Football is a team game, yet the nature of the modern world is such that we need heroes so that the marketing men can do what they do best, so the 2009 champions league final was billed as Ronaldo vs Messi rather than Manchester United vs Barcelona. After the final many said it was a conclusive Messi victory by knock-out after some unfruitful early work with the jab from Ronaldo, but it wasn't Messi who was named “man of the match” it was one Xavier Hernandez, therefore it is poignant that as we come to silly season and despite impressive performances throughout the year it is still the aforementioned duo that head the favourites list for the prestigious “player of the year” awards. The question is, should we and if not why do we hold these individual awards with such esteem?

The Balon d'or has been going since the mid 1950s and was first won by the “wizard of the dribble” Sir Stanley Matthews, but despite the European season near universally running from Autumn to spring the award has always been handed out during the season at the end of the calendar year. Other awards which have followed have also copied this ridiculous precedent, meaning that many are left bemused as to the period the award is actually given for. This is highlighted most by the fact that in a world cup/European championships year the star attraction in those tournaments is usually awarded the award.

In 2002 Ronaldo (the real one) clearly wasn't the best player in the world he had only returned from injury in the spring but his performances (really just goals) in the world cup eclipsed everything that anyone had done on the domestic front either side of the tournament including Mr. Zidane and a quite spectacular volley at Hampden park. The question to ask is why this happens, and that can only be explained by looking at the fact that David Beckham has twice been runner up for FIFA's award (1999 and 2001). I remember hearing Milan fans when they signed him last year saying they thought they were just signing a “male model in boots” (to sell some shirts) and they were surprised that he could play a little. The facts are that is the impression he gives off and a similar impression is what you need to give off to win or feature highly in these end of year jamborees. That is that because every national team head coach and captain gets a vote (including those from such powers as Cape Verde and Samoa) and the winner is generally the guy who makes the most headlines globally, the award is really the most famous good player in the world. Hence why world cup exploits trump all else and David Beckham managed to be officially considered the second best player in the world despite never being considered the best player in his country, league or his continent.

The last point brings me back to the Balon D'or, the award with history on it's side, the award which gives us a guide to who the great players of yesteryear were, or so I thought until I saw that once again David Beckham features highly. The problem is despite it's history this award can be considered just as dubious as the FIFA one, for a start it's voted for by correspondence of France Football magazine from around Europe, so it also relies heavily on the players who are famous and who were seen play well. Thus Paolo Rossi who like Ronaldo had only just returned to action before the world cup (1982 in his case) managed to be considered best player in Europe despite missing a large portion of the year and generally being a dud until the Brazil game.

Another flaw I have heard mentioned with regards to the Balon D'or is that some of the victors were only so because of the strength of a block vote (similar to Eurovision), this is usually levelled at Eastern European winners more specifically Igor Belanov and Andrei Shevchenko. It has also come to my attention that people feel George Weah's victory was the perfect case of sentiment. The fact that he won it also unfortunately shows how much the award has moved away from it's roots, originally open to only European nationals (hence how di Stefano won and Maradona didn't), it was the award for the best player on the continent, but the FIFA award in many ways upstaged it's perceived prestige thus in response the award went from being European footballer of the year to just the Balon D'or and has lead to even more ridiculous list of nominees from everywhere humanly thinkable to curry as much favour as possible.

These awards have basically become a farce (in reality they always were), they are stupidly in competition for prestige (the FIFA award is endorsed by the governing body of the game and the balon d'or has history on it's side), there are too many of them, not just internationally (UEFA club player of the year, FIFpro player of the year) but also domestically ( In England alone we have FWA, PFA, Fans player of the year, Premier league player of the year) and these awards have no logical set up. How on earth can the best player in Europe not be at the same time considered the best player in their league or at their club? The awards need to be sorted out so that they have prescribed guidelines, are not in competition and make sense, but unfortunately even if that happens the fact that Michael Owen (not Raul) was voted European footballer of the year in 2001 will always remain the case, so in reality we might as well keep this system and hope that one day people will take the from what they are, not what they think they are, but as hell will freeze over first lets just enjoy Cristiano Ronaldo cry when his ego takes a knock when Messi is voted most popular.