With just two games left to play in the Football World Cup, the shortlist for the Golden Ball award has been announced and it contains few surprises.
As you would expect, those up for the best player gong are mainly from teams who progressed to the latter stages of the tournament.
Three members of Spain’s squad have been nominated – David Villa, Xavi and Andres Iniesta, while fellow finalists Holland are represented by Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben.
Germany’s midfield dominance during the competition is reflected by the fact both Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mesut Ozil are both on the shortlist. Uruguay’s Diego Forlan, Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan and Argentina’s Lionel Messi make up the numbers.
Accredited members of the media will now vote on who they think has been the tournament’s most outstanding player.
Villa and Sneijder are the most obvious candidates. Both have scored five goals and will look to add to that tally in the final. Out of the two, Sneijder has been arguably more impressive. His goals have come from midfield and he’s probably made a great all round contribution than Villa. They’ll both attract plenty of World Cup bets, I’m sure.
However, the German pair should not be overlooked either. Schweinsteiger ran the midfield in most games he played in, chalking up three assists along the way. Ozil made a similar contribution and even found the net himself.
It’s true that the system Germany played was limited and was ultimately found out, but that doesn’t change the fact that both men played superbly for the vast majority of the tournament.
Messi also played well, doing everything apart from scoring. Sadly for a striker of his ability, that will probably count against him.
Forlan is probably a little too unfashionable to get the nod, while Gyan seems to be the rank outsider.
For my money, the fact Schweinsteiger and Ozil had such similar tournaments will split the vote, leaving Sneijder to pick up the award.
