Posts Tagged ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’

Messi romps to Ballon d’Or victory

• Lionel Messi beats Cristiano Ronaldo by 240 points
• Barcelona effectively boast four players in top five spots

Lionel Messi has won the 2009 Ballon d’Or, awarded to the European footballer of the year, after inspiring Barcelona to the treble last season. The forward was outstanding as the Catalan club won the Champions League, the Spanish title and the Copa del Rey.

Messi beat last year’s winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, into second place by a record margin and becomes the sixth Barcelona player to take the award and the first since Brazil’s Ronaldinho in 2005.

The Argentina international, 22, was the top scorer in last season’s Champions League with nine goals, including his header in the 2-0 victory in the final over Manchester United, for whom Ronaldo was playing his final match before joining Real Madrid. He also scored six times in the Copa del Rey and found the net on 23 occasions in the Spanish league.

Messi won the Ballon d’Or, which is voted for by journalists across the world and organised by France Football magazine, by a 240-point margin. The award’s 96 voters gave Messi 473 points out of a possible 480, a near unanimous verdict.

“Honestly, I knew that I was among the favourites because Barcelona had a fruitful year in 2009,” Messi told France Football. “But I didn’t expect to win with such a margin. The Ballon d’Or is very important to me. All the players who won it were great players, and some great players never won it.

“For me it’s a big honour to win. I dedicate it to my family, they were always present when I needed them and sometimes felt even stronger emotions than me.”

Barcelona effectively had four players in the top five, with Xavi third and Andrés Iniesta fourth ahead of the former Barça player Samuel Eto’o, who is now with Internazionale.

Messi’s contract with Barcelona runs to 2016 and has a buyout clause of €250m (£228m). He has made a good start to this season, already scoring nine goals, and impressed in a 1-0 victory over Real Madrid on Sunday.

“It won’t be easy to [repeat] after a year like the one we just went through,” Messi said. “I hope the next one will reach the same standards. But to win the Ballon d’Or two years in a row is not an easy thing.”

Wayne Rooney was the highest placed England international in eighth. Immediately behind him are more Premier League players in Didier Drogba, Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Cesc Fábregas.

Individual standings

1 Lionel Messi (Argentina, Barcelona), 473 points

2 Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Real Madrid), 233

3 Xavi (Spain, Barcelona), 170

4 Andres Iniesta (Spain, Barcelona), 149

5 Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon, Internazionale), 75

6 Kaká (Brazil, Real Madrid), 58

7 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden, Barcelona), 50

8 Wayne Rooney (England, Manchester United), 35

9 Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, Chelsea), 33

10 Steven Gerrard (England, Liverpool), 32

11 Fernando Torres (Spain, Liverpool), 22

12 Cesc Fábregas (Spain, Arsenal), 13

13 Edin Dzeko (Bosnia, Wolfsburg), 12

14 Ryan Giggs (Wales, Manchester United), 11

15 Thierry Henry (France, Barcelona), 9

16= Luis Fabiano (Brazil, Sevilla) 8

16= Nemanja Vidic (Serbia, Manchester United), 8

16= Iker Casillas (Spain, Real Madrid), 8

19 Diego Forlan (Uruguay, Atlético Madrid), 7

20 Yoann Gourcuff (France, Bordeaux), 6

21= Andrey Arshavin (Russia, Arsenal), 5

21= Júlio César (Brazil, Inter), 5

21= Frank Lampard (England, Chelsea), 5

24 Maicon (Brazil, Inter), 4

25 Diego (Brazil, Juventus), 3

26= David Villa (Spain, Valencia), 2

26= John Terry (England, Chelsea), 2

28 Franck Ribéry (France, Bayern Munich), 1

28= Yaya Touré (Ivory Coast, Barcelona), 1

30 Karim Benzema (France, Real Madrid), 0

Sid Lowe gives his verdict on El Clásico

The first clásico to be shown on the silver screen lived up to its billing, but Madrid were made to pay for some poor finishing

This time, Iker Casillas wasn’t wearing his Iker Casillas face, the one that says “you call that a defence?!” This time, his defence was a defence. He was, though, wearing the face of an idiot. Up the tunnel and through the plywood door, chapel to the left, dressing room to the right, Dani Alves was wearing the face of a grinning simpleton, all glazed expression and cheeky smiles. Xabi Alonso was wearing the face of the disappointed, dough-eyed and sad, Pepe was wearing the face of Stanley Ipkiss, and Cristiano Ronaldo was wearing the shiny but not particularly happy face of someone who applies too much lotion. It was hard to see what kind of face Carles Puyol was wearing but he was probably smiling behind all that hair.

