Argentina's Lionel Messi won the Golden Ball for the best player throughout the World Cup.
It was certainly not the trophy the Barcelona star had hoped to be walking away with after Argentina faced Germany today in the final, but it is a nice consolation prize. Messi scored four of Argentina's eight goals in the tournament and assisted on one, though he came up empty in Argentina's 1-0 defeat to Germany in the final.
The news that Messi won the award does not come as too big of a surprise, though there were certainly other players in contention. Messi is the biggest star soccer has, and by leading his team to the final, he was always going to be a likely candidate for the prestigious award.
Maybe it is because people like to praise a famous name, or maybe it is because his great display of sportsmanship throughout his career has earned him the respect of FIFA technical committee (who votes for the winner of the award), but Messi certainly did not win the Golden Ball because he was the best player in the tournament. Because he wasn't.
While Messi did have moments of brilliance in the early stages of the tournament, he failed to produce a goal from the quarterfinals on. One of the best goals of the tournament was Messi's long-range game winner against Iran to give them a 1-0 victory. He also set up the game winner in the round of 16 by delivering a perfect pass to Angel di Maria to lift Argentina to a 1-0 victory of Switzerland. But that's where it ended for the 3-time FIFA Player of the Year. Messi was not able to score against the three best teams he faced in the tournament: Belgium, the Netherlands, or Germany. l. The Telegraph also mentions Messi's anticlimactic end to the tournament, a free kick from 25 yards that wasn't close to the goal.
Few who followed the World Cup would make the case that Lionel Messi performed better than Colombia's James Rodríguez, who was awarded the Golden Boot for the tournaments top goal scorer. Rodríguez scored six goals in the tournament, including a goal in all five of Colombia's games. Rodríguez also had one more assist than Messi, though he played in two fewer games.
It is somewhat understandable that Messi could edge out Rodríguez, because at the end of the day, Messi led his team through two more rounds than Rodríguez. But then if the FIFA technical committee wanted to reward a player for carrying his team deep into the tournament, why not just give it to someone on the winning side? Germany's Thomas Müller looked every bit as good as Messi did throughout the tournament, and even had more goals and more assists than Messi had. Or perhaps Philipp Lahm, the defender who anchored the German defense as they only conceded one goal in the final three matches.
Müller did end up winning the Silver Ball for the second best player in the tournament. Arjen Robben of the Netherlands won the Bronze Ball for his efforts in earning the Dutch a third place finish. FIFA posted all the award winners on their website.
Perhaps the committee just did not feel like giving yet another award to Germany, as Manuel Neuer won the Golden Glove for the tournament's best goalkeeper. But if they had their heart's set on giving the consolation prize to the losers of the final, they should have looked to Javier Mascherano. The Argentinian midfielder was easily their best player in the semifinals and finals, as he worked relentlessly to keep opposing teams off the scoreboard. It would have been more fitting for an Argentine who primarily plays defense to have won the award, as it was their defense that earned them a spot in the final.
Coming into the tournament, Argentina's biggest concern was the quality of their defense. However, their weakness tuned into their strength, as Argentina only conceded four goals throughout the tournament.
Messi is still the best player in the World, but he was not the best player in the World Cup.