Fifa World Player of the Year

Drum roll please..

The winner will be announced January 12th so plenty of time for debate.

So here is the list in all its glory. Marked in different shades of red are my favorites and my reasons why below:

• Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal and Togo)
• Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid and Argentina)
  
• Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg and Russia)
  
• Michael Ballack (Chelsea and Germany)
  
• Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus and Italy)
  
• Iker Casillas (Real Madrid and Spain)
  
• Deco (Chelsea and Portugal)
  
• Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Ivory Coast)
  
• Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona and Cameroon)
  
• Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal and Spain)
  
• Steven Gerrard (Liverpool and England)
  
• Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan and Sweden)
  
• Andres Iniesta (Barcelona and Spain)
  
• Kaka (AC Milan and Brazil)
  
• Frank Lampard (Chelsea and England)
  
• Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina)
  
• Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich and France)
  
• Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United and Portugal)
  
• John Terry (Chelsea and England)
  
• Fernando Torres (Liverpool and Spain)
  
• Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid and Netherlands)
  
• David Villa (Valencia and Spain)
  
• Xavi (Barcelona and Spain).
  

Andrei Arshavin

If football is about entertainment, then we have to give a tip of the hat to the Russian play maker. He captivated us in Euro 2008 with his brilliant midfield awareness. Pulling Russia out of their rough start, he single-handedly changed the Russian team from a boring lull against Spain to a powerful total football team that silenced one of the most impressive Dutch teams in years. What impressed me so much about his performance in the Euro was his ability to breathe life into the team and inspire his teammates with beautifully strung together passes. And lets not forget, he helped Zenit lift the Russian Prem trophy for the first time in a long time

Ikre Casillas

Deep down in my heart, I think Casillas should win this. First of all, he has all the credentials. Top of La Liga,won Euro 2008, he did everything he needed to for club and country. He kept a clean sheet on the Euro final, and did some awe-inspiring saves in the 2007-08 season of La Liga. He communicates as a strong leader for his back line and saved Spain against Italy when Buffon could not.
If you can win La Liga, win the Euro and beat the supposed best keeper in the world with a magnificent save in a Semi-Final match then I think you can qualify for player of the world.

Kaka

He won last year. He is amazing. But not as good as last year + injury stuff = probably not going to get it. Not really sure why I put him on here, if he wins it really will be by grace of god.

Messi

The most exciting player in the world to watch right now. He is what Ronahdinho was 3 years ago. He boggles your mind and baffles defenders with his movement and motion with the ball.

Because he has generally been seen as the highest standard of creative quality within the football community this year, this makes him a strong contender. He will be in the top 3 for sure.

Cristiano Ronaldo

He was on fire in the EPL this year. Absolutely unstoppable. Then came the summer. Everyone held their breath to see him play in Scolari's Portugal, but he did not deliver the caliber of play fans have expected from him. We hoped to see him blow through Turkish defenders and dismantle the entire Swiss team...he didn't. Then came that messy transfer drama with Real Madrid. This really put me off. I'm not sure if Fifa takes into consideration a players off the pitch behavior when considering these nominees, but for me, he didn't display the kind of professionalism in his career that a player of his level should.

All my whining and bellyaching aside, the guys a genius, and many regard him as a favorite to win this reward.

Fernado Torres

Looking up at my list, most of these are "creative midfielders". Its always easy to pick the midfielder. They have long ranged shots that impress and there aren't high expectations on them to put away the goals. That being said, Torres was the most dangerous striker in the EPL this year. He was absolutely on fire and was a menace for any defender. Top striker on this list for sure, but it will be a squeeze for him to get in the top 3.


My top 3:

1. Casillas
2. Messi
3. Ronaldo

Thursday Photoshop Roundup

Just when I thought my photoshopping skills were at least decent. I have been put to shame by the guardian's readers.

I found this one of the better photoshopping galleries on the Guardian, featuring none other than Lady's Love David B:

Beckham Photoshop Extravaganza

One Good Strike Deserves Another

Lampy boy did this today as well.



He's still got it! Or meant to cross it to Anelka...ughh you be the judge.

Ljungberg to Seattle

The MLS's newest expansion team: the Seattle Sounders just signed the ex-Arsenal man for around 20 million bucks.