Manuel Pellegrini, meanwhile, was wearing what the Spanish describe as a face of circumstances, skin dragged down as if an invisible weight hung from his chin. His side had just produced their best league performance in the biggest match – an intense, high-tempo display in the clásico. One in which he insisted: “we were better than them in just about everything”, in which Kaká showed flashes of his class, Alonso and Lass Diarra smothered Barça’s midfield, and Ronaldo looked dangerous; in which almost everyone played well, in fact. But still they had lost 1-0, despite playing almost half an hour with an extra man. Still they’d lost top spot; still Barcelona had secured their best ever start. Only two coaches had reached week 12 unbeaten before – Bobby Robson and Terry Venables.

Because while Madrid had been “better at just about everything” – and that’s highly debatable – one thing they weren’t better at was finishing. Because when Cristiano Ronaldo stepped into the spotlight, he fluffed his lines, AS’s cover showing his easy first-half chance alongside the headline: “there went the win.” Because Barça-baiting Tomás Guasch insisted: “if he had scored, Madrid would have won”, but if Barça-baiting Tomás Guasch’s tía had cojones she’d be his tío. And because while Marca’s cover declared that it “tasted like victory”, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter isn’t actually butter. Not even when you throw in complaints about the ref – Marca accusing him of missing a penalty on Ronaldo and AS’s mad Madridista Tomás Roncero attacking him for allowing Barcelona’s goal despite it being “nearly offside.”

Because, in short, while Madrid took home plenty of positives, the bottom line, grumbled Casillas, is that Real Madrid lost. “I don’t care about playing well,” the keeper said, pulling on his George W Bush mask. “I leave here wearing an idiot’s face.” As for Barcelona president Joan Laporta, he was wearing the face of a very smug man indeed. “That,” he declared, “is why we signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic.” That being what one paper described as a “homicidal zambombazo” – the wonderful side-footed volley that won the game.

It was a telling remark, revealing of the pressure on Laporta. When Barcelona swapped Ibrahimovic for Eto’o, most people thought they were completely off their heads. They’d sold the man who had scored more La Liga goals over the last five years than anyone else. They’d given Inter the man who always does it when it matters, the man who twice hit the opening goal in the European Cup final, and taken the man that never does – the striker Arrigo Sacchi described as “strong against the weak and weak against the strong.”

Ibrahimovic didn’t suit Barcelona’s style – something that seemed confirmed when they pursued David Villa first. And although Eto’o is a difficult character even Guardiola’s infamous remark that there was a lack of “feeling” between him and the Cameroonian didn’t convince. “He doesn’t need to have feeling with me,” Eto’o responded, “I’m not Penelope Cruz.” Last season, they won the treble together, after all, and Ibrahimovic is hardly the most accommodating character either. As if all that wasn’t ridiculous enough, Barcelona had driven a huge truckload of used €500 notes round to Inter’s house too. It didn’t make sense.

Only it did. Sort of. There was a financial and contractual imperative too; the board pushed for Eto’o to go as well. More, even, than Guardiola did. Forget the truck of cash, Barcelona considered the deal a straight swap. Eto’o’s contract was due for renewal. He wanted €10m net, a four-year deal, and no longer qualified for the 23% tax band. From Barcelona’s point of view, his salary would suddenly leap to €14.5m a year; more than €20m extra over the duration. Then there was the signing on fee, at around €10m. Barcelona didn’t see Eto’o’s departure in terms of a loss so much as an act of good housekeeping, enabling them to secure Ibrahimovic below €50, the limit they’d set and the price at which they baulked over Villa. They’d offloaded a problem too.

Besides, height and presence has long been an obsession for Barcelona and, having lost out on Villa, Guardiola wanted a tactical plan B – something Marca’s Roberto Palomar accused Pellegrini of lacking when Madrid had to chase the game last night A big fan of Patrick Kluivert as a player, someone who privately speaks highly of Peter Crouch, Guardiola wanted an inverted pivot – someone to offer a more direct option, bring over people into play and score goals. Ibrahimovic did so; fabulous footwork provided assists against Zaragoza and Getafe, five goals in the opening five games was the best start in Barça’s history.

But there were doubts. Barcelona appeared slower, more ponderous with him; there was less of that asphyxiating pressure, less of the pathological will to win with which Eto’o drove his team-mates on. He had missed a great chance against Inter, hit the post against Rubin Kazan and last week Barcelona produced their best display this season in destroying Inter without him. Last night, the doubts were blown away; last night, Ibrahimovic became a hero. The winning goal in the biggest game on earth, the bitterest rivalry, the most expensive match ever played. A gloriously precise volley. Five minutes after coming on. When injured. “Who says he doesn’t do it in the big games?” cheered Sport. “Viva Ibrahimovic!” shouted El Mundo Deportivo. Zlatan, said Guardiola, “was marvellous.”

