Yes, I know it’s yesterday’s news but I’ve been very busy. There were no big surprises in the final results of France Football’s Golden Ball Award. Kaka was the obvious winner for being the best player in last season’s edition of the Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo just pipped Messi to second place as he won the Premiership with Manchester United. Barça fans of course know that Messi is the best player but to win these awards it seems to count for a lot what you have won at a team level.

Ninety-six European journalists all vote for their top five players, and 5 points is awarded to the best, 4 to the second best, etc. Kaka was the clear winner with 444 points, Cristiano Ronaldo got 277 points and Messi received 255. Further down the list we find Ronaldinho in 12th place with 18 points and Thierry Henry in equal 19th with 7 points, while Samuel Eto’o got 1 point. It seems strange to me that the two players receiving most criticism at Barça recently are in the list at all. Where the hell is Andres Iniesta??? Oh well, these votes always produce a few odd results, it seems that some of these so-called journalists don’t watch any football and just vote for the players they see appearing in most adverts on the telly.

The full results were as follows:

1. Kaká (BRA/Milán) 444 puntos
2. Cristiano Ronaldo (POR/Manchester U) 277
3. Leo Messi (ARG/FC Barcelona) 255
4. Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast/Chelsea) 108
5. Andrea Pirlo (ITA/AC Milán) 41
6. Ruud van Nistelrooy (HOL/Real Madrid) 39
7. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (SWE/Inter Milán) 31  
8. Cesc Fabregas (SPA/Arsenal) 27 
9. Robinho (BRA/Real Madrid) 24
10. Francesco Totti (ITA/Roma) 20
11. Frederic Kanouté (MAL/Sevilla) 19
12. Ronaldinho (BRA/FC Barcelona) 18
13. Steven Gerrard (ENG/Liverpool) 17
14. Juan Román Riquelme (ARG/Boca Juniors) 15
15. Dani Alves (BRA/Sevilla FC) 14
16. Filippo Inzaghi (ITA/Milan) 12
17. Franck Ribery (FRA/Bayern Munich) 10
18. Paolo Maldini (ITA/Milan) 8
19. Gianluigi Buffon (ITA/Juventus) 7
Petr Cech (CZE/Chelsea)
Gennaro Gattuso (ITA/Milan)
Thierry Henry (FRA/Barcelona)
Clarence Seedorf (HOL/Milan)
24. Fabio Cannavaro (ITA/Real Madrid) 5
Michael Essien (GHA/Chelsea)
26. Wayne Rooney (ENG/Manchester U) 4
27. Iker Casillas (SPA/Real Madrid) 3
Rogerio Ceni (BRA/Sao Paulo)
29.- Younis Mahmaoud (IRK/Al-Gharafa) 2
30.- Dimitar Berbatov (BUL/Tottenham) 1
Samuel Eto’o (CAM/Barcelona)
Ryan Giggs (WAL/Manchester U)
Guillermo Ochoa (MEX/América)
Carlos Tévez (ARG/Manchester U)
Robin van Persie (HOL/Arsenal)