Planet Soccer

Here goes the bitterness of the French again. Henry is a great striker, probably the best, but to say that Cannavaro winning the ballon d'or is a scandal is rediculous. He flawlessly led Italy to a World Cup victory and he led Juventus to a Italian championship, even though it was taken away he still led them flawlessly. If Henry is so great why couldn't he penatrate the great Cannavaro in the final. Cannavaro has become a household name all over the world and it is time for people to loss thier bitterness when it comes to Italian soccer and it's players. The biggest scandal in soccer was Zidane winning World Cup MVP and not Cannavaro. Italy rules the French again.

Henry is a great striker, but he didn't win any trophies. This trophy clearly belongs to a player that wins championships. The only reason the French are making an issue of Cannavaro winning the award is because they lost to Italy in WC2006. Had France not been in the final, I don't think they would have too much to say about it. And to even have Zidane in the shortlist was absolutely insane. It's bad enough he won the World Cup MVP (what a joke).

The French cry scandal all the time these days, why don't they make the people in charge of the tour de France give Cannavaro a doping test as well? Why don't the french just get some gold paint and color Zidane's head so they have their own Ballon D'or?

How sad is it that when a deserving player gets the award he merits, regardless of what goes on around him that is not in his control, people just jump on him.

Cannavaro, regardless of the bribery scandal, played like only cannavaro could. He was the reason Italy won the world cup. He deserves the Ballon d'Or. With out him, its just ludacris to think, Italy would have won.

Henry as good a striker, by now way is he the best striker in soccer, he does very little to merit the Ballon d'Or. Now people may disagree, but Cannavaro won trophies for his teams. what did henry do? if scoring goals is the only criteria, then it would be a harsh and unjust criteria to go by. Besides, Henry is a diver. Recall the Champions league final against Barca. Puyol never fouled him and yet he went down crying like he typically does.

Cannavaro deserved the Ballon d'Or, and the french can stop crying about it. Most of us would appreciate it if they did.

cannavaro fully deserved this award and then some; his form for Juve was tremendous & being able to lead the NT to glory at the height of the calciopoli is no easy feat. only an ignorant fool would overlook the fact that the backline for Juve was one of the best in any league and the scandal had no bearing whatsoever to his performance on the pitch. during the WC Cannavaro was out of this world, an own goal and a penalty resulting from a dive. people like houllier/domenech/wenger should just shut their holes instead of making themselves look like senile sods. though henry has been superb in arsenal, being sup-par in the WC could only work against him. he didn't exactly carry the NT to the finals,now did he? there were another 10 players no? if you can't perform on the biggest stage then it's no one's fault but your own

Does anyone really care what Domenech has to say about anything? He still thinks Zidane`s sending off in the world cup was unjustified!!

I am as big a Zidane supporter as they come, and I would love to see him honoured one more time when the FIFA player of the year award is announced, but, allegiances aside, Cannavaro is most deserving of the ballon d'or and probably the FIFA award as well, if only by a small margin. It is arguable that the Scudetto stripped from Juve should not count towards Cannavaro's candidacy, but Zidane didn't win a major trophy last year (thanks to a boat load of overpaid teammates, but I swear I won't go there), and Ronaldinho, despite winning the Champ's League, was one of the most invisible players in Germany. All told, Cannavaro was the most consistent player and so deserves both the ballon d'or and the FIFA player award. His position is one that isn't honoured often enough, and the recognition bestowed upon him bodes well for future defenders: Carles Puyol comes to mind, as does Sergio Ramos. Congrats to Cannavaro, a worthy winner.

The French coaches may be fuelling the media-desired fires. but in the same process, they allow us to question their own sound judgement.

Aside from the fact tha Cannavaro only misplayed 2 or 3 balls in the whole World Cup (can the same be said of Theirry?), there is another key point.

Assume 2 new clubs in the league. You are the GM who picks first from a list of free agents. Who do you pick? Henry or Cannavaro?

I rest the case.

cannavaro's form at the world cup was outstanding, to be sure. and yes, henry wasn't able to score in the final. but the french lost on penalties, and henry's work got them there (his goal against brazil).

"It is arguable that the Scudetto stripped from Juve should not count towards Cannavaro's candidacy " - it is not arguable at all. juve did not win the scudetto, full stop. cannavaro may have done well last season, but he did not win the scudetto for his team. no, neither did henry win a domestic title, but arsenal made juventus (and specifically the defense) look old and slow in the champions' league quarter-finals, in which henry scored and assisted.

maybe cannavaro's work in the world cup deserves the recognition of the euro player of the year award...but not beacuse of the scudetto. and henry should not be dismissed so easily by some here. no one scores like he does, and he has become a great leader for his team.

a champions league final with goals and against madrid and juve along the way, 4th in the premiership with a young and injury-depleted side (8 different right backs all season, and an henry hat-trick in the final game of the season to put them in 4th and the champions league this season), and a world cup final loss in a penalty shoot-out....pretty good record for the best striker in the world.

