Ballon D'or

In recent times, fellow Liverpudlian Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard have won Ballon D'or, the accolade for European Footballer of the Year. Gerrard won it for his heroics in leading the Reds to pip AC Milan on penalties, having been down 0-3 at the break in Champions League Final 2005, now famously dubbed as the Miracle of Istanbul.
Owen, now with Newcastle topped the poll due to Liverpool's Cup treble in 2001 and also partly to his hat tricks for England against Germany in Munich (WCQ 2002).

Top players for 2007/08?
The usual suspects are Argies' Lionel Messi, MU No 7 Ronaldo and our own Fernando Torres (pic).

Merits?

1. Messi won nothing with Barcelona while grabbing gold in Beijing Olympics with Argentina.
   
2. Ronaldo won EPL and CL with MU. Nothing with Portugal internationally.
3. Torres won nothing with Liverpool domestically but won Euro 2008 with Spain, scoring the solitary goal in the final against Ballack's Germany.

So who would win Ballon D'or?

I'm rooting for Torres, not just because he is a Reds but the importance of that solo goal that led Spain to it's first title since 1964.
That is a sure 'Tan Sri' in Malaysia given its importance. Hey...Shah Rukh Khan was bestowed a Datuk for filming a 2-3 minutes shot in Malacca. Not sure he can pronounces it correctly.

Messi's Olympic gold is diluted as Olympics football is confined as U-23 tournament while Ronaldo is nothing outside Manchester.

It would be a disaster of sorts if Torres is denied victory. The stats speak for itself.