Luka Modric

Question17

New member
This should prove to any one and every one that ballon d'or is nothing but a joke and totally
has nothing to do with the best player in the world.

Since judging by your criteria it would go to a forward every year, whats wrong if it doesn't. What if being a pivotal starter for a repeat champions league team while playing well with your national team and getting to the WC final puts you over brilliant forwards with less success in the big tournies?

This also wasn't a surprise. Its a return to the old way. Part of the reason why a spaniard didn't win in 2010 was because Xavi and Iniesta split the vote. France had no stand out player and Croatia had their talisman playing well. Then you consider how decorated he is in club football and he is a big favorite who rightly won
 

shadows

New member
Ballon D'or is a joke and not a funny one. Apparantly league is irrelevant

Considering Croatia, not a traditional European big team, made the final, had some questionable decisions against them in the final.. And Real won the Champions league both of which he was a big part.. League does matter but Champions league and World cup are simply bigger and thats how it should be.. I think him winning was probably the right decision and this is how Ballon D`or has always been before this stupid captains and Journalist vote merge thing which they did and made it into a popularity contest amongst players instead of it being just the journalists..... In 2010, Xavi should`ve probably won on the back of League plus World Cup..
 

Morten

Senior Member
Ballon D'or is a joke and not a funny one. Apparantly league is irrelevant

Lets be honest, outside of the Messi/Ronaldo era, hasnt the ballon dor pretty much always been awarded to someone who did well in the WC, when its a WC year? I mean, Cannavaro won it once.
I dont think it was deserved, but this is hardly something new, is it?
 

El Gato

Villarato!
He literally paid an homage to the guys a bunch of you are whining about.

Happy for Luka and what he said in his acceptance speech and how he uses it as a platform for showcasing his brand of football is more important than appearing on the record of that Mickey Mouse award. Football is a team game. Stop worrying about the criteria and all other nonsense.
 

El Trencaxarxes

New member
Considering Croatia, not a traditional European big team, made the final, had some questionable decisions against them in the final.. And Real won the Champions league both of which he was a big part.. League does matter but Champions league and World cup are simply bigger and thats how it should be.. I think him winning was probably the right decision and this is how Ballon D`or has always been before this stupid captains and Journalist vote merge thing which they did and made it into a popularity contest amongst players instead of it being just the journalists..... In 2010, Xavi should`ve probably won on the back of League plus World Cup..

The domestic leagues decidedly don't matter any longer. No player from the top three won their respective leagues, and only one of those three won the World Cup, which just so happens to be the worst placed of the three.

Modric and Ronaldo both have exactly one trophy to their name in 2018, and that's the Champions League. This is exactly why I fear that it's only a matter of time before the European Super League becomes a reality. Not a single casual fan or viewer gives a shit about La Liga or Ligue 1 or Serie A or the Bundesliga. Maybe someone can be arsed to give a bit of a shit about the Premier League, because of it's massive brand and name, but the Champions League is where it's at. That really is the only thing that matters.

If you look at the Ballon d'Or top three from 2014 to 2018, there have been more players without a domestic league title than players with a domestic league title. In 2014 Messi led Argentina to the finals and won the Golden Ball, very much like Modric. He also won La Liga but he didn't win the Champions League so he - unlike Modric - has nothing to show for it in terms of Ballon d'Or.

I haven't checked with prior winners, but I'm confident Modric has the worst win rate of a Ballon d'Or winner, at least in the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century. 53% is a horrible win rate. And once again, let me remind you that Modric has one trophy in all of 2018. Yes, he did reach the World Cup final, and yes he was very good in the tournament, but his level and his impact have been ridiculously overstated and overrated since the Champions League final. He and Kroos have been horrible for most of the year and has been consistently overrun by various midfields.

Once again, let me remind you that this was also the case in Croatia's first World Cup match against Nigeria, where both Modric and Rakitic looked absolutely lost. Adding Brozovic fixed that. Without Brozovic I don't think Croatia hammer Argentina the way they did. They absolutely bossed the middle of the park that day, and it was just as much Rakitic and Brozovic as it was Modric. And that was basically the only truly good game that Croatia played this summer. A narrow 2-1 win against Iceland in an irrelevant match, 1-1 against Denmark winning on penalties, 2-2 against Russia winning on penalties, a late 2-1 win against England in extra-time and then a 2-4 loss to France. The 3-0 hammering of Argentina was the single good game Croatia played, and Modric wasn't even the standout player in that game.