Modest, too. For now, at least. Maybe he’s finally found a team he considers worthy of his talents; maybe he’s just the new boy still on best behaviour. Speaking in Italian with the occasional English word thrown in, Ibrahimovic insisted that “the credit for the goal goes to Alves.” He had a point. His first two crosses travelled a combined distance of 769 miles, but it was Alves who delivered the inch perfect ball for Ibrahimovic’s volley, just as he’d provided the second against Inter, he slipped an impossible pass into Leo Messi only for the Argentinian to blow it, and in the 89th minute, one up against their biggest rivals, when everyone else was bricking it, football’s Sonic the Hedgehog was still steaming up the wing like a hyperactive kid.

Not that Alves was alone. While Ibrahimovic is splashed across the cover of every single paper, it was Barcelona’s back four that really shone. Ibrahimovic’s goal came from Gerard Piqué tackling Ronaldo yet again, striding up the pitch, laying it off and continuing into the area, leaving the Swede free. And Eric Abidal, Barcelona’s usually ignored left-back, almost finished their best move. Above all, though, last night Barcelona’s defenders did something most people thought Barcelona’s defenders couldn’t do. Defend. And none more so than Carles Puyol.

The 31-year-old feared that, like Eto’o, his days at Camp Nou were numbered but signed a new deal on the cheap and produced the display of his life, launching into lunatic, last gasp tackles to deny certain goals. Not once. Not twice. But three times. He was simply immense. Last night’s clásico was the first ever match to be shown on the silver screen and boasted the greatest cast in history, a collection of superheroes to rival the best cinemas with the stickiest floors. Six candidates for the Ballón d’Or, the last three Fifa World Players, over €350 worth of signings. And yet the star was the man who plays with his hair in his eyes and his heart on his sleeve. Superman’s fine but sometimes what you really need is Captain Caveman.

Results: Sporting 1-0 Villarreal, Valencia 1-1 Mallorca, Sevilla 2-2 Malaga, Valladolid 3-3 Tenerife, Getafe 5-1 Xérez, Racing 0-1 Deportivo, Almería 1-4 Athletic, Zaragoza 0-1 Osasuna, Barcelona 1-0 Real Madrid, Atlético 4-0 Espanyol

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Barcelona 1-0 Real Madrid

The first gran clásico shown at cinemas lived up to its billing and turned out to be a thriller, packed with twists and suspense. When the dust settled on a tense and absorbing contest, there were many heroes but one stood taller than the rest. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the star who had appeared set for little more than a cameo role but came from the bench to crash home the volley that gave Barcelona a dramatic 1-0 victory.

There was enormous satisfaction too for Barcelona, having held Madrid off for half an hour after Sergio Busquets’ red card on 62 minutes – not just held them off: there were gigantic performances from the Barcelona defence, led by the astonishing Carles Puyol, but Barcelona made chances even with 10 men. “We didn’t just wait; we continued trying to get behind them and always faced them head on,” said Pep Guardiola, their coach. Madrid, too, had wonderful opportunities. It could easily have finished 3-3 or 4-3 to either side. “We deserved at least a draw,” the Madrid coach, Manuel Pellegrini, said.

It was billed as the greatest cast ever and Leo Messi was included despite question marks over his fitness, but to start with there was no place for the man who would end up playing the central role. Ibrahimovic, struggling with a hamstring injury, began on the bench. For Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo made his first start in 60 days as a forward in a 4-3-1-2 formation.

Ronaldo was greeted with whistles. Somehow it did not convince; he is not Luis Figo and had said before the match that he has no problem playing the pantomine villain – in 2006, he reminded his audience, every stadium in England had it in for him and he was the Premier League’s best player. He was right. The whistles spoke as much of fear as loathing and the fear was well founded.

When Madrid stole possession and hit quick, direct balls Ronaldo’s way he troubled Barcelona. When the first half’s best chance came his way, though, he failed to take it, hitting against Victor Valdés’s legs from Kaká’s pass. Barcelona were unsettled, crowded by an intense Madrid side who brought their defensive line up the pitch to shut down the spaces. Barcelona were also vulnerable to Madrid’s swift dashes forward – especially on the left.

The message for Madrid seemed clear: ambush them, win it and go. They did so impressively. Barcelona were thankful for a superb diving intervention from Puyol on Marcelo. “I don’t remember a time when Barcelona created so little,” Pellegrini remarked.

