Ballon d'Or (Part 1): Disappointment is Brewing

Wesley Sneijder: Club & Country Hero

The decision for this year's Ballon d'Or winner has not been made yet and, as I foresaw in my previous Ball of Gold post, I am severely disappointed. As expected, Wesley Sneijder, the man who should be lifting hardware again, has been snubbed. 

Either Xavi, Iniesta, or Messi will win the coveted award this year, as FIFA selected the Barcelona trio as finalists from the 23-man shortlist. I can't wrap my head around why Sneijder has not been included in the final 3. If he was and either Xavi or Iniesta won the award, I would accept it (begrudgingly) given their club and World Cup winning efforts. But no, FIFA does something dumb for the millionth time in the last month and neglects to acknowledge a player who should in fact win this award, let alone be a finalist for it. Even Xavi agrees. 

I found a blog post on Football Italia highlighting this situation. The blogger asserted that there was "no disgrace" in this snub. He obviously has mental problems. His arguments were not opinion, but fact. He reviewed past World Cup year's Ballon d'Or winners and most of the time, the players who won the award were World Cup winners that year (Cannavaro, 2006; Ronaldo, 2002; Zidane, 1998; etc...). He then failed completely in his argument when he described Sneijder's rocky start to this year's campaign. Why would that matter, moron? His overarching argument is that it's normal for FIFA to snub players during World Cup years, so there is "no disgrace" involved. I disagree completely. This award should be given to the player who made the greatest impact on their respective teams. I believe that player is Sneijder, therefore I find disgrace in this snub. Read this retarded blog post and resulting comments tearing this asshole to shreds, here.

FIFA is despicable. Please stay tuned for 'Part 2' of this post, which I imagine will be called "Disappointment Brewed Bitterly," or something of that nature. Finally, I leave you with this image, which explains a lot:

FIFA President Sepp Blatter