The Ballon d'Or has become a complete and utter joke, and giving the trophy to Modric in arguably his worst year in half a decade does nothing but prove it.
 

Morten

Senior Member
The domestic leagues decidedly don't matter any longer. No player from the top three won their respective leagues, and only one of those three won the World Cup, which just so happens to be the worst placed of the three.

Modric and Ronaldo both have exactly one trophy to their name in 2018, and that's the Champions League. This is exactly why I fear that it's only a matter of time before the European Super League becomes a reality. Not a single casual fan or viewer gives a shit about La Liga or Ligue 1 or Serie A or the Bundesliga. Maybe someone can be arsed to give a bit of a shit about the Premier League, because of it's massive brand and name, but the Champions League is where it's at. That really is the only thing that matters.

If you look at the Ballon d'Or top three from 2014 to 2018, there have been more players without a domestic league title than players with a domestic league title. In 2014 Messi led Argentina to the finals and won the Golden Ball, very much like Modric. He also won La Liga but he didn't win the Champions League so he - unlike Modric - has nothing to show for it in terms of Ballon d'Or.

I haven't checked with prior winners, but I'm confident Modric has the worst win rate of a Ballon d'Or winner, at least in the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century. 53% is a horrible win rate. And once again, let me remind you that Modric has one trophy in all of 2018. Yes, he did reach the World Cup final, and yes he was very good in the tournament, but his level and his impact have been ridiculously overstated and overrated since the Champions League final. He and Kroos have been horrible for most of the year and has been consistently overrun by various midfields.

Once again, let me remind you that this was also the case in Croatia's first World Cup match against Nigeria, where both Modric and Rakitic looked absolutely lost. Adding Brozovic fixed that. Without Brozovic I don't think Croatia hammer Argentina the way they did. They absolutely bossed the middle of the park that day, and it was just as much Rakitic and Brozovic as it was Modric. And that was basically the only truly good game that Croatia played this summer. A narrow 2-1 win against Iceland in an irrelevant match, 1-1 against Denmark winning on penalties, 2-2 against Russia winning on penalties, a late 2-1 win against England in extra-time and then a 2-4 loss to France. The 3-0 hammering of Argentina was the single good game Croatia played, and Modric wasn't even the standout player in that game.

The Ballon d'Or has become a complete and utter joke, and giving the trophy to Modric in arguably his worst year in half a decade does nothing but prove it.


Except he didnt win la liga in 2014, that was Atletico.
You know Barca-fans are used to winning la liga by default, when they cant even remember when they didnt win it.
 

Question17

New member
The domestic leagues decidedly don't matter any longer. No player from the top three won their respective leagues, and only one of those three won the World Cup, which just so happens to be the worst placed of the three.

Modric and Ronaldo both have exactly one trophy to their name in 2018, and that's the Champions League. This is exactly why I fear that it's only a matter of time before the European Super League becomes a reality. Not a single casual fan or viewer gives a shit about La Liga or Ligue 1 or Serie A or the Bundesliga. Maybe someone can be arsed to give a bit of a shit about the Premier League, because of it's massive brand and name, but the Champions League is where it's at. That really is the only thing that matters.

If you look at the Ballon d'Or top three from 2014 to 2018, there have been more players without a domestic league title than players with a domestic league title. In 2014 Messi led Argentina to the finals and won the Golden Ball, very much like Modric. He also won La Liga but he didn't win the Champions League so he - unlike Modric - has nothing to show for it in terms of Ballon d'Or.

I haven't checked with prior winners, but I'm confident Modric has the worst win rate of a Ballon d'Or winner, at least in the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century. 53% is a horrible win rate. And once again, let me remind you that Modric has one trophy in all of 2018. Yes, he did reach the World Cup final, and yes he was very good in the tournament, but his level and his impact have been ridiculously overstated and overrated since the Champions League final. He and Kroos have been horrible for most of the year and has been consistently overrun by various midfields.

Once again, let me remind you that this was also the case in Croatia's first World Cup match against Nigeria, where both Modric and Rakitic looked absolutely lost. Adding Brozovic fixed that. Without Brozovic I don't think Croatia hammer Argentina the way they did. They absolutely bossed the middle of the park that day, and it was just as much Rakitic and Brozovic as it was Modric. And that was basically the only truly good game that Croatia played this summer. A narrow 2-1 win against Iceland in an irrelevant match, 1-1 against Denmark winning on penalties, 2-2 against Russia winning on penalties, a late 2-1 win against England in extra-time and then a 2-4 loss to France. The 3-0 hammering of Argentina was the single good game Croatia played, and Modric wasn't even the standout player in that game.

