No Henry as FIFA names award trio

[Guest Ridzuan]

The FIFA World Player of the Year 2006 will be either Fabio Cannavaro, Ronaldinho or Zinedine Zidane - with Thierry Henry not on the shortlist.

 

Henry has not even made it into the final three short-list for the award - a decision that is sure to infuriate his Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

 

Cannavaro, Ronaldinho and Zidane were revealed as the three remaining candidates on Wednesday.

 

Henry was the only player who made it to the finals of both the Champions League and the World Cup last season, and Wenger said earlier this week the striker deserved to have been given the Ballon D'Or, the European Footballer of the Year award won by Italy and Real Madrid defender Cannavaro.

 

FIFA's award is voted for by the coach and captain of all 207 national teams, who each pick their top three players of the year.

 

Barcelona's Brazilian Ronaldinho has won it for the last two years and despite having a poor World Cup, he is the front-runner again, though Zidane, winner in 2003, 2000 and 1998, may have a chance as a sympathy vote after retiring from football following his red card in the World Cup final.

 

On Tuesday, Wenger said it had been "a mistake" to give the European award to World Cup-winning skipper Cannavaro purely on the basis of that tournament.

 

"It shows that the people who vote look only at the World Cup, which when you speak about elite football, in my opinion, is the lowest level in football that you can see at the moment," said Wenger.

 

The identity of the winner of the FIFA award will be revealed on Monday, December 18 at a gala in Zurich.

 

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,2483_1722842,00.html

 

Hmm...surprise or no surprise for you? For me,I think it is a slight surprise.But Im glad Cannavaro is one of those shortlisted and I will be hoping that he cause another upset again!

 

 

[Guest theunis]

Surprized, Henry is insperational. But his team is not performing and scoring

[Guest Rafa]

Is the award for season 2005/06, or for the year 2006?

 

Cos if it's for season 05/06 - then it's fairynuff that Henry isn't listed. If you go back to the first half of that season, he was struggling. I recall Arsenal fans where calling him all sorts and saying the club should flog him, and what a terrible captain he was, and what a lazy so and so he was! Mind you, form don't often come into these awards, it's about the name. So Henry playing poorly for 6 months shouldn't make a difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Newcastle Fan]

zidane - they had to nomnate him,one headbutt dosn't hide the fact that he single handedly lead france all the way

 

ronaldinho - they had to take him to,because him winning = money for fifa (from where,i don't know,but its clearly not the fact that he is a good player,because even when liverpool won the champs league he was the best player

 

cannavaro- good choice,his world cup peformence earnt him to be in the top 3

 

 

[M4]

Wenger's going to go mental now

[Guest ticaL]

Ronaldinho doesn't deserve to be there, but I can't fathom another possible candidate...

[Guest Village Idiot]

All these awards are shit anyway, and done to pamper to "fans" who switch clubs depending on who wins them each year.

 

[tmonkey]

It would be an utter joke if Henry got World Player of the Year based on his previous/current season, and an even bigger joke if he got the award as a sympathy vote in terms of him not winning it in the past - which is essentially what Wenger wants.

 

Henry's chance to win it was a few years ago when his form was shit hot, and its purely his fault for not winning it - how could anyone give him the award when he regularly choked in big games back then? In the CL and for France, he regularly went missing, doing **** all far too often.

 

Now its way too late, unless he goes back to the hungry player he used to be, driving at defences with the ball regularly, instead of the good, but far less dangerous, player hes turned into.

[NE5]

World player's of the year and serial bottlers don't mix