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Mythbuster is a series that critically fact-checks preconceived footballing notions and myths. This edition takes a trip down memory lane to the 2010 Ballon d’Or which Lionel Messi won but many believed to have been Wesley Sneijder’s year.
The Ballon d’Or and other awards in general are typically controversial and contentious and hardly ever is there a consensus in selecting a winner.
No edition of the Ballon d’Or best suits the above description than 2010, when Lionel Messi pipped Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez to what was his second award at the time.
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But many believe that a man who did not even make the top three, Wesley Sneijder should have won the award for his exploits for both club and country in the year in consideration.
And even to this day, as Messi marches towards the award for a likely eighth time while Sneijder has been retired for four years, an unbelievable amount of people still believe the Dutchman was the best player in the world 13 years ago.
Wesley Sneijder’s case for the 2010 Ballon d’Or
What most of the Sneijder conspiracy theorists echo about his Ballon d’Or chances is the fact that he won the treble with Inter Milan that year and followed it immediately with a great individual display at the FIFA World Cup which produced a silver medal for the Netherlands.
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And in truth, Sneijder was indeed integral to both club and country in what was a great year for him, undoubtedly the peak of his career.
Eight goals and 15 assists in 41 games across all competitions to help Inter Milan win Serie A, Coppa Italia and of course the UEFA Champions League in the 2009/10 season.
Five goals and an assist in seven games at the World Cup in South Africa further strengthened his case especially since the man who won the award had a poor Mundial where he failed to score for Argentina.
But the fundamental flaw of this argument is that a Sneijder win would have rewarded narrative over individual brilliance, which negates the entire point of the award to begin with as Messi was undoubtedly the best player in the world strictly going by performances.
Lionel Messi’s case for the 2010 Ballon d’Or
Messi ended the 2009/10 season with 47 goals across all competitions, his best-ever single-season tally at the time which also included 34 league goals in 35 games to help Barcelona win the La Liga title with 99 points.
His league tally also won him what was his first European Golden Shoe at the time as the highest scorer in all the league across the continent, the highest tally that won the award at the time since 2001/02 when Mario Jardel scored 42 goals for Sporting Lisbon.
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His 68 points were also the highest tally in the European Golden Shoe race at the time since 1999, although the magical Argentine would go on to surpass the tally four times himself in his legendary career.
Understandably, the World Cup is a significant consideration for the Ballon d’Or in any year the Mundial holds but it is definitely not the only prerequisite. There are separate in-tournament gongs to appreciate the top performers specifically for only their World Cup contributions and nobody batted an eye when Sneijder failed to win any of those.
He was not the best player at the tournament, everyone agreed that was Diego Forlan, neither did Sneijder win the Golden Boot which he lost to Thomas Muller on technicalities despite scoring five goals along with David Villa and the aforementioned Forlan.
So even at the tournament on which his Ballon d’Or case was built, Sneijder was not the best player nor the outright highest scorer or assist provider and did not win the tournament.
Debunking the myth
It is important to note that this is not to rubbish Sneijder’s legacy or denigrate what was a fantastic World Cup campaign from his perspective. Two of his five goals in South Africa were winning goals including a quarter-final brace in a 2-1 win against Brazil.
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He scored four goals in the knockout rounds including three straight games, Slovakia in the round of 16, Brazil in the quarter-final and Uruguay in the semi-final.
The argument here is that however impressive his World Cup was, it was not enough for a Ballon d’Or push as the longer stretch of the year in consideration was spent with his club where his performances although good, were nowhere near ‘world best’ levels.
Yes, he did win the treble with Inter and was important of course but how integral exactly? If one could only select one key player that season then number one would have to be top scorer, Diego Milito.
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Other important parts of the treble-winning team include the legendary Samuel Eto’o, Maicon who was tied for the highest number of assists for Inter that season with Sneijder, not forgetting the likes of Esteban Cambiasso and Lucio among others who were at the very least just as crucial to the success of Mourinho’s team.
Conclusion
So, to get this right, Sneijder, who played 26 out of 38 league games and returned four goals and five assists should have won the Ballon d’Or despite having fewer goals (6) and assists (10) than Maicon, a fullback on the same team.
Ronaldinho led the league in assists with 14, nine more than Sneijder and 21-year-old Palermo midfielder Javier Pastore was named midfielder of the season for 2009/10.
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The bulk of his club success that season came in the Champions League and even there, Messi won the Golden Boot in 2010. Sneijder did win the assists award with six but that is not enough to win Ballon d’Or by any stretch of the imagination.
The most important thing to note is that the Ballon d’Or award rewards the best player in the world for the year in question and at no point in 2010 was Wesley Sneijder that guy.
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