To Brenton;

No one is saying henry is not deserving. He should have won this award in the past, but this year is Cannavro's year. He led his team to a World Cup win. Henry is aso alittle faker aswell. He takes a lot of dives to get the calls and this might have worked against him. Cannavaro had nothing to do with the scadal of Juventus therefore you cannot ignore his play last year. THe European player of the year usually comes from the World Cup winning team. Henry will always be a great player and he does deserve to win this award, just not this year.

French supporters don't want admit that Cannavaro is a very strong player.
Second goal to Germany was born by an his assist.Good placement in the field is his peculiarity.

Connavro did NOT deserve this award. His pride is greater than his game. Raymond Domenech deems correct when he states that Fabio Cannavaro is not the Ballon d'Or. Zidane's sending off was unjustified. Personally I feel he did the correct thing by headbutting Materazzi, and furthermore, the referees had to watch the replay to comprehend what had happened. Thus Zidane sending off was totally unjustified. I think Zidane deserves this award for the tremendous effort he did in the WC2006. But if not Zidane then for surely Henry. A French player deserves it. Italy could not have beat Brazil the way France did. I think poeple are being very unjustified and bias to Zidane.

to Brenton.
Henry was for me was the winner. He has deserved it for many years and this year he definetly should have won. Henry has been in the two biggest games a porfessional player can be in. He has dominated the english premier league scoring charts, and Europes. Cannavaro was a beast in the world cup, but his consistancy is up to par. Also to say that Henry is a diver is ironic because the team the Cannavaro lead to the world cup final has a horrible reputation of diving. Just ask Austrialia who were cheated out of the world cup when Grosso took a dive in the box. As far as i am concered its a disgrace Italy did not deserve it. There group stages was the toughest part for them. Then came austrilia who dominated the game until Grosso did what he did. After came the Ukraine a miss-firing team that cant seem to find the back of the net Italy easily beat them. Then came there biggest match and the only match where they won and deserved all of it, Germany. Than they beat france in shoot-outs. Thierry Henry and his French team Had an arduous line up of the worlds biggest power houeses. Spain 1-3,Barzil 0-1,then portugal 0-1. Henry had a hand in all those wins. There is no reason why this year shouldnt hve been his year.

Mario,

Try to be fair to the sport. Do you truely think for a second that Canavaro is as good as Zidane ? Canavaro is a strong defender and is very effective at destroying the play of others. Zidane is a maestro who creates master pieces and improves everone around him. It is far more difficult in life in general, to build rather than destroy. The two players have nothing in common except they both stand on two legs. The WC 2006 would have been dull had it not been for the retired Zidane. Zidane was BIGGER than the WC in my opinion. He was THE player everyone wanted to watch. Except for Italians, perhaps, you cant say a whole lot of people cared to watch Canavaro. No one would have lost any sleep had Canavaro not played at all. As a matter of fact I think Materazzi, who should have been thrown out of the game for shaming it, was a lot more instrumental in winning the finale than Canavaro was...

Sorry Mario, maybe some day Italy will produce a player of Zidane's greatness, but up until now your country has never had any player who could shine Zidane's shoes !

Azzar.

Ayesha, Ben and Azzer,

Your comments are as pathetic as Domenech, Wenger and Houllier. This article is about Cannavaro winning the Ballon D'Or as the MVP this year and it's well deserved. Henry was not even the best striker in Europe and Zidane ended his carear in disgrace, looking like a foolish little boy instead of a dignified adult.

As for Italy producing players as good as Zidane, you're about 50 years late for that. Italy has produced teams full of players better than Zidane. Zidane could not compare to Baggio at Juve. Zidane looked good growing up in France because there is not the competition at the youth level. Wow, he won the world Cup in '98. Rossi was not even the best player for Italy in '82 and he scored 3 vs. Brazil.

Gerard Houllier calling Cannavaro's selection scandalous is another ignorant comment coming from a coach who once called a French National Team player (David Ginola) a criminal for having a back pass intercepted. That shows how ridiculous his comments are. The French talk about liberty, equality, and fraternity, but then whine and cry when they don't get things there way. That's shameful, to not lose with dignity and praise the efforts of your opponents.

To Ben,What were you watching, Italy beat the Czech's in the group stage, how's that easy and they beat Germany in Dortmund, where they had never lost a national team game. Their goal in the finals was scored during play, not on a penalty kick that should not have been given like France's in the first 7 minutes...Italy beat everybody including FIFA, and Blatter. They deserved the World Cup for the baloney they had to take in 2002.