I think Messi deserves such an honourable mention for the 2008 prize. But his 3rd place for ballon d'or is undeserved in my opinion. And it is undeserved because of a lot of obvious facts.

NO and i said that already...Zlatan with Inter is a quick choise, but as i said before, i don't think many people rate the success of Inter since it clearly was borne out of a crocked situation.  And there must be an appreication of a few facts in light of somethings. 

• Zlatan was at Juve and won the league easily with players like Emerson, Viera, Zambrotta, Zlatan, Mutu, Cannavaro, and so on
• Zlatan moves to Inter and did the same thing with similar players so to speak
• Ac Milan never recovered from Shevchenko's absence in the league in particular

So, including a host of other factors, I am a strong believer that Juventus deserved to be winners of their Scudettos AND Zlatan was clearly more efficient than Messi as well as OBVIOUSLY more productive in actually winning trophies in the last season.  What is more, for those Ronaldinho's haters, is that Messi came third while Ronaldinho was not in form...however, unlike Ronaldinho IN FORM,  Barcelona came 2nd in the league, knocked out of the Cope del Rey (semis) and eliminated by Liverpool in the round of 16 where Messi was critical.  Compare that to Inter Milan where Zlatan was critical and you have Finals of Copa Italia, 1st in the league and knocked out by Valencia in the CL at the round of 16. 

Clearly there's some discrepancies UNLESS, like i've been saying before, that many of the other Barcelona players were out of form and Ronaldinho was taking the bulk of the criticism(unfair) to hide the others' faults.  Then that would mean that Messi was playing better than Zlatan, but with players in far less form.  Plus maybe, Fifa recognised the debacle vs Valencia and considered it too much to ignore, although they overlooked that similar behaviour for Zidane in the WC.

So given that Fifa doesn't mark down too much for indiscipline, then Zlatan MUST be considered to have had a better season than Messi by far as well as Pirlo.  Players like Gerrard, Drogba, and so on cannot be considered to have SIGNIFICANTLY achieved more than Messi since besides Drogba, many of them were not winning trophies and minus the "prestigious" Carling Cup, Drogba's season was clearly in the shadows of C. Ronaldo and Kaka with frustration finally causing Mourinho to be sacked later.

Furthermore, this season Messi have not inspired Barcelona to the summit STILL, objectively he was not the main reason for Barcelona's CL progress and this is despite that this season players like Iniesta, Xavi, Yaya Toure, Milito, Abidal and so on have been in form while Messi still have not been able to inspire Barca like Zlatan is doing in the league and CL for Inter Milan.  Quite notably, Ronaldinho's "poor" season has yielded more goals than Messi's spectacular start to the season and that Messi still ahve not reached Ronaldinho's status of those "2 yrs".

In conclusion, given that the Champions League is just like the World Cup in that it gives that much more points than any other club competition ~ Kaka deserves his award;  C. Ronaldo deserves his 2nd position; while Messi is my only question mark.

PS:  with all the hype surrounding Messi, i must say that he's a very good player, but he's overrated.  He's not a great free-kick taker, he's not a prolific goal scorer like say C. Ronaldo while he misses critical attempts on goal and he's not exactly a great play maker since he doesn't increase the goal tally of those players in front of him not that his assist tally is alot although he could say that his strikers are failing.  Last season Messi got credit for two games ~  Hattrick vs Madrid and His Maradona like goal vs Getafe both of whom got better results than Barcelona in their competitions.  This season has been hugely been kept together by Yaya toure, /Messi, Ronaldinho, Abidal, Xavi, Milito and yes Victor Valdez with Yaya Toure our most solid player and after that no particular order.   If anything, Valdez saved alot of our results from crisis proportions like Casillas is making Madrid look better than they actually are, for years in truth.

Henry's purchase was a MISTAKE, ERROR or whatever...our best signings were Abidal and Toure, both of whom have been our best players and most consistent players this season for the most part.  Trust me, Abidal is in my fantasy 11 permanently.  Toure cannot because he's a defensive midfielder so i get more points our of scoring midfielders and scoring defenders than Toure.  The football fantasy should give poiints for players whose teams win games.

messi's out. for how long?