Beset by Madrid’s pressure, Barcelona’s best outlet appeared to be into the gap behind the back four and Thierry Henry spent much of the first half appealing for that very ball. Mostly he ran and called in vain. When Seydou Keita did play one through, it was overhit; on other occasions his frustration saw him fall foul of the offside trap. When it came to a straight sprint against Pepe, he came off second best. At the start of the second half he came off, replaced by Ibrahimovic.

Puyol made a wonderful block on Gonzalo Higuaín. Almost immediately after Ronaldo seemed to have outrun Gerard Piqué but the centre-back, who handled his former team-mate marvellously for most of the night, recovered, won the ball and went striding out from the back. He laid the ball into the path of Xavi Hernández. It was worked wide to Dani Alves, steaming forward on the right. His pass sailed over Piqué towards Ibrahimovic who sidefooted home on the volley. He had been on the pitch five minutes.

The delight did not last much longer, however, as Barcelona had Busquets sent off for his second yellow card after he handled Lassana Diarra’s pass. There was a warning soon after when Ronaldo headed over – it was to be his last contribution as, tired now, he was replaced by Karim Benzema. A Ronaldo down but a man up, Madrid pushed. Barcelona were grateful to another heroic intervention from Puyol; Kaká was snuffed out as he produced a moment’s inspiration; and Benzema scrambled his shot over.

And yet still Alves was more outside- right than right-back and Barcelona should have scored when Piqué headed over, the other full-back Eric Abidal shot wide and Messi missed from six yards, his shot flying over off Iker Casillas after Alves had produced a barely plausible pass into his path. A minute later Diarra was sent off for a second yellow. There was just about time for Madrid to launch the ball forward but there would be no Hollywood finish.

Spain stages The Greatest Show on Earth

Spanish cinemas will show a football match live for the first time to satisfy the excitement surrounding the star-studded match

When Florentino Pérez spent €65m signing Kaká from Milan, followed it up four days later with the €94m purchase of Cristiano Ronaldo and then took his total spending to €254m (£230m), the club’s director general, Jorge Valdano, likened it to a huge cinema production. He was quite right. This weekend is premiere weekend at movie theatres across Spain; tonight’s the night they have been waiting for all over the world.

Gigantic posters have gone up heralding the arrival on the silver screen of the greatest show on earth, the film’s main stars looking out – all chiselled jawlines and steely stares, shadowed in red and yellow, warriors in waiting. “In High Definition and Dolby Surround Sound: Barça vs Real Madrid, with Cristiano Ronaldo. Leo Messi. Kaká. Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Special guest stars Thierry Henry and Karim Benzema. Directed by Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola. Football as you have never seen it before, in the best cinemas.”

At 7pm, for the first time, cinemas across Spain will show a football match live; they could have chosen only one match for the opening night – El Clásico: Barcelona against Madrid, the game that everyone wants to watch. Cinema tickets, on sale for €8, sold out in three days. Tickets for the 98,000 Camp Nou lasted only a matter of hours. On Tuesday night touts were buying for as much as €300; they will be looking to sell them for twice that. They will succeed, too.

Barcelona-Madrid has always been special, a game infused with colossal political, social and historical significance, often presented as the Catalan nation against the Spanish state. Hristo Stoichkov claimed: “Every time Barcelona and Madrid meet, it’s an act of rebellion against the established power, against centralism.”

And that’s before you even consider the football. Between them they have won more than half of Spain’s league titles plus 12 European Cups, including five of the past dozen. This time, it is bigger than ever: first versus second, the world’s best team, unique treble winners, against the most expensive squad ever assembled.

For those without the funds of the Real president, Pérez, those who could not get a seat in the stadium or one with a drinks holder in the armrest, two subscription channels will show the game on Spanish television. Gol Television’s coverage begins at 11am; Canal Plus Liga’s starts at 9am. According to the company that sells the international rights, “every country in the world except India” will show it. The country’s four sports dailies have produced specials with everything you ever wanted to know – and quite a lot you didn’t – about El Clásico.

As cinema posters went up, there was just one complaint, moaned the newspaper Sport: “The poster has missed out two men that turn football into an art form: Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández.” After last season’s Champions League final, Wayne Rooney declared Iniesta the world’s best player; Xavi was named Euro2008’s MVP. “Leaving them out,” said Sport, “is like a cast list without Bogart or Brad Pitt.” And what, Madrileños could have added, about Raúl, the European Cup’s all-time top scorer?

