29/12/02 - About a Ball Awards 2002

The winners of the first annual About a Ball Awards were announced today at a low-key ceremony in south Hertfordshire. There were no television crews, no millionaire celebrity guests, and no magnanimous acceptance speeches, there was no razzmatazz, no lavish banquet and no red carpet. That's just the way we want it to stay because the most important thing is the award itself and the prestige that accompanies it.

As usual, there were many strong contenders for the overall award, but we felt that two people in particular deserved this recognition more than any other. In fact they had both achieved so much that it was impossible and unfair to separate them so we decided to make a joint award to Michael Ballack and Roberto Carlos. To win the About a Ball Player of the Year award a player should perform consistently well throughout the calendar year and excel at both international and club level, preferably in more than one club competition. Both players undeniably did this.

In fact, their paths were to cross on more than one occasion during the year as their clubs met in the Champions League final in Glasgow a few weeks before their countries met in the World Cup final in Yokohama. Michael Ballack had a superb season for Bayer Leverkusen, leading them to the runners-up spot in the Bundesliga as well as the German cup final, but the icing on the cake was a sensational run in the Champions League all the way to the final. Ballack's form earned him the footballer of the year award in Germany and a transfer to Bayern München where he has been an instant success and ends 2002 at the top of the league. The World Cup provided many more highs for Ballack as he carried his country through the early stages and scored three goals on the way to the final. Sadly, it was to end in disappointment as Germany, with Ballack suspended, lost out to Brazil.

The highlight for Roberto Carlos was obviously winning the World Cup with Brazil, closely followed by winning the Champions League with Real Madrid. He became the first player ever to win the World Cup, European Cup, Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup in the same year, and also reached the Spanish Cup final. In the World Cup first round game against China he achieved one of his personal ambitions by firing home a spectacular free-kick to give Brazil the lead. Both Ballack and Roberto Carlos were named in the FIFA World Cup All-Star squad and, although Roberto Carlos won more trophies this year, Ballack was more central to the success of his teams, so we believe that the award should be jointly awarded to the two outstanding performers of 2002.

The Coach of the Year award goes to Klaus Toppmoller of Bayer Leverkusen for his outstanding work in moulding a group of players into a team that achieved much more than the sum of its parts. Leverkusen surprised everyone by taking the race for the Bundesliga right down to the wire whilst maintaining a Champions League challenge in which they put out Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United before losing out to Real Madrid in a thrilling final. They also made it to the final of the German cup but again came second. Hopefully this award will be some consolation to Toppmoller who had to sit by and watch as many of the players he turned into stars were poached by bigger clubs in the summer.

Team of the Year was won by a small club from the north of Italy that few people had heard of before their meteoric rise to the top of Serie A. Chievo is a small suburb of Verona with only about 4,000 inhabitants but they regularly attract many times that number of spectators to the stadium they share with their more illustrious neighbours. Thanks to an attractive brand of fast, attacking football the team of journeyman lower division players was able to challenge the giants of Italian football in their first season after promotion. They even sat top of the table after several weeks of the season and each time someone wrote them off they confounded the doubters with yet another unlikely victory. To everyone's surprise, Chievo were able to keep pace at the top and gained the deserved reward of a UEFA cup place. This season they have proved that their success was no flash in the pan as they once again sit near the top of the table. Much credit must go to their manager Luigi Del Neri.

Young Player of the Year was perhaps the most difficult decision as, although there were many outstanding contenders, there was no single candidate who stood head and shoulders above the rest. Djibril Cissé had a great season for Auxerre and broke through into the France squad and Rafael van der Vaart has been outstanding for Ajax but his year was blighted by injuries. The person who receives this award was not playing regularly at the start of the year but his season was transformed when he was able to take advantage of the misfortune of others. Iker Casillas missed the Spanish cup final and was on the bench in the Champions League final until Real Madrid's first choice goalkeeper César was struck by injury. Casillas came on and played a vital role in preserving Madrid's lead, especially in a nerve-wracking final 10 minutes. The Canizares suffered a bizarre injury which opened the door for Casillas to be first choice for Spain in the World Cup. He never looked back and helped his country to the quarter finals by saving two penalties in a shootout against the Republic of Ireland. This season, Casillas has been first choice for Real Madrid again and has already picked up winners medals in the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental cup in which he kept a clean sheet.