Latest news are one month, but it could be a bit more depending on how it develops. We all hope it remains one month at most

thats not good for him or the club. its not like barca needs him...eto's back.

that is very true and that's the funny thing, but don't say that too hard....some will think we don't like Messi.  Eto is back andhighlighted one of Barca's main problems, a clinical striker like Eto'o...other strikers like that include Inzahgi, Ruud, etc who can be given 4 chances and score two regularly

Gregory:

that is very true and that's the funny thing, but don't say that too hard....some will think we don't like Messi.  Eto is back andhighlighted one of Barca's main problems, a clinical striker like Eto'o...other strikers like that include Inzahgi, Ruud, etc who can be given 4 chances and score two regularly

lol, but i dont like messi. far too overated. best players in the world shuld be team players. he aint that.

Well i don't know, the press seems to be responsible for the most part for a lot of over hyping of players i think.  Messi is a good player, no doubt, but he's a luxury for me and Guily demonstrated that many times the season before.  One could say he improved, but i ask, what does he do different? 

Ronaldinho also suffered from the media, but in terms of what i think is pro Madrid efforts to destabilise the entire team which could destroy Madrid for awhile and MAdrid cold end up lagging behind for a few years since many of the players are quite young.  Messi does indeed remind me of Maradona in that respect, because very often Maradona would be found with the ball glued to his feet during a game while his team mates stood by, not to say that Messi is on any poor teams.  He's not as good as Tevez for me and i think that Barca are mainly trying to avoid him leaving too soon for another team, a la Ronaldo and Fabregas.b

really think that ronaldo and fabregas to real?

lets discuss the el classico...who's gonna win (unbiased opinions plz)???

  Perhaps, but i think hardly likely Barcelona will let both go to Madrid without a fight.  In fact, I don't even think Fabregas will ever play for Barcelona, but who knows what the future holds....

You come to a Barcelona village and ask for unbiased opinions - lol - the game is not going to end in a draw!  From the way i saw Madrid play last week, Ronaldinho is primed to infiltrate their rearguard and get some more hype about returning to form and being transferred after tasting a full 90 mins of bench last week.  If Madrid score 2 goals, then the game quite possibly is heading for a draw...not a bad result for either side.

Refocus!

Another Scottish team dispatched, so close but no cigar - has to be a rough year for them...visible progress but quickening of the axe on ambitions.

Celtic will only make a cameo appearance here, Barcelona's got simply to many guns....

yea, too easy for barca...celtic to feel the wrath of barca

draw? no.. real 2 win ;)

i lost both my internet for a few days and my Nou Camp pride....terrible!

Frank Rijkaard is hanging on a string....

him, benitez and ancelotti. amazing isnt it. although i never considerd rijkaard that good any way. he has a top side.

Schuster Slams Barça For Ronaldinho Treatement Bernd Schuster believes that Ronaldinho is being treated unfairly by Barcelona and claimed that the club has treated its star players badly for the last 30 years.

My Club as a fan, but real is real.  Schuster is not just venting hot air, he is absolutely correct in my view.  Their history of star player do not make for happy reading.

Luis Figo, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Riquelme, Saviola, Davids, Guily, Simao, Rustu Recber, De la pena etc. join a long list of players like Schuster who have been either unceremoniously dumped, descarded, allowed to leave without reason.  It always bemused me how Ronaldo was "allowed" to leave after one season and Figo in his form allowed to leave due to refusal to agree increased contract wages.  Although, some players had to go, players like Saviola were frozen out for absolutely no reason clear to the eye and never was the same player either.  Riquelme was slightly different, but similarly suffered from the Barcelona phenomenon of exhiled players.  Rivaldo never enjoyed a peaceful time.  What is more is that strange impulse buys like Thierry Henry always followed, some successes, well the jury is still out on the others namely Quaresmo for starters.

The treatment of their stars have clearly been shabby and the recent treatment of Ronaldinho epitomises the difference between Barcelona and other big clubs like Madrid, Ac Milan, Juventus and Bayern Munich.  Take two clear examples Shevchenko with Ac Milan and Raul of Madrid.   It can be clearly seen that Schevchenko's goals started to reduce, but rather than Milan discard Schevchenko, they put him behind the strikers and created another position for him, they almost exact thing was done for Raul.  However, I suspect that Ronaldinho's saga with Barcelona will end in exit to any club even including Real Madrid because of Barcelona's track record of not being ambitious enough to ignore their rivalry of Catalonia vs Spain and concentrate on winning and being successful even it means not worrying about catalan born players.