Was Messi lucky to win the Ballon d'Or for the fourth time?

I have been brought up in ‘football-crazy’ Kolkata, got introduced to football at the age of 7, during the 2002 World Cup. I consider myself lucky for being able to watch the likes of Ronaldo (Brazil) and Zidane (France) live on TV. From then itself, I became a fan of Argentina and Riquelme. We, the people of Kolkata, know how to respect a superstar. My father told me how the Brazilian team of 1958-66, consisting of players like Pele and Garinncha, attracted the football fans of Kolkata with their skills. Almost all of Kolkata became fans of ‘jogo bonito‘. Then, with the advent of Maradona in 1986 World Cup, the fan base got divided into Argentina and Brazil. But with the recent display of Spain, the new generation football fans are supporting the new brand of ‘tiki taka’ football.

Yesterday night, Messi was crowned with the Ballon d’Or for the fourth consecutive time. After that, I have seen in many places written that “Iniesta should have been the deserving winner”,”Messi got fourth time lucky” and so on. I don’t want to comment on the previous three occasions, but this time around Messi is really the deserving winner. Football is a game of making and breaking records. Each year, so many records are made that no one really keeps a count of all of them. But Gerhard Müller’s record of scoring 85 goals in 1972 and 67 goals in 1972-73 session was intact for the last 40 years. But this time, Messi got the better of both the records scoring 91 goals in 2012 and 73 goals in 2011-12 season.

Now let us take a look at the other two contenders, Cristiano Ronaldo and Andres Iniesta. Iniesta was awarded the European Player of the Year in 2012. In the past year, he has scored only 8 goals in 62 matches, but has 27 assists to his name. He is even a key member of this year’s Euro Cup winning Spanish team. On the other hand, Ronaldo has also been in fine touch. He scored 46 goals from 38 matches, thus clinching the La Liga title for Real Madrid. He has scored 60 goals in just 55 matches in the last season. He even took Portugal to the semis of the Euro Cup from the ‘group of death’. Messi has no major trophies to boast of, except the Copa del Rey. He has netted 12 times in 9 matches in the Argentine shirt, including 2 hat-tricks against Brazil and Switzerland.

On his way to winning the ‘most prestigious’ award for a footballer, Messi got 41.4% votes, followed by Ronaldo with 23.68% votes and Iniesta with 10.91% votes. Along with the 91 goals, Messi has also provided an astonishing 28 assists in the last year, thus making him a part of a total of 119 goals. And that shows why he is the deserving winner.

I wold like to hear about your opinion, so feel free to post comments and criticize my opinion.