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Player-of-year voting flawed Barca's Rivaldo should cement case as world's best
Posted: Tuesday November 23, 1999 11:19 AM
It's that time of year again. France Football has just released its list of fifty nominees for European Footballer of the Year. Fifty-one journalists across the continent (one for each UEFA member country) will pick their top five choices. Points will be awarded on a sliding scale -- five for first, four for second, etc. The winner will be announced with much fanfare on December 21. Winning the title is obviously a huge deal, but don't be lulled into thinking that whoever is selected is truly the best player in Europe. Or even had the best season in the 1999 calendar year. There are a number of glaring flaws in the way the winner is Picked, flaws that should remind us that this is largely a popularity contest, rewarding those who get the most press, the best press and play the most glamorous positions. At the heart of the problem is that many voters simply don't have the resources to accurately assess the players. The pool of candidates stretches across some forty leagues and includes thousands of thousands of players. Assessing how good they are becomes a gargantuan task, especially since the jury is made up of one journalist per country. So the Italian or English jury member may indeed get to see a lot of these guys play. After all, 31 of the 50 nominees are based in either Serie A or the Premiership. But what about the Slovakian or Cypriot journalist? How often does he get to see Veron, Rivaldo or Beckham? Most likely he relies on highlights and press reports. And naturally both favor players at big teams (particularly those that do well in European competitions) with big reputations. That's why the list of nominees includes Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo. All had lackluster seasons, but all have sterling resumes, enough to carry them on the shortlist. As for the importance of appearing in European competition (and getting into those crucial Champions League highlights) consider this: forty-six of the fifty nominees played in the Champions League in 1999. Of the remaining four, two are members of the French team that won the 1998 World Cup (Fabien Barthez and Laurent Blanc): eighteen months have passed, but the hype lives on. The other two are living, breathing billboards, whose fame goes well beyond their talents on the pitch: L'Oreal spokesmodel David Ginola and Perugia striker Hidetoshi Nakata, a man whose every step is shadowed by armies of Japanese photographers. But perhaps the best example is Croatian striker Davor Suker finishing second last year, despite the fact that, apart from a three-week stretch in July, he endured one of the worst seasons of his career. Of course, his stellar streak coincided with France 98 where he was top scorer. The jury chose to focus on that, rather than the fact that for much of the year he could not crack Real Madrid's starting eleven. The point is that most voters rely on what the media tell them. It was even worse a few years ago, before the nominee system was introduced. Back then, you could vote for anyone, which is how Albanian players ended up getting votes. The list of nominees most definitely has its quirks. For instance, Bordeaux striker Sylvain Wiltord, is included. Nice little player, no argument there. But then, there is no room for Udinese's Marcio Amoroso. All he did was score more goals than anyone else in Italy's Serie A and win the Copa America in Brazil. His fellow top goalscorers in England (Michael Owen and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink) and Germany (Michael Preetz) get the same raw deal. Go figure. The official criteria include individual performances at club and international level throughout the calendar year and "a combination of talent, personality and career achievements". Inevitably, there's a bias towards forwards and offensive midfielders, who make up sixty percent of the list. After all, they're the ones who grab the headlines and it can be argued that they contribute more than a right-back or a goalkeeper. So who can we expect to take the title? For starters, you can rule out defenders or goalkeepers, all of them. You could have made a fair case for Lazio's Sinisa Mihailovic or Manchester United's Jaap Stam, both of whom were flawless, but they simply play the wrong position. Stam's teammate Roy Keane will also get snubbed; ball-winners don't grab headlines. Fiorentina's Gabriel Batistuta and Real Madrid's Raul will probably be penalized by the fact that their clubs came up empty-handed last season. Expect Barcelona's Luis Figo and Milan's Oliver Bierhoff to be overshadowed by their more-hyped teammates Rivaldo and Andriy Shevchenko. In my opinion, this leads to a four-way race between David Beckham, Rivaldo, Shevchenko and Vieri, with Barcelona's Brazilian slightly favored. Rivaldo would undoubtedly be a worthy winner and the extra piece of hardware in his trophy room will further cement his case as the world's number one.
Extra TimeJust when you thought Lazio was getting it all together, it gets trounced by Roma in the derby. The 4-1 humiliation (it was 4-0 at halftime) should make coach Sven Goran Eriksson think long and hard. He has arguably the most talented squad in Europe, but he still lacks a little something to put Lazio over the top. Last season it threw the title away, this year fans are worrying about a repeat performance. Unless you happen to be Greek, Portuguese or Slovenian, Zlatko Zahovic is probably one of the best players you've never heard of. Olympiakos' creative midfielder scores goals and dishes out assists with the best of them. After leading Porto to three straight championships (where he formed an unstoppable combination with Brazilian striker Jardel), he moved to Greece last summer, guiding Olympiakos to a fine showing in the first round of the Champions League. And in his spare time he willed Slovenia, a team long on heart and short on talent, into Euro 2000. He deserves more recognition, and it was nice to see him included among the nominees for European Footballer of the Year. He doesn't have a prayer, of course, but at least he'll get some press. Now that John Toshack is finally gone from Real Madrid, the race is on for one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Whoever replaces him takes the helm of a club crushed by mountains of debt with some of the most demanding fans in the world. Among the names floating around as possible replacements are Jorge Valdano, Raddy Antic, Wim Jansen and Nevio Scala. The first two have already had their turn leading Real; the latter would be calculated risks. One solution could be bringing in Valdano until the end of the season, while chasing some big name to replace him in June (perhaps Lazio's Eriksson or Arsenal's Arsene Wenger).
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