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On Thursday, the jury was officially out on who the best player in Europe was in the year under review. For many football fans, Cristiano Ronaldo was the hot favourite, having led Real Madrid to a historic third successive Champions League title.
The Portuguese was, however, surprisingly snubbed for the award, with his former Los Blancos teammate Luka Modric winning it. It is no secret that the Croatia captain was key when Zinedine Zidane’s side rose to become undisputed kings of Europe, but so were other Real Madrid players.
The award should, therefore, have gone to the most outstanding player in Europe in the last 12 months. For the voters, which consisted of coaches and journalists, Modric was the best, but it is a decision that has since divided public opinion.
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In the aftermath of the ceremony, manager of Ronaldo, Jorge Mendes, described his client’s snub as “ridiculous and shameful”. The Portugal captain himself also decided to boycott the awards ceremony after finding out that he would but be awarded the prize.
In doing so, he might have come across a petulant or a sore loser, but the fact is that Ronaldo clearly deserved to win the UEFA Best Player award over Modric.
Below are four solid reasons why he deserved it:
#4 Ronaldo was more influential in Europe
The 2018 UEFA Best Player award was supposed to be one of the straightforward contests in recent years. However, the choice of the jury means that it will go down as one of the most controversial award ceremonies in football history.
This is an award which is supposed to be handed to the most outstanding player in Europe in the last 12 months. But if that was the premise, then there is no way Modric would have beaten Mohamed Salah to it, let alone Ronaldo.
Some may argue that the Croat was as influential as the aforementioned attackers. That is not far-fetched, but even in the Madrid team itself, Modric’s influence did not supersede that of Keyla Navas, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo or even Toni Kroos. On the other hand, Salah and Ronaldo finished the Champions League as the two top scorers and were the protagonists in their respective side’s road to the final.
But Ronaldo still outshined the pair. The Portuguese appears to have been a victim of his own high standards, with his monstrous numbers and impact now being downplayed. There will always be a player to set up the goals, but despite Modric’s genius in midfield he still managed just one goal and an assist in last season’s champions league. Such stats cannot, and should not, earn a player an award as prestigious as the European Best Player.
#3 Ronaldo was Europe’s top scorer
Cristiano Ronaldo may not have led Real Madrid to the La Liga title, but in the end, he still managed to emerge top scorer in Europe in all competitions. This was despite a poor start to the season, which saw him score just two league goals between September and January.
However, the 33-year-old was backfiring at all cylinders at the turn of the year, with his goals in the Champions League, especially distinguishing him from all other rivals. The former Manchester United winger finished the Champions League with 15 goals, once again becoming the competition’s top scorer.
If this is not enough to win him the UEFA Best Player award, then what else did he need to do? How a player with such numbers could still have lost out on the award is mystifying. In the last decade, the only time that other players have won this award over Ronaldo and Messi was either during a Euros tournament or a season when both failed to lift the Champions League.
In 2012, Andres Iniesta won the UEFA Best Player not because he outperformed Messi, but because he won the European Championship with Spain. The following year when Franck Ribery won it, it was equally because he spearheaded Bayern Munich’s run to the Champions League trophy.
Modric’s impact in the European year under review (emphasis on the European year) is nowhere close to what Iniesta and Ribery did to warrant the award, and that should have meant Ronaldo winning it.
#2 Ronaldo was more consistent in Europe
Many have tried to defend Modric’s win of the UEFA Best Player award by saying he was as important as Ronaldo in Real Madrid’s Champions League title triumph. Such a notion is not far-fetched, but the fact is that in every team, one player will definitely be more influential than the other.
In the previous seasons where Ronaldo won the award, he still had influential teammates, so what has changed now? Consistency-wise, the Portuguese also had it over the Croatia captain. For instance, whiles Ronaldo scored in 11 consecutive games and against every team in the Champions League till the semi-final stage, Modric could not garner such consistency in his performances in Europe.
In fact, in the toughest and most important game for Madrid en route to the final, Modric was benched against Paris Saint-Germain. It may have been a tactical switch (and that does not decimate Modric’s overall impact in the competition), but it goes a long way to indicate that the team could still have played on without him.
Now take away Ronaldo’s goals, including that nerveless last-minute winner against Juventus, and it would be clear where Real Madrid could have finished in the Champions League. The Portuguese was definitely Europe’s most consistent player.
#1 Award should have been based on European season, not World Cup
One of the biggest criticisms of the 2018 UEFA Best Players award is that it appears to have been based on the World Cup, rather than on the European season. However, that should never have been the case. Had the award been organised before the World Cup, it would surely have landed in Ronaldo’s hands.
But the jury obviously decided to base their votes on the tournament in Russia, and perhaps decided that Modric deserved something for his top level performances. In truth, Modric deserves much more credit that he has been getting, but he won the best midfielder award as appreciation for that.
He was Europe’s best midfielder, no doubt, but he was simply not the best when the European season, of which the Champions League is a very key component, is entirely taken into consideration.
If Sergio Ramos could win the best defender award over Raphael Verane, who was also superb for Madrid and France in the country’s World Cup triumph, then it is very shocking that Ronaldo will miss out on the overall award to Modric. This clearly depicts double standards with the jury and it shouldn’t have been so.