The final award goes to a man who has impressed everyone with his commitment, consistency, energy and sheer ability at the age of 36. Gianfranco Zola has been the most important factor in Chelsea's improvement this season, after many people had expected him to be used sparingly as a substitute or even retire. Instead, his skills continue to delight fans around the country, whichever club they support, and his goals took him to the top of the scorers charts early in the season. No-body deserves the Old Player of the Year Award more than Gianfranco Zola.

17/11/02 - Sutton issues timely reminder

The two UEFA Cup matches versus Blackburn Rovers and the season's first Auld Firm game, all live on the BBC, gave Celtic's Chris Sutton the chance to remind viewers south of the border of what he's capable.

The former Rovers striker certainly didn't disappoint, capping a marvellous second leg performance by Celtic with a superbly taken goal of his own, back at his old stomping ground. It was a textbook near-post bullet header into the top corner having got ahead of his marker in the box - so typically Sutton - he rivals any other striker in the world in that situation.

However, on this occasion, Sutton was playing in an advanced midfield role behind Larsson and Hartson, with Martin O'Neill choosing to leave captain Paul Lambert on the bench. This speaks volumes about Chris Sutton's value to the team and his all-round ability as a player. Having three on-form strikers would cause selection problems for some managers but O'Neill was able to include them all thanks to Sutton's versatility and team-play. Sutton responded with a display of solid tackling and precision passing worthy of any midfield ball winner and reminded us what an intelligent footballer he is.

It's well documented that he began his career as a centre-half, but he went on to score 85 Premiership goals in 260 games after making the transition from goal stopper to goal getter, and found himself on the verge of the England squad before he declined the opportunity to play for the 'B' selection in a fit of pique. Now he's flying high again at just the time when England are desperately in need of another striker who can make the transition to international football.

England currently have only one proven international striker, Michael Owen, and have struggled to find an ideal partner for him. As we have five world class midfielders (Beckham, Scholes, Gerrard, Butt, McManaman) the obvious solution would seem to be a 4-5-1 formation. After all, what's the point of playing someone who isn't up to the job and leaving out someone good just to play 4-4-2? However, 4-4-2 is the formation English players do best, so we need another world class striker. Heskey clearly isn't the answer and has shown he'll never make that step up.

The successful applicant will be used to performing consistently, in front of big crowds and in big games, under intense pressure, for a team who are expected to be successful - often against much smaller opposition. These are the conditions placed upon the England team and also faced by Glasgow Celtic. If anyone deserves their chance at this level it is Chris Sutton.

Sutton is made to partner Michael Owen up front for England. The little and large pairing has been our traditional forte and England have lacked an aerial option up front since the retirement of Alan Shearer. Sutton can give us much needed variety going forward - as a target for Beckham's crosses, as a lethal finisher, and as a subtle foil for Owen, as his clever passing and movement from midfield showed against Blackburn.

We should look towards the long-term future when selecting the other strikers for the squad. Alan Smith and Darius Vassell show potential to make the step up to international football and can only benefit from regular involvement at this stage in their development. Jermaine Defoe is the next best prospect but will gain more from U21 football for the time being.

That sorted, the only worry left for English football fans is the continued absence of Steve McManaman from Sven's selections. Does he really believe that Trevor Sinclair and Jonathan Greening - both good players - are more worthy of a place? Macca has played an average of 38 games a season for the world's best team in recent years, including 36 Champions League games with two finals. How can we afford to leave that out? I haven't heard of Real Madrid making multi-million pound offers to sign Greening.

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