Some Inferences From Fifa Ballon D'or 2010

I have analyzed in detail the full voting data for the Fifa Ballon D'or.

I must first share with you a sensational but not so pleasant discovery.

If the Fifa Ballon D'or award had not been created by combining the erstwhile two major awards, can you guess what the standings would be in each one? If you haven't heard this yet, this is quite a shocker.


Ballon D'or :-

1. Wesley Sneijder
2. Andres Iniesta
3. Xavi
4. Lionel Messi
5. Diego Forlan


Fifa World Player :-

1. Lionel Messi
2. Xavi
3. Andres Iniesta
4. Wesley Sneijder
5. Diego Forlan


Yes the truth unfortunately is that not only would Messi have not won the original Ballon D'or but he wouldn't even have finished in the top three.

Sneijder would just edge out Iniesta for the award - 23.09% to 22.58%.



As it stands now here are the final standings. The percentage votes received are given for each player.

1. Lionel Messi - 22.65%

2. Andres Iniesta - 17.36%

3. Xavi - 16.47%

4. Wesley Sneijder - 14.48%

5. Diego Forlan - 7.61%

6. Cristiano Ronaldo - 3.92%

7. Iker Casillas - 2.90%

8. David Villa - 2.24%

9. Didier Drogba - 1.68%

10. Xabi Alonso - 1.52%

11. Carles Puyol - 1.43%

12. Samuel Eto'o - 1.37%

13. Mesut Ozil - 1.21%

14. Arjen Robben - 1.16%

15. Thomas Muller - 0.91%

16. Bastian Schweinsteiger - 0.75%

17. Maicon - 0.57%

18. Asamoah Gyan - 0.46%

19. Julio Cesar - 0.22%

20. Cesc Fabregas - 0.22%

21. Miroslav Klose - 0.19%

22. Philipp Lahm - 0.05%

23. Daniel Alves - 0.05%



Finally some other generic conclusions and thoughts.

1. Some people were right that Diego Forlan would be given due importance. He was hardly less than fifth in any section of the voting.

2. In my predictions I got the first eight correct though not in exact order but the remaining two in the top ten were surprises that I don't think any of us predicted.

3. David Villa was surprisingly very underrated by the voters. People chose to largely overlook his contributions to the WC 2010 triumph. Thankfully he finished in the top ten at least in the final standings.

4. Arjen Robben and Bastian Schweinsteiger were also rated much lower than we expected them to. For Robben his second half injury really made people forget him even though he was one of the form players of the 2009-10 season.

5. There is no vote from the coach or captain of Argentina. Either they chose not to vote or more likely were just careless about it and didn't submit in time.

6. A few voters even purposely made invalid votes just so as to not have to vote for the competitors of their compatriots.

7. One captain actually chose Maicon as his best player. For me he is not even the best right back. Imagine how much people's perceptions differ in football.

8. Most journalists did not try to push their compatriots and went for what they believed. One of the big surprises was the Dutch journalist picking both Iniesta and Xavi ahead of Sneijder.

9. The Brazil captain's picks were done by none other than Robinho and he did choose Messi and Xavi as first and second.

10. Iker Casillas actually chose both Robben and Sneijder ahead of C.Ronaldo. Wonder whether C.Ronaldo knows that yet!!!

11. It seems that after being outplayed too many times by the Barcelona midfield maestro C.Ronaldo has developed a lot of respect for him. He chose Xavi as first ahead of Casillas.

12. Joachim Low also put Xavi first perhaps as a tribute to the man who so completely outplayed his team in the WC 2010 semi final.

13. Fabio Capello's top two choices are our two midfield maestros but incredibly the third is Maicon.

14. Bert Van Marwijk made his first vote invalid most probably to help Sneijder but he chose Messi second and Xavi third. I credit him for choosing a player from the team that beat him in the world cup final. Many others would have held too many grudges.

15. The Portuguese coach chose the entire holy trinity of Barcelona.

16. Argentina did have a journalist who put Messi and Xavi as his top two picks.

17. The Spanish journalist did not even nominate Iniesta. It's strange leaving out the man who ultimately won your country your first ever world cup.

18. The Portuguese journalist did not even pick Cristiano Ronaldo.

19. Finally from my country India the captain Bhaichung Bhutia picked Xabi Alonso as the second best player. I really would like to ask him why he made that choice.

20. The Indian coach chose Cristiano Ronaldo as first ahead of Lionel Messi.