FIFA World Player of the Year 08

FIFA’s world player of the year is a select group of a few clubs

BY GEORGE KAGAME After the semi finals of the champions’ league, it was quite clear which European based player is likely to win the world player of the year for 2008. As about any topic under the sky, pundits have been quick to rubbish not only the earning power of today’s soccer icons, (for some even the quality of these players has been tied to how much money they earn a week).
Beyond just sheer talent, the race for the best player today is a statement about the quality of the league that a player features in. Forget the good old Cinderella story; if you play for a club that does not make the semi final of the Champions’ league occasionally, it is hard as the ‘Carmel passing through the needle’ story as presented in the bible to be awarded the accolade of the world’s best player of the year.
And today that privilege is limited a select group of a few, including Juventus, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Barcelona, Liverpool Chelsea and AC Milan.
That’s what makes Africa’s son George Weah’s achievement in 1995 even the more special, Samuel Eto’o is as good as the best come, but for all his quality, he will never match Weah whose life story - from a Monrovia slum to international celebrity - provides a rare beacon of hope and inspiration to Liberia's many thousands of young people who see little future except for a life of poverty.


Weah’s sojourn remains a romantic’s ultimate Cinderella story; his successful world tour took him from the extreme end of poverty to international glamour in clubs like AC Milan, Chelsea, AS Monaco, Paris Saint Germain, Olympique Marseille and Manchester City. Weah’s achievements in African sport will not be matched in the near future.

Compared to Kaka and Christiano Ronaldo whose careers seemed to have been planned for them, Weah was a typical boy on the street who rose to glory. Yet for all his endowments, Weah was only highly recognized while he played at Milan.

In recent times, the awards have been exclusively a rivalry between Ronaldinho at Barcelona against Steven Gerard, Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard in England and Shevchenko, that order has only been disrupted by the events of Germany 2006 and Kaka at Milan. This season, that race is between, Christiano Ronaldo at Manchester United Lionel Messi at Barcelona and possibly Fernando Torres at Liverpool. For the profiles of the individuals involved in the current race, the questions about them are by extension questions concerning the best club or football league in the world. The question in mind here is that if Fernando Torres were playing for Real Madrid, Manchester United or Chelsea, he would certainly be the most deserving to win world player of the year. Ronaldo is the ideal candidate for any imaginable award sports award this year, yet his importance to United has not been pivotal. For all his well publicized tricks and speed, the times that Ronaldo has not played, United have moved on smoothly. And that raises the second question, is soccer today about team spirit anymore, or is it still possible for a team like Rwanda-with no such high profile star players ever be successful?
The answer lies in measures clubs and countries have recently adopted to attract and maintain raw talent and seduce it with any imaginable funds so they can retain them. Given their individual talent and importance to the team, super stars have become essential and the need to be reward equally important.
It so the credit of the prodigiously talented that players like Kaka, who has struggled with his form this season and that has also seriously affected the performance of Milan, failing to mount a serious challenge in all the competitions they played in 2008. And makes crucial inspiration for aspiring teams like Arsenal to acquire their services.
When Kaka was playing without the interruption of injury and a poor run of form, Milan counted on the Brazilian to create some magic out of any tight situation, the Italians for good measure were feared across the world and won every tournament they entered. It is by no coincidence that till today Kaka is the highest earning soccer player in Europe and the world-save for David Beckham!