The Ballon d'Or has become a complete and utter joke, and giving the trophy to Modric in arguably his worst year in half a decade does nothing but prove it.

Instead repeating your little mantra about it "become a complete and utter joke" why don't you check the past winners. They have been handing this thing out since 1956. If you bother to do the research they have always given it to a (Euro) WC winner or WC finalist. The two exceptions are 94 and 10, for 94 there was no Euro winner and the italians split the vote. In 10 xavi and iniesta really split the vote and the new popularity rules gave messi the win. So it has always been "a complete and utter joke", you probably have no idea that people like canavaro have won it.
 

KingLeo10

Senior Member
poor guys.
they thought messi stood a chance :cry:

b1058-1512540249-800.jpg


back to your cave.
 

El Trencaxarxes

New member
Instead repeating your little mantra about it "become a complete and utter joke" why don't you check the past winners. They have been handing this thing out since 1956. If you bother to do the research they have always given it to a (Euro) WC winner or WC finalist. The two exceptions are 94 and 10, for 94 there was no Euro winner and the italians split the vote. In 10 xavi and iniesta really split the vote and the new popularity rules gave messi the win. So it has always been "a complete and utter joke", you probably have no idea that people like canavaro have won it.

Instead of assuming that I don't know who Cannavaro is - fun fact, for many years my passwords were different variations on his name because I was such a massive fan before he went to Madrid - maybe read and address the entirety of my post, instead of just latching on to a single sentence.

I know that the award has been given since 1956. I know that it's often been given to a World Cup winner or a finalist. But either you haven't actually done any research, or you're seriously trying to mislead people when claiming that there have only been two exceptions in 1994 and 2010. What about these guys:

  • 1958: Raymond Kopa - Third
  • 1970: Gerd Müller - Third
  • 1978: Kevin Keegan - Not Qualified
  • 1986: Igor Belanov - Round of 16
  • 2014: Cristiano Ronaldo - Group Stage

And it's not like the European Championship has dictated the winner either:

  • 1960: Luis Suárez - Not Qualified
  • 1964: Denis Law - Not Qualified
  • 1968: George Best - Not Qualified
  • 1992: Marco van Basten - Semi-Finals
  • 2000: Luís Figo - Semi-Finals
  • 2004: Andriy Shevchenko - Not Qualified
  • 2008: Cristiano Ronaldo - Quarter-Finals

But here's the thing. Since Cannavaro won the award back in 2006, 9 of the 12 recipients have won the Champions League (the remaining three reached the semi-finals) while only 6 of the 12 have won their respective domestic leagues. The trend is clear. The Champions League is taking centre stage while the domestic leagues are playing a drastically diminishing role. The money is in the Champions League. For everyone too, by the way. The clubs, the players, UEFA, the media. It's in everyone, bar the local fans and national associations, to heavily focus on the Champions League, which is why a European Super League is likely only a matter of time unless everyone starts placing a heavier emphasis on the domestic leagues.

The larger point is, that once upon a time you could get away with not even participating in the World Cup or the Champions League and still win the Ballon d'Or. You could place fifth in the Serie A and still win. Ask Keegan. Ask Gullit. Ask Baggio. Ask R9.

we all like history, but the present is there for all to see

Yeah, like how Messi had 68 goals and assists in 2018, compared to Modric' 14, Ronaldo's 57, Griezmann's 53, Mbappé's 42 and Salah's 48. And those are just the numbers. Anyone with a decent set of eyes can tell that the difference between Leo and anyone else is so much more than just some goals and assists.
 

gasgas

Senior Member
I personally don't think Messi deserved to win this year. But your overt trolling deserves an overtly harsh response. :pique:

And what do you gain from those harsh responses you write?

Yeah, like how Messi had 68 goals and assists in 2018, compared to Modric' 14, Ronaldo's 57, Griezmann's 53, Mbappé's 42 and Salah's 48. And those are just the numbers. Anyone with a decent set of eyes can tell that the difference between Leo and anyone else is so much more than just some goals and assists.

Well as you can see, the decent set of eyes that were entrusted to pick the winner saw it differently and plenty other people agree with them.

May be your set of eyes is not as decent as you may think :thinking:
 

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