Like last season, Ronaldo is a strong favourite for winning the Professional Footballers’ Association players’ player of the year and the PFA young player of the year awards.
Here’s the full list of nominations:
PFA player of the year:
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Fernando Torres (Liverpool)
David James (Portsmouth)
PFA young player of the year
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)
Fernando Torres (Liverpool)
Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa)
Ashley Young (Aston Villa)
Micah Richards (Manchester City)
Despite the admirable performances of everyone listed here, the only two players with a real chance of winning awards here are Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres. Torres has taken the Premier League by storm, rubbishing critics and establishing himself as the best striker in the league by a mile. That he has done it in his first season – the last player to do this so successfully was Ruud van Nistelrooy, and his 40-goal seasons won’t be forgotten for a while – deserves an award on its own.
But this isn’t the ‘best newcomer award’. And, if Ronaldo was the best player in the Premier League last season, he has bettered himself in emphatic fashion this year. No signs of fatigue – the kind which has all but derailed Arsenal’s season – and equally at ease with scoring crucial goals home and away (Torres has a slightly lop-sided ratio there) and with his goals tally at 37, he is sure to end the season with 40+ and rewrite history books.
Depending on how these two stay fit and perform at Euro 2008, they should also be in contention for the Fifa world player of the year award, which this time should not including the Christian nomination of Kaka.
What do you think? Is Ronaldo a clear-cut winner or will Torres sneak in with a win?
I think Ronaldo should win the award, not only because of his goalscoring ratio but also for his alround contribution to his team. He is, in short, a better footballer than Torres.
what do you mean by the “CHRISTIAN” nomination of kaka? why did kaka’s religeon came into topic in your article about voting for the best player of the year..care to explain AHMED BILAL???
Are you suggesting that christians voted KAKA footballer of the year last time round only because he was a christian……..Christain nomination of KAKA??? WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?
With out question the winner will be Torres. All of his goals so far has been master pieces. Ronaldo have mainly come from penalties and free kicks. (one trick pony perhaps). He works for the Portugal diving team so his skill falls short.
no doubt about it-RONALDO DESERVES IT- CONSISTENCY AND IMPROVED PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR. TORRES IS GOOD-BUT IF YOU HAD A CHOICE OF EITHER OF THEM-MOST MANAGERS WILL OPT FOR RONALDO. HE HAS THE FEAR FACTOR-DEFENDERS DREAD PLAYING AGAINST HIM-AND BEAR IN MIND-HIS GOAL ASSISTS FAR OUT WEIGH TORRES THIS YEAR
TORRES, TORRES, TORRES, hands down, not only has he got more of a variaty of scoring goals, but dont forget this is his FIRST season in english football, ronaldo has now been in the prem for 5 years, and only just hit peak form, if it took him 5 i dread to think how good torres could possibly be, after 5 seasons.
plane and simple really.!!!
Ash – read this for some background.
Ronaldo…….he’s alway the best.He’s also the winner in 2007 for me.
There really is no debate Ronaldo has been by far the best player, anyone that says otherwise is Just a scouse causing devilment.
Torres will challenge Ronaldo in future years but currently at thebestplayerintheworld.com we have Ronaldo well ahead for the global award. So he has to snage it for the PFA as well.
Ahmed… FIFA shortlistes the candidates to be crowned best footballer of the year. Who gets picked is done totally by the voting of professional coaches and players around the world. so the statement “FIFA seem to want to cloud this award with an unspoken hint at what footballers should be doing in their spare time. Is FIFA punishing players that are not pious? Or are they quietly sending a message to footballers that FIFA will no longer just look at those 90 minutes in terms of what makes a Best Player?”is ridiculous cuz you seem to say FIFA is the one who picks the winner of the award. FIFA has complimented KAKA’s efforts and contribution to society but to say that FIFA picked KAKA because he is a christian is really a unfair and racist remark. Kaka was picked by his fellow professional collegues as the best footballer of the year was entirely due to his performance on the pitch. His skills and professionalism on the pitch made him stand out above the rest. coaches and players around the world noticed that and correctly voted for KAKA and made him the best in the world last year.FIFA didnt picked him. They only shortlisted him together with many others so they have no way of punishing players who are not Christians or those who are not leading a Christian life like the way you are suggesting FIFA did!!!! AHMED BILAL….
Torres and Ronaldo are classic examples of the modern day footballer (see that i used an oxy moron 🙂 ). These two probably werent the best at grass root level (meaning they probably didnt shine the way Gerrard or JT did when they were 6-12).