Further proof that the only way the MLS will ever entertain anyone is by sending soccer moms into a Hagen Daas-like state of sexual explosion by watching the latest MLS stars promote American products.

And thats all I have to say about that.

Arsenal 4 - 4 Spurs

Everything you could ever want in a football match. This was an absolute barn burner!

Where do I start.

Ahh yes. Definitely goal of the season: David Bently cracks one over top of the keeper from about 40 yards out. There was no way Almunia could have ever seen it coming, or could have ever prevented it even if he did.


1 - 0 Spurs.

Moments later Arsenal used their physical prowess to score this textbook header off a corner:



...and then went to do same thing again:


Spurs are so brutal at simple defending. Redknapp, get these boys to work!

From here on, Spurs were looking absolutely frightened. Clichy was taking complete control of the midfield. Modric and the entire Tottenham team could not get a single touch on the ball for what seemed like eternity. And then...


GAME OVER SPURS. It seemed impossible for Spurs to come back from this. Arsenal was out classing them, out muscling them and Harry Redknapp's team was really being put to shame. It seemed as though Arsenal could have scored whenever they felt the need. Spurs were damaged goods at this point. Such has been their season.

And then some tricky deflections outside the box and spurs had another one! Seemingly out of nowhere!



Just when Spurs were making some forward momentum and starting to get out of their rut Hutton makes a horrible defensive mistake that ends up with Van Persie sending the ball Sccrreeeaming into the back of the net:



I think there was some weird Buddhist Karma thing going on at the Emirates tonight. Because what came around, went around for these teams tonight. Another Defensive blunder, this time by Clichy. This must have been an act of God for spurs. Followed by an absolutely lovely goal by Jenas:



By no means did Spurs look good tonight. In fact, most of the times they looked horrible. But after this goal Arsenal were definitely not playing with the same kind of confidence they were throughout the rest of the game. They seemed a shell of what they once were at the beginning of the second half. It seemed like a lovely pipe dream that Tottenham could come back to tie it up. But when 4 minutes of added time were put on the clock and Arsenal looking cold on their feet. Luka Modric's shot hit the woodwork and was tucked away by Lennon.




This was the best damn game I've seen in years. Holy....fuck. With all drama surrounding spurs and the way they have been playing lately no one could have fathomed such a wonderful display.

The absolute talent that has been wasting away in this team always pops its head up now and then. I cannot imagine what would happen if Harry Redknapp could harness the star power Spurs has and turn it into a well functioning tactical team.

Liverpool Impressions

In case you haven't seen this floating around.

In light of Liverpool's ascent to the top of the Premier League and perhaps in memory of Peter Crouch who is now left without his big Brother Harry Redknapp.

Hate this guy...but gaddamn

Robinho.

If it was ever possible to have more contempt for the pretty-boy-wonder millionaire in football, its hard to surpass Christiano Ronaldo. But ever since September, I have had a hard time getting myself to fathom the story of Robinho, but I think we have ourselves a contender for the top scorer of the Prem this year.

In case you were too busy watching the top 4 all weekend, there were actually some games on with more than two goals being scored. Three coming from the wonder boy Brazilian this weekend against Stoke:



Lets take a look:

1st Goal: Pretty basic. He's in a great position and places the ball perfectly. This is what Chelsea is having problems with. Anelka and Malouda are finding themselves in these kinds of positions and botching them constantly. Robinho keeps his cool and delivers.

2nd Goal: Please, close your eyes for the celebration: hes one cocky little bugger and its annoying. But look how well he sambas around his defenders in order to get into position for goal. This is the kind of fluid play you would expect from a player who has just been snatched up from La Liga.

3rd: Not afraid to pull the trigger from distance. Pure class. Pure power.

With Drogba and Torres being benched substantially this year, and with Berbatov, Keane and Adebayor being lukewarm and inconsistant so far, I really think Robinho has contention for top scorer this year. Shame on Chelsea for not shelling out the big bucks for this guy.

Love him or hate him, he is pulling off results and has a unique passion for the game which is beautiful and entertaining. His dramatics are pulling in great results for City already, but without the support of a well rounded team, it will be difficult for them to compete in the top four positions.