TOTTI AND IBRAHIMOVICH OUT OF THE FIFA WORLD PLAYER CANDIDATES LIST

Two of the international football greatest talents such as Italian Francesco Totti and Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimovich have been excluded from the race for one of the most prestigious individual awards: the FIFA World Player of the Year. The coaches and the captains of the national selections affiliated to FIFA have not included them among the best players in the year 2007, that has nearly ended. Obviously, these exclusions have immediately aroused harsh polemics. What do you think about this choice? For sure these two players have not got great international achievements with their clubs yet (Totti, however, is the reigning world champion with Italy); however, only the absolute value of the player during the solar year should be taken into account, not only the wins, which are an achievement of the team, not of the single player. How does it come that a phenomenon like Totti is not valued for his own merits because his club does not have a great international tradition? How does it come that Ibrahimovich, one of the most entertaining and on the up-and-up players, has not bewitched also the football specialists who are not Italian? The debate is opened.

FRANCESCO TOTTI, THE GLADIATOR