Torres is brilliant and has already taken LEGEND status in his first season as a Scouser but Ronaldo is a little bit better and would deserve the award more for more goals. (you could make an arguement if Torres had been taking Liverpools set pieces he could be higher)
YOU ALL ARE REALY A BUNCH OF IDIOTS, THIS IS TORRES’S FIRST SEASON IN THE HARDEST LEAGUE IN EUROPE AND ALREADY AMONGST THE BEST IN THE PREM, THIS TOOK RONALDO 5 SEASONS TO DO, YES 5 SEASONS, WOT’S TORRES GONNA BE LIKE IN FIVE SEASONS, MAKES ME SHIVER, SO THAT REASON AND THAT REASON ALONE IT HAS TO BE TORRES, AND IF YOU TAKE RONALDO’S PENALTYS AND FREE KICKS I THINK YOU’LL FIND TORRES HAS SCORED MORE, I STRESS AGAIN, IN HIS FIRST SEASON, I REMEMBER PEOPLE SAYING RONALDO WAS A WAIST OF MONEY IN HIS FIRST SEASON, NO DOUBTING HE’S A FINE PLAYER BUT SORRY HAS TO BE TORRES.
“EL NINO”
YNWA
RONNY RONNY RONNY 🙂
Ash – shouting my name doesn’t help.
kopite – what part of ‘this is NOT a best newcomer award’ didn’t you understand? just curious…
Kopite makes a great point about it being only Torres’ first season. And yet on pure talent alone in the EPL only CR can rival him. Torres is that good. I think he might be superhuman.
But at this level being best player is not just about skiill is it?
There are more important factors such as to what extent the player uses his skills to influence a game.
On this count you need to favour Ronaldo.
However, to go back to the point of this being Torres’s first season, you also need to acknowledge how Benitez is using his expensive signing. Now we all know that Benitez like to rotate players anyways but I think he has also held Torres back more this year than he will next year.
So perhaps next year will be Torres’s year?
Have you guys seen the video about Ronaldo:
http://thebestplayerintheworld.blogspot.com/2008/04/video-proof.html
Kopite is a wally, if it took Ronaldo 50 years to be the best player of the year or not is irrelivent, he is the best player this season something even Torres’s Mother wouldn’t deny.
Also take into account he is a midfielder (has played 2 games as a forward) socres home & away at vital times it really is a no brainer.
Ronaldo was 18 when he came to United and has bettered his goal tally each year. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets more goals next year such is his desire and determination.Torres is about a year older than Ronaldo in his first season costing Liverpool 27 million. So that puts that argument to bed. Like the article said it is not a best new comer award. Lets look at the games they faced each other in. Torres was absolutely squashed by Rio and Vidic and was subbed off. Ronaldo scored against Liverpool. Torres can only hope for second place.
On another note, WHERE THE FUCK IS ANDERSON IN THE YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR NOMINATIONS! What a load of bollocks. Oh well Ronaldo is still young enough for that award so its easily his.
yes AHMED me shouting your name dos not cover the fact that you are a racist pig. its astonishing to see that even in football you can find something in it to make your religious fanaticism rear its ugly head up. only that FIFA is the big Satan here now. its people like you who destroy the fun we have. its only about choosing the best player and you can say FIFA choosed kaka because he was a christian.. you are really ridiculous..i have collected your articles and some previous articls and your responses and im lodging a complain against you AHMED
You have to factor in the fact that Torres is in his first season. He also plays with inferior players to Ronaldo. Therefore to achieve his goal ratio is quite remarkable. Further ALL of his goals have come from open play. That is not to say that the value of Ronaldo’s goals from free-kicks and penalities should be diminished. Obviously the art of taking effective free-kicks is a skill in itself. Should he surpass Nistlerooy’s tally of 24 goals in a league debut season AND/OR win the Champions League it would be safe to say that Torres is the ‘best newcomer’ to the Premiership since its inception back in 1992. That is ‘if’ you were to look at it from that point of view, which admittedly this article does not.
personally speaking i dont think ronaldo or torres should get it. even though they are scoring goals for fun i think theo walcott deserve this award. he has announced himself to the football world in a big way and is consistantly performing week in week out. when Arsenal visits United today you will see what i mean.
Ash, Hust relax man… At the time of those awards, this angle to it was reported by all newpapers.. Ahmed just made a casual reference to it… You’re the one acting racist by making a harmless thing into a fight… Calm down and enjoy…
Also if you look at goals on big occasions this season it looks like this.
Ronaldo(2)
Arsenal: A tap in after good work from evra.
Liverpool: A tap in after a reina error.
Torres(4)
Chelsea: A great run past benhaim and a post and in finish.
Inter: Great control then a turn and brilliant finish.
Arsenal: Again another brilliant finish.
Everton: Suprise Suprise 🙂 a tap in!
what about stevie g?
