FIFA's Less Concern for The D-Side

 "Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships" -an aphorism

FIFA Ballon d'Or
thebdtoday.com

Since 1991, FIFA has been awarding the Player of the Year award annually for men professional football players. Starting in 2001, women players also have been awarded the same title. In 2010, FIFA started giving an award for best coach, both for men and women. The winner of these award is chosen by voting from coaches and national team captains of the FIFA association members, and also journalist representations from all over the world. The award unified with the Ballon d’Or award of France Football in 2009, making it the FIFA Ballon d’Or henceforth.

Several notable players has won the award like Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo, and for the last 3 editions, Lionel Messi. I honestly believe that those players deserve the title for their performance in their respective years. But if you see the list of the winners, you’ll realize that there’s very few names of player with defensive role. Only Lotthar Matthaus in 1991 and Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 who have won the award as defensive players. Including this year’s edition, the other 18 editions are for offensive players. It would be no surprise if the following editions are still going on this way.

In my opinion, FIFA is showing less appreciation for defensive player in terms of award. They don’t even have an award for best goalkeeper of the year. They’ve been only awarding the best goalkeeper for their performance in the World Cup tournament with Lev Yashin Award (1994-2006) and the Golden Glove (2010 henceforth). Every year, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) is the one who has been giving the Best Goalkeeper of the Year award since 1987.

The primary purpose in football is to score goals. It’s obvious because the winner of a football match is the side who scored more goals. But in order to secure the victory, the teams not only need to score goals but also have to manage themselves not to be conceded by goals. This is where the goalkeepers AND the defensive players come in handy. They have to perform the art of defense such as sliding tackle, diving headers, overhead kicks, and other techniques in order to secure their side from conceding.

Franz Beckenbauer
football-dreams.blogspot.com

Bobby Moore
yaelida.wordpress.com

For quite sometimes, defensive players also took part on scoring goals, just like any offensive players. It’s very common for players with defensive role to score goals. Marco Materazzi’s header in the 2006 World Cup final is a carbon copy of Zidane’s header in the 1998 World Cup final. Sinisa Mihajlovic has scored plenty of goals from free kick situation, just like Cristiano Ronaldo. But have you ever seen the likes of Lionel Messi or Fernando Torres making a very elegant and very calculated sliding tackle like the one Bobby Moore did to Jairzinho in the 1966 World Cup? I don’t think so.

I believe that defensive players have more pressure in the game. They have to be focused every minute, not only to defend but occasionally to attack. When they lose their focus and make a mistake, all the fingers will be pointed at them for the blame. My friend once said, “If you’re a striker, you missed 10 chances and scored 1 goal, everybody will remember that 1 goal. But if you’re a defender or a goalkeeper, you made 10 saves/important clearances and then you made 1 mistake that makes your team conceded a goal, then everybody will remember that 1 mistake.” For some reason, I personally agree with that.

Skrtel's blooper led to City's equalizer
reuters

Fabio Cannavaro - 2006
zimbio.com

The reason why Matthaus and Cannavaro won the awards was because of their exceptional and consistent performance, while the other offensive players were being inconsistent throughout their respective years. Cannavaro showed a remarkable display which brought Italy to their 4th World Cup title in 2006 while players like Ronaldinho, Kaká, or Ronaldo were struggling for consistency in their performances. Some said that the award was a “consolation gift” because Zidane was awarded the Player of the Tournament although he didn’t win the World Cup and did an unsportmanship conduct when he headbutted down Materazzi in the final.

Sliding tackle
presidiosports.com

Other sports like basketball or American football have their own way to honor players with defensive roles. The NBA even has a selection for all-defensive team, although it’s almost impossible to be applied in football. But at least they’ve been showing their appreciation to the D-side. Why can’t FIFA? Almost every Player of the Year winners won the majority of the vote because of their roles in offensive play like goals scored or assists. So, should FIFA considered to have an award for defensive players, they could base the nominees by their roles in defensive play like clean tackles, saves/clearances, fouls committed, pass interceptions, distance covered or any other statistical unit. The only ‘thing’ FIFA does to appreciate the defensive players is the Team of The Year selection, where there are 1 goalkeeper, 2 center halves, 2 full backs and (usually) 1 defensive midfielder. Still, they’re not giving any particular award for them.

All players in a football team are important in terms of offense and defense. In order to win the game they have to synchronize both offense and defense well. For some fans, defensive football is boring, frustrating, and repulsive. But there are others who think that it is effective and efficient. I think FIFA has to be more attentive and appreciative with the defensive players, NOT to distinguish them with the offensive side, but to encourage them and to give them motivation.

I wonder, if FIFA had an award for this year’s Best Defensive Player, who do you think would that be?