Jan. 11: Spain’s media on Tuesday expressed frustration after Barcelona pair Xavi and Andres Iniesta lost out to Lionel Messi for the Ballon d’Or accolade while Spain coach Vicente del Bosque was pipped by Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho as best coach.
“Gold for Messi and disappointment for Spain. Messi and Mou leave the ‘Roja’ heroes without the Ballon d’Or,” said sports daily AS.
Marca sports daily also took up the theme as it opined: “FIFA scorns the world champions and leaves Xavi and Iniesta and del Bosque without a prize. Without a doubt Spanish football is the big loser of this edition” of the Ballon d’Or annual accolade.
With Mourinho winning the coaches’ title, Real, despite being generally overshadowed recently by Barcelona, managed to cock a snook at their Catalan rivals and striker Cristiano Ronaldo was jubilant after accompanying his manager to the Zurich ceremony.
“I knew Mourinho was going to win — anything else would have been an injustice. He won three important titles, nobody else could have won the FIFA prize. Mourinho has won so many titles in the past five or six years. I have learned a lot the short time I have been with him,” said the former Manchester United striker.
Ronaldo added he fully expected to see Mourinho lead Real to the heights to which he had taken first Porto, then Chelsea and then Inter Milan before arriving at the Bernabeu on the back of an unprecedented Champions League, Serie A and Italian Cup treble.
Messi won with 22.65 percent of the votes cast, with Iniesta on 17.36 percent and Xavi third with 16.48 percent. Set up in 1956 by France Football magazine the Ballon d’Or merged with FIFA’s world player of the year award for the first time.