Don’t you guys know? There is no racism in football anymore:
http://whysoccerisbeautiful.blogspot.com/2008/04/17-there-is-no-more-racism-in-soccer.html
Ash shut it will you? ahmed did not say it was the sole reason he just said it influenced it, and thats a fact, had ronaldos sex parties been more subtle he may have beaten kaka by a mile, it is not racism it’s just the truth mate.
Liverpool Fan:
Blinkered bollocks 🙂 Watch Ronny’s goal against Roma, for starters. Take Everton out of it if you want to retain some respect for your own team.
There were 40+ other games in the season, I’m sure if we sit down and do all of them, we can get a better idea? 🙂
Listen, I’m happy as the next guy to ignore a lot of the ole scouse glasses, but come on, no one can honestly say, that in this year’s premiership season, there has been a better player than Ronaldo. Annoying, arrogant, winking bastard that he is, you simply cannot ignore his contribution.
If you must compare him to Torres than unless you throw objectivity out of the window, you cannot possibly vote Torres, great player as he is, over Ronaldo.
Put simply, in black and white, Ronaldo has scored more goals, both domestically and in Europe.
He has helped his team to significantly more points that Torres.
He also has (a bit limited for his postition, admittedly) more assists than Torres.
If you want to do it on discipline, Ronaldo has 4 yellows and a red versus 5 yellows for Torres, so maybe Torres shades it, (unless you actually watch Ronaldo’s ‘headbutt’)
If you put their head to heads against each other, Ronaldo has scored against Liverpool, Torres has not scored against United.
All in all, I just don’t see this as a debate. If the award was ‘most surprisingly good first season in the premiership given a lot of people doubted him’ award, then fine Torres wins it, but for the best player in the league, it has to be Ronaldo, the most clear cut award to give out in years.
Torres. Great asset,works great with the team, good pace, all around unbelievable rookie. Give him his due, mates.
Rafa, Torres is getting his due. But he is not the best player right now.
I think that Ferdnando Torres should win the PFA award because this is his first season in the Premiership and he hasn’t played regularly until after Christmas and still amassed 30 or more goals.
Analyse Christano Ronaldo’s first season in the prem and Torres’ and then is a difference of about 15 goals.
Karlos, haven’t we covered this argument?
Torres ??? Ah plzzzzz, You got to be kiddin me. And its so lame that people comparing his first season with ronaldo’s. Ronaldo was just 18 FFS. Torres has been a captain and a good goal scorer back in spain. He has scored like 22 this season BUT 20 at home ?? Ronaldo has scored away and home, and big game bottler ?? he scored against arsenal, roma, liverpool, lyon and other important goals in epl. So hands down, heads down, woteva you wanna put it down its gotta be RONALDO.
Ah but Torres wasn’t a good goalscorer in Spain ML. He never once broke the 20 goal barrier I don’t think.
Despite being a red though, you have to give it to Ronaldo in this instance, the Portuguese has been immense this season and all this shite about not scoring on ‘Big’ occasions is rubbish because there aren’t as many big games as people think. You have 6 in the league, and you may get a big club in the ECL but that’s it. He’s had a fine season and I wouldn’t complain if he walked away with the award…but in the words of King Kev, I’d love it if Torres beat Ronaldo, just love it.
BUT for me, David James is the player of the year. Not one single mistake all season I think, and he has set the standard in goalkeeping for the past year and all this at the tender age of 37. I would really love it if he won, but obviously he won’t.
dudes come on, ronaldo scores plenty of goals but without his teams hard work he wont be getting the side step goals the leaping headers and the tap ins and also his diving antics which adds to his goal tally. torres scores most of his goals with pure instincts. he creates goals totally out of nothing. how many times have ronaldo ceated his own goal without his teams help? and how many times have torres created his own goals without his teams help?if torres was the regular penalty taker like ronaldo his goal tally would be on par with ronaldo but unfortunatly he isnt. but are we not missing out on 2 other players? jermain defoe and theo walcott… defoe proved what he can do with immediate effect once he was given his chance at portsmouth. he may not have the same goal tally as ronaldo or torres, but playing for a mid table team he has proven his worth 100 times over, and theo walcott has been a revolution at arsenal. every time he gets the ball he just takes our breath away with his speed and dazzling skills. he does not waste time on the ball or show off or shamelessly dive and play mind games with the referee like ronaldo or waste simple efforts like torres. he creates more than he scores. remember we are talking about best player not top scorer. any tom dick or harry can become top scorer if he gets the service from outstanding goal providers. ronaldo is a dirty footballer, torres is better but not a breath taker like theo walcott and to score regularly for a medicore team like defoe deserves something too
Ronaldo though hes a prik!