leo messi and cristiano ronaldo and kaka

 

Best of the Best

FIFA annouced the finalists Friday for the World Player of the Year honor. Three men and three women will contend for the awards and, not surprisingly, half of them are Brazilian.
Cristiane and Marta, who played for runner-up Brazil in the Women’s World Cup, will have another chance to steal hardware away from World Cup winner Brigit Prinz of Germany. Marta won the award last year and Prinz is a three-time player of the year (2003, 04 and 05). This year’s finalists were also the top-three candidates for the Gold Ball award in China this summer; Marta took the honor.
Her compatriot, Kaká, will vie for the men’s award with Manchester United wing Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Barcelona’s Argentine wonder boy Lionel Messi.

Kaká appears to be the favorite: He is the most accomplished of the three players, having won a World Cup winner’s medal with Brazil in 2002, the UEFA Champions League with AC Milan in 2006-07 and a Scudetto with the rossoneri. At 25, he is the oldest of the three finalists. And of the 16 players since 1991 who have received the award, seven of them are Brazilian.

I wrote last month, when the candidates for the award were first announced, that awarding an individual honor in a team sport like soccer is often problematic. There are thousands of players for hundreds of teams who field 11 at a time. That requires a lot of winnowing and too much subjectivity when deciding awards.
But since the good people at FIFA have narrowed it down for us: who do you think should be named the men’s and women’s World Player of the Year?

Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka

Real Madrid’s star Kaka does not agree with his compatriot Pele, the debate as to who is the finest player in the world was recently provoked by Pele’s comment that Kaka was a more complete player than Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi.

The Real Madrid playmaker  has stated his belief that Lionel Messi is the best player in the world, due to his outstanding performance last season with Barcelona.

“At the moment, Messi is the best. It’s the truth,” he said in an interview with Spanish journal AS.
“I say this because, in football, you live for the moment and he has won a lot with Barcelona in the last 12 months and has been the best.”

“I have already won it [the FIFA Player of the Year award], Cristiano won it last year and that’s it.
“I hope to win the award again. But, of course, I am very respectful of Pele’s opinion,” he concluded.

leo messi and cristiano ronaldo and kaka