Iker for the Golden Ball!
By: Corey | July 8th, 2008
After a stellar performance from Iker this past season, and a European championship title as captain of Spain, the calls are coming for Iker Casillas to win the Golden Ball this year. There has not been a keeper to win this award since Lev Yashin, oh so long ago, so this would truely be a historic event. But there is a precedent for it. Fabio Cannavaro had a strong season with Juve before bringing a World Cup trophy back to Italy, and was rewarded with the Golden Ball. So why not Iker?
He’s the voice of authority. With two Balon d’Ors to boast of and the Super Balon d’Or recognizing him as the best player of all time, Alfredo di Stéfano added his two cents as to who he thinks should win the award. The Blond Arrow has pledged his full support to recent European champion, Iker Casillas.
Don Stefano thinks Iker should win the Golden Ball
On the day of his 82nd birthday, Alfredo di Stéfano joined the Realmadrid.com initiative to support Iker Casillas’ quest for the next Balon d’Or. The President of Honor, who won the award in 1957 and 1959, has pledged his support to the Madridista keeper and offered his reasons for doing so: “There’s no doubt in my mind that he deserves it. Beside being an excellent player, he’s a great person.”.
Di Stéfano, who didn’t miss any of the recently-concluded Euro, said he is proud of the Real Madrid goalkeeper, who this year has gone above and beyond to win the Balon d’Or.
I take what that man says as the truth, he is the all wise and all knowing of football, so if you want to vote for Iker, you should do it here: . Its a Real Madrid website piece where you give the reason why Iker should win the award, and make sure you give your name and country of origin. As for official voting for, its done by a panel of journalists, for which I am not one (boo) but you can vote for canidate here . That is if you can read French, and it is not time to begin voting yet so we will need to wait till the season starts, but bookmark it for now.
Category: Editorial/Opinion
Tags: Alfredo Di Stefano, Editorial/Opinion, Fabio Cannavaro, Golden Ball, Iker Casillas, Real MadridSubscribe
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Comments | Add your comment
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he deserves the ball. while every1 is enamored by d 42 goal shine of c.ronaldo , his performances in crunch games has left me a wee bit disenchanted.san iker has had an equally gr8 season.one mark of gr8 players is their ability to drag their team to victory when faced with gr8 odds and the number of instances this has been done by iker is uncountable. you would have to rack ur brains real hard to find a match in which it can b said that he has not performed up to scratch.i am not anti-ronaldo , i m just pro-iker.
Posted from
Ecuador
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I am anti-ronaldo! And I have no second thoughts on having a go at him at any given opportunity. The guy is a choker! There has not been one big game where he has delivered. Okay he has scored 42 goals, but a big majority of them were penalties and headers. Anyway San Iker truly deserves the Golden Ball and by the trends shown in recent years the criteria is good international showing > good club showing > club you play for > marketing asset. Casillas has all this and definitely should win! Although i think a move to real means the award will go to ronaldo. Sigh!
Posted from
India -
There nothing wrong with Ronaldo scoring from headers Kaushik, and 42 goals is an impressive goal haul for a winger, no matter how many penalties he took. But Casillas has won the Euro Cup as the captain of the team with outstanding performances, while Ronaldo was less then influential in the CL games this year. I say Ronaldo will get the award, but we all know Iker deserves it.
Posted from
United States -
Yeah i know nothing wrong, but im just very biased against Ronaldo
Your last line says it all. Lets hope out of the blue Iker actually does manage to get the awardPosted from
India -
I think Casillas should be considered, and I would love to see a goalkeeper get it, but it is an extreme long shot, with Ronaldo being the almost prohibitive favorite.
There are a few problems for Casillas: RM’s failure to progress beyond the first knockout round in the UCL; La Liga being perceived as “weak” last season; the fact that despite the Zamora win, many still don’t consider Casillas Real Madrid’s MVP (although I do); and the lack of action he saw in the Euros.
The last is the key difference between his case and Cannavaro’s (or even Buffon’s, who came in second in voting in 2006). Cannavaro stood out on the field and off in the World Cup, putting in a sterling, basically flawless, performance that got unusual attention for a CB and being the very visible leader and face of his team. While Iker was good in the Euros, he saw the ball very little generally. The standout performance was against Italy in the quarters; it would have been much better for his case had it been in the final. He did not necessarily standout amongst his teammates on the field, and while he is obviously an effective captain, he is not a very visible one (did he give a presser?).
All of that and the fact that voters for the Balon do not usually hold the Euros in as much account as the World Cup (meaning that his captaincy won’t mean a lot) will all probably mean he will be lucky to make the top three.
Posted from
United States -
Louise, the reason Casillas is not as pronounced a leader is that he is not as vocal in the media, while the media barely covered the Spanish up until the quarter final win. Italy and Germany are the big tickets, and thank go England wasnt there with the media bizarre they are. The fact for me is Casillas and Spain are not a big draw for attention because they always choke, while the only thing people focus on for Real is the Ronaldo transfer saga.
Considering the top five were released today by L’Equipe and they are Ronaldo, Casillas, Arshavin, Messi and Fernando Torres. To me the stand outs are Ronaldo and Casillas, with Torres third. Arshavin was not even a starter for Zenit through most of the year! While Messi was oft injured and Barca, as we all know, was crap this year. Ronaldo and Casillas will be the competition, but considering Torres did well this year and the EPL bias that is world football right now, Ronaldo, Torres and Casillas are my top three. Hooray for the Iberian peninsula, but Casillas would get my vote.
Posted from
United States -
Corey, I completely agree with you about Casillas’s and Spain’s media presence (although I think there was a lot of ‘will they choke again’ attention on them since they came into the tournament looking so strong). But that is a significant problem for him, I think, in trying to overcome the Ronaldo factor. I admire how humble Casillas is, think it’s one of his best traits, and I wish it weren’t the case that it will probably penalize him in this instance, but it’s probably true.
Posted from
United States -
interesting. i do remember roma bitch-slapping real and putting six goals past casillas last season.
Posted from
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So because we lost a CL game he doesnt deserve the Golden Ball? I do remember two penalty misses by Ronaldo in CL games, no one is perfect, this award is for who has had the best season, club and international, not who has kept Roma for scoring dumbass.
Posted from
United States -
and it was 4 goals by the way. please get thy facts right
Posted from
India -
Iker
Posted from
Saudi Arabia
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