It surprised FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Maradona claimed it was a marketing stunt, but now one of the men responsible for awarding Lionel Messi with the World Cups Golden Ball has explained the decision. And it sounds pretty reasonable. The winner of the award was decided by FIFAs Technical Study Group and after days of debate and theorizing, former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier, a member of the group, has explained the reasoning behind the choice. He told Le Monde (via ESPN): I understand that it has surprised, because everyone only remembers the second half of Lionel Messi in the final. We, the commission, we look at all the games, and we judge that he was the most important man for his team. He went to the final, which is one of the conditions for the attribution of the trophy, the ex-Liverpool and Aston Villa boss explained. Moreover, Messi was more than decisive in the first four games. In the semifinal against the Netherlands, he took the first penalty and scored. The analysis also takes into account the fact he was the captain of a united team. A team that played well together. Thats something we hadnt seen for a long time from Argentina. He was more than key in the squad and the way it was set up. For me, he fully deserves the Golden Ball given he took his team through to the final. Messi scored four goals in Argentinas first three matches and set up Angel Di Marias winner in the round of 16. He played a quieter role in the later rounds, but Houllier argued that the Netherlands Arjen Robben, widely regarded as a top candidate for the award, didnt carry so much weight with the team. Houllier also reasoned that Colombias James Rodriguez, who won the Golden Boot as the tournaments top scorer, didnt make it far enough to be considered (Colombia were eliminated by Brazil in the quarterfinals). Houllier did say that Di Maria would have been a very serious contender had he not suffered a thigh injury in the quarterfinals that ended his tournament. But Messis closest competitor for the award was Germanys Thomas Muller, who scored five goals for the World Cup winners. The Frenchman believes that Messi had the better tournament on the whole and was more vital to Argentinas success than Muller was to Germanys, though. So thats the explanation/cover story for giving Messi the 2014 World Cups Golden Boot award. Maradona will surely be revising his conspiracy theories shortly.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 02:49:40 +0000
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