Raúl will not even start. Gol Television’s advert depicts 10 players on show tonight, all shortlisted for this year’s European Footballer of the Year award, alongside the slogan: “10 candidates for the Ballon d’Or have never been so cheap.”

Nor is it just the shortlist. Every winner of the Fifa World Player award since 1996 has played for Barcelona or Madrid, either when they won the award or immediately after it. Leo Messi will win this year’s Ballon d’Or for European Footballer of the Year; Ronaldo and Kaká are the past two winners. The winner in 2006, Fabio Cannavaro, left Madrid this summer because he was not good enough. With Ronaldo having recovered from injury and Messi ready too, the world’s best players will come face to face in a single match, the most expensive match in history.

Gol’s subscription costs €14.95 a month; buying the players cost rather more. Barça broke their record by spending €50m (plus Samuel Eto’o) on Ibrahimovic, shelling out a total of almost €125m. Madrid’s likely starting line-up cost €342m. Barcelona’s Víctor Valdés, Carles Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi are youth teamers, prompting Catalan commentators to insist upon their moral superiority: Barcelona v Madrid is cantera versus cartera, home produce against wallet. Their value is another issue – the five players’ buy-out clauses reach €680m.

Camp Nou is the stage for the greatest galaxy of stars. It is cinema’s big night. Whether the film will actually be any good is another matter, but one thing’s for sure: there’s never been a cast like it.

Manchester United 3-0 Everton

Manchester United had won only two of their previous five Premier League matches, and were eight points behind Chelsea at kick-off, but they quickly trimmed that back to five with a comfortable victory over the basket case poor Everton resemble at present.

It is interesting to note that, at this stage last season, United were running third, behind Chelsea and Liverpool, and they stayed there until the new year, when they hit the top on the back of an irresistible surge of 11 successive wins.

Traditionally, they move up as the Christmas decorations come down. This time, however, there is no Cristiano Ronaldo to leave opposing defenders with what, in George Best’s heyday, they used to call “twisted blood”. Ronaldo’s replacement, Antonio Valencia, not only lacks his predecessor’s mesmeric skills on the ball, he is not contributing his share of goals.

No team has experienced a worse catalogue of injuries than Everton and they were again without seven first-teamers, including such important figures as Mikel Arteta, Phil Jagielka, Phil Neville and Steven Pienaar. On the credit side, Tim Cahill was passed fit to play. Notable absentees from the United line-up were Rio Ferdinand, John O’Shea, Jonny Evans and Dimitar Berbatov. Without Berbatov, injured on international duty with Bulgaria, Sir Alex Ferguson partnered Little and Little, aka Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen, in attack for only the second time in the league. Ominously, on the only other occasion, United lost at Burnley.

The combination provided an interesting sub-text: might they dovetail effectively for England at the World Cup? Probably not, on this evidence. They were rarely on the same wavelength in the first half.

Louis Saha, who spent more time in the treatment room than on the field in his mutually frustrating spell with United, was back at Old Trafford for the first time as an Everton player and keen to demonstrate his worth by adding to the nine goals he had scored this season – the most recent at West Ham last weekend.

His first attempt left something to be desired, a “Thierry Henry”, as surreptitious handballs will now be known, found Steve Bennett eagled-eyed where Sweden’s Martin Hansson had been Mr Magoo in Paris.

As might have been expected, United made all the running and were rewarded after 35 minutes, when they took the lead in handsome fashion. Valencia’s headed knockdown fell to Darren Fletcher in the centre of the D, where the Scot met it with a flying right-footed volley that ripped into the top right-hand corner of Tim Howard’s net.

Everton’s visible discomfiture was reflected in back-to-back bookings for Cahill and Marouane Fellaini, and Howard had to be smartly off his line to thwart Owen in pursuit of the second goal that would have settled the issue before half-time.

David Moyes sent on an extra striker, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, in place of young Dan Gosling for the second half. It was a midfielder, John Heitinga, however, who raised Evertonian spirits with a curling 20-yarder that demanded Edwin Van der Sar’s careful attention. The United keeper was soon called upon again, advancing from his line to sprawl at the feet of Cahill. In the collision, both players were injured and needed treatment.

The Owen of old would surely have put the outcome beyond doubt 10 minutes after the break, when he took the ball wide of Howard, but nudged it too far to the left to get in a decent shot. Rooney was more impressive when he clipped the crossbar with a shot from 25 yards out.

The second goal United needed for comfort came midway through the half, when Ryan Giggs’s corner from the left came back to him and his second delivery was driven in by Carrick from 17 yards out. Everton knew the game was up. One goal was likely to be too much to pull back, two was mission impossible. Valencia drilled in the third from wide on the right, with the aid of a deflection.