assist)
Germany Muller 7.97 (5 goals, 1 assist)

Don't think anyone can argue with Messi getting it if you use real stats as your criteria.

Blinded by the name. He'd get a decent rating if he had a sh it in the centre circle

How about having a feeling for the game rather than rely on stats people.

Anyone that knows anything about football knows Messi was NEVER the player of the tournament, he never dominated or shone in any single game but grabbed the headlines with 'moments', that doesn;t make him the best player at all, James Rodriguez contribution tot he cause was far superior, as was Arjen Robben's, as for the those 4 goals, they in the weakest group against weak opposition, Bosnia who were eliminated in the groups, Iran were eliminated in the groups and Nigeria who limped out of the second round, no goal in the knockouts against the better teams when it mattered, and tbh it's mostly because he is knackered.

It's a dumb decision influenced by sponsors, nothing else.

I dont disagree it feels wrong. But when you go back over the games he did contribute more than anyone else in a poor team than reached the final.

Everyone talks about Rodriguez but he only played five matches so missed out on the final two where things get much harder. Even allowing for that he had a worse pass success rate than Messi and a worse average number of key passes (2.2 per game opposed to 3.1 for Messi). Yes he scored more goals but Messi would have been easily higher rated if had not played the final 2 games where he was poor.

Germany, Holland and Columbia all had different players playing well in different matches. Argentina had no one else.

Had Messi scored that free kick in the last minute everyone would be talking differently. You have to take a balanced view over the 7 games and not remember one or two moments in the final and semi-final.

arjen robben for me

he's been running like 19year old every game and creating most chances for netherlands

I can't be having this he played in a bad team line that everyone keeps saying, you are talking about the likes of Mascherano, Aguero, Higuain, Di Maria and Zabaleta, Lvezzi and even the likes of Garay who played for Mardid and Benfica and perez who just won only lost out on the europa league final.

The problem with Messi in this world cup by anyone's reckoning is that in each and every game he was subdued, his pass completion stats are a red herring given the inferior opposition he faced and  most of these passes were very short distance too which was the way Argentina set up to play, if Argentina were set up to be more expansive there would have been less focus on messi and he would have had more space to work with, instead they tried to play through a tired messi who then had 2 or 3 on him straight away, awards should never been given to players based on stats, mark twain would agree with me.

What you omit mesmerised is the context to that.

Aguero got injured, looked well off the pace all tournament.
Di Maria got injured, didn't play the last 2 games.
Higuain is just a bang average player in general.

The so called fab four for Argentina was much weakened through injury and lack of form.

There is a number of passengers in that Argentina team. And the squad was paper thin with no real options from the bench.

Messi shouldn't have won the Golden Ball, but this idea he had a dreadful tournament is rubbish too. Teams were able to put like 3 players around him too often, as Argentina lacked numbers in attacking positions in general all tournament.

For example people are heralding Robben in here. And yes he had a good tournament. But what did he do vs Argentina? Pretty much nothing, was stifled out of the game by a well organised defensive unit.

Fwiw I would have given the golden ball to Mueller. Someone who looked pretty consistently good throughout the World Cup.

he wasnt even in argentina,s top 3,
garry
mascherano
roma the keeper

robben also peaked in the ist game and his performances had less effect on the games as each match went by

n88uk, you will not remember one single outstanding game he had at this tournament that is the main point, and I would hardly call Higuain bang average and Di maria still played 5 matches, Aguero though wasn't himself, also I said he had a subdued performance not rubbish, Robben played well against better players and better teams and imo, should have won, even if he is diver.

the fact that non of pre ordained superstars showed their mettle consistentlyprobably means a defensive type player should have won the award
mascherano
lah
garry
shwien

Robben had one great game against Spain. It was very important in a tough group when everything was still to be decided. But was nothing amazing after that.

Messi had two very good matches against Nigeria and Switzerland. 4 man of the match appearances in 7 games (Same as Robben).

Mascherano that everyone goes on about managed two tackles in the final. Which game did he actually play brilliantly in?

People see one good run and defensive play and thats all they remember.

Mascherano was excellent in the semi against Holland, since the group games nobody really done anything significant. Messi 4 man of the matches - unreal

The whole of football has to do what messi wants.
Apparently he said to Sanchez on arrival at barca. Don't know why they paid so much for you. Remember your job here is not to shoot just to pass to me.
Sounds like david villa was far from the only one bullied there.

I thought this was a football forum, seems like a bunch of children with no idea, all hating on the World's best player ( Tall Poppy Syndrome )

Even if Messi was not exactly the best player in the tournament, he was certainly very close to it, close enough to not have the decision questioned.

I would have thought Messi was shy to accept the award more because his team had just lost the World Cup than because he felt he didn't deserve it.

He scored 4 goals and he is not his teams striker , people talk  about him like  he should be scoring all the goals , he got his team to within 3 minutes of penalties in the World Cup final.

I am a huge Robben fan, but really their team couldn't score against Costa Rica or Argentina , so hardly a case ahead of Messi there.

"The comparison with Maradona is a very nice compliment, but not one that I can accept yet," Messi told Goal. "He did so much for the national team - and I don't think any player can be considered a true great until they have won the World Cup
Read more at http://www.fourfourtwo.com/au/news/messi-i-am-not-true-great-maradona#9hofDY...

"The comparison with Maradona is a very nice compliment, but not one that I can accept yet," Messi told Goal. "He did so much for the national team - and I don't think any player can be considered a true great until they have won the World Cup
Read more at http://www.fourfourtwo.com/au/news/messi-i-am-not-true-great-maradona#9hofDY6PiGtj7HKh.99"

That just shows he is not very smart, he is implying that Football is not a  team sport, and any team with the one greatest player should win it, why bother with a goalie or defense, just have a great striker and you win the World Cup, simple. Daft really , The best player in the world could be playing for South Africa and it would be very unfortunate if his skills were not recognised.

Gareth Bale must be rated pretty lowly based on the fact he can't even get to the World Cup.

If The Blatt Man says it's a FIFA fix (sort of) then it must be a fifa fix!

Rodrigez was brilliant but didnt get far enough, without messi argentina woulda been out in group stages

charwell seems to think its noteworthy that messi downplays his own status re. Maradona

maradona said messi is betterthan he ever was

and you believe he was being serious?

i do yes

maradona is such a patriot, fanatical tbh, he would say anything that helps argentina

Messi may be better than he ever was but not in this world cup he wasn't!

rooney for me nurse