Who really is the best?

It’s Friday!!!! And quite honestly the weekend is just a mirage, barely there and then it's gone. Never never enough. However, after a long week , it's always nice to chill and relax and support your team. Nothing better than weekend football (for us football fans), this weekend promises to be a good one looking at the fixtures but this week has left me with some questions, some of which I might have answered and some that I will answer when I eventually stop thinking about what my Friday night is going to be like? Any suggestions? Well, if you are willing to help me,I would start of with just a pint and when you come up with an idea for my Friday night, 3 pints for you.

This week saw Cristiano Ronaldo crowned best footballer of 2013,finally beating  Messi (and Ribery) to it. He shed a few tears of joy(man up Ronaldo) before giving us the usual speech. When these awards come up, there are always  the usual arguments. Did he deserve it? Was he the best player in the globe and all that. And with the last 6-7 years being dominated by the short man from Argentina (Messi) and the gel-haired Portuguese (you know who)…camp Ronaldo and camp Messi were at it again.

I have done a little research in trying to pinpoint who really deserved the award, so brace yourself and try not to insult me too much.

For those of you that love your statistics do remember, statistics are like a mini skirts, reveals a lot but doesn’t show the final package.

Players	Messi	Ronaldo	Ribery
Appearances	45	56	52
Minutes on the pitch	3346	4542	4018
Goals	42	66	22
Shots on Target	87	160	56
Shots off Target	59	136	36
Chance Conversion	28.8%	22.3%	23.9%
Assists	15	15	18
Dribbles	331	252	1084
Dribble Completion	51.4%	46.0%	45.6%
Trophies	1	0	5

So now I have managed to satisfy the statistic junkies (maybe, hopefully), let us begin,

Arguably….

Cristiano Ronaldo had a wonderful 2013 with goals and was by far the most influential player for club and country. His goal record for the year was second to none and he was responsible for Portugal’s qualification for the world cup ensuring that Portugal maintained their record of always qualifying for all major tournaments. He equalled Pauleta’s goal scoring record for his country, scoring 47 goals in 109 appearances but with all this, he has nothing to show for it. He won no trophies and his performances in terms of play can be argued with the other two players in mention. And before you tell me about his goals, Ruud Van Nisteroy scored a lot of goals but his in play game was never mentioned.

Ribery on the other hand was the most influential player for his club (Robben fans may disagree) and country. He helped France qualify for the world cup finals and won every club competition Bayern Munich played in. It can also be said that Ronaldo and Messi both play as top men making the sole concentration of their teams, all supply end up on their feet where Ribery who is a wide man does a lot more defending, more dribbles(as the stats will show) and definitely his trophies should count for something or maybe not....

Messi finished 2013 with one trophy, helped Argentina qualify for the World Cup, got kicked out of the Champions league by the Bayern, whom eventually won the tournament. He was hit with loads of injuries but still stood out as the star man for Barcelona by match winning performances (e.g. 2^nd leg against AC Milan). He still has the best chance conversion rate in Europe.

If only…

If Messi wasn’t injured and went toe to toe with Ronaldo and Ribery in terms of games played, would he have been the runner up?

If Ribery with all his trophies had scored the winner in the champions league, would it have gotten him more votes? or if the votes are solely on 2013 as they say, shouldn’t he be crowned world best player?

If Ronaldo didn’t outshine Zlatan in the play off and Messi wasn’t injured, would he have been crowned worlds best player?

And if my aunty was male, she would be my uncle right?

Personally…

I think Ronaldo deserves to win it, regardless of lack of trophies. His performances over the past couple of years have been outstanding. He has remained a world class player proving that he is way beyond just being on form. In the past couple of years where he has finished as a runner up to Messi, his consistency, high class performances sets him apart from the rest, somewhat superhuman. And Messi is as close to super human as it gets.

Ribery has been unlucky to have such a wonderful year in the same era as Messi and Ronaldo, he did win every competition he played in but even that wasn’t good enough to out class Ronaldo and Messi. If he can keep up the performance, the pendulum will eventually swing his way.

Messi, He was injured….

Well I hope somebody has made up their mind what is going on tonight because I am already on my third pint!!! Enjoy the weekend football coming up people. I sure will....

In more words to come…Sabi Boi