FIFA's Ballon d'Or trophy for the best player of the year. (image source: fifa)
In FIFA’s 2010 Ballon d’Or ceremony, Lionel Messi was named the player of the year and Jose Mourinho won coach of the year. This year Messi was again awarded the top honor (beating out archrival Ronaldo and teammate/enabler Xavi) along with his Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola (who won out over Sir Alex Ferguson, hopefully appeased by being given the Presidential Award, and Mourinho). Hardly surprising given that Barca won the Champions League and La Liga.
The FIFA World XI went to Iker Casillas, Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Nemanja Vidic, Andreas Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Wayne Rooney. For those keeping track, that’s nine from La Liga and two from the EPL.
On the ladies side, Japan’s Homare Sawa won the player of the year. And her national team’s coach, Norio Sasaki (gasp, a man!), was named coach of the year.
For the Puskas Award, which celebrates the most beautiful goal of the season, Halmit Altintop won it last year for a lovely full-volley from the edge of the box. Frankly, I thought Siphiwe Tshabalala should have received the honor, but I foolishly was factoring in significance. Plus I like saying Tshabalala.
This year the award went to Neymar, the only male player honored who isn’t playing in Europe. Even more impressive is that, despite wearing a headset for translation, his hair remained perfectly ridiculous when he went on stage. Amazing.
You can see this year’s top-three Puskas Award goals here. Messi’s goal finished with some brilliance, which the clip doesn’t adequately show. But fundamentally the defense fell asleep, thinking the ball was cleared. Neymar showed even more brilliance with a run that began near midfield. But Wayne Rooney’s bicycle kick was the most deserving. True, he wasn’t covered. And, yes, it occurred back when he was still balding, so the keeper was surely distracted by the cranial glare as Rooney went horizontal. But it was thoroughly magnificent.
