The Spanish league is arguably known for good football. No wonder it is regarded as the “home of beautiful football”. Majority of football stars both past and present ply their trade in Spain to the extent future and upcoming stars have always thought of playing in the league if the opportunity arises.
The Spanish league boost the best of talented and world class players from Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale, Antoine Griezmann, Neymar Jr. Santos , Sergio Ramos, Andres Iniesta, Koke ‘resurrection’, Kelvin Prince Boateng, James Rodriguez to Fernando Torres; to mention but a few. Even the likes of Sergio Kun Aguero, Diego Costa and past legends Luis Figo, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Carlos, and Diego Forlan etc all played there.
Well, take nothing away from other leagues, they could also stake a claim for themselves too; the audience will surely listen.
Well, take nothing away from other leagues, they could also stake a claim for themselves too; the audience will surely listen.
The LFP (Liga Football de Professional) runs the affairs of the Spanish league. They control and oversee all the activities of the league under the presidency of Javier Tebas. However, irrespective of the blunt nature of the Presidency in the La Liga, there are still eye sores when it comes to refereeing indecision, officials’ allocation and more especially, the Liga awards.
The Liga award was first established in the year 2009 after the 2008/2009 season under the Presidency of José Luis Astiazarán Iriondo. The LFP came up with the idea to compensate and appreciate the players’ quality and input during the course of the whole league season.
Personally, I have never liked the administration of the Spanish football. Maybe, due to the bad blood and rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Power tussle and political mayhem has made the league prone to physical and subtle cold battle between those at the helm of affairs at the clubs. In lieu to this, most Presidents have openly pledged their allegiance to Real Madrid. The fact is quite obvious.
For neutrals, the LFP award was established to give face to the league, add marketing value and serve as a motivation to players, managers and their teams at the end of the league season but to club fans; it is a bragging right and popularity contest.
Awards as a motivation contain categories which are designed by the organizers from the day of its inception. These categories are subject to ‘meaningful’ changes depending on the progress and rebranding.
Let’s take a review of how the awards evolved. It all began:
In 2008/2009, the maiden edition of the awards, the categories was:
- Best Striker/Forward
- Best Player
- Best Defender
- Best Goalkeeper
- Best Midfielder
- Breakthrough Player
- Fair Play
- Best Coach
The winners of the awards were:
Best Striker/Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Defender: Dani Alves (‘’ ‘’)
Best Goalkeeper: Iker casillas (Real Madrid)
Best midfielders: Xavi Hernandez/Andres Iniesta (Barcelona)
Best Player: Lionel Messi (“ “)
Best Coach: Pep Guardiola (“ “)
Fair Play: Juan Carlos Valeron (Deportivo La Coruna)
Breakthrough Player: Sergio Busquets (Barcelona)
League winners: Barcelona
In 2009/2010, the categories remained the same; the winners were:
Best Player: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Goalkeeper: Victor Valdez (‘’ ‘’)
Best Defender: Gerard Pique (‘’ ‘’)
Best Midfielders: Xavi Hernandez/Jesus Navas (Barcelona/Sevilla)
Best Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Coach: Pep Guardiola (‘’ ‘’)
Fair Play: Marcos Senna (Villarreal)
Breakthrough Player: Pedro Rodriguez (Barcelona)
League Winners: Barcelona
In 2011/2012, the categories and winners are:
Best Player: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Goalkeeper: Victor Valdez (‘’ ‘’)
Best Defender: Eric Abidal (‘’ ‘’)
Best Midfielders: Xavi Hernandez/Andres Iniesta (Barcelona)
Best Forward: Lionel Messi (“ “)
Best Coach: Pep Guardiola (‘’ “)
Fair Play: Alberto Rivera (Sporting Gijon)
Breakthrough Player: Iker Munian (Athletic Bilbao)
League winners: Barcelona.
In 2011/2012, the categories and winners are:
Fair Play: Carles Puyol (Barcelona)
Breakthrough Player: Isco Alarcon (Malaga)
Best Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid)
Best Player: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Defender: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Best Midfielders: Xabi Alonso/Andres Iniesta (Real Madrid/Barcelona)
Best Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Coach: Pep Guardiola (“ “)
League Winners: Real Madrid
In 2012/2013, another category was added; the category and the winners were:
Fair Play: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid)
Breakthrough Player: Asier Illaramendi (Real Sociedad)
*Most Valuable Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Best Player: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid)
Best Defender: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Best Midfielders: Asier Illaramendi/Andres Iniesta (Real Sociedad/Barcelona)
Best Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Coach: Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid)
League Winners: Barcelona
(Categories with * were newly added)
In 2013/2014, two categories were added; the winners and categories were:
*Best Goal: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
*World Player (South American): Carlos Bacca (Sevilla)
“ “ ‘’ “ (Africa): Yacinne Brahimi (Granada)
Fair Play: Ivan Rakitic (Sevilla)
Breakthrough Player: Rafinha Alcantara (Celta Vigo)
Best Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Best Goalkeeper: Keylor Navas (Levante)
Best Defender: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Best Midfielders: Luka Modric/Andres Iniesta (Real Madrid/Barcelona)
Best Forward: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Best Coach: Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid)
No MVP
League Winners: Atletico Madrid
(Categories with * were newly added)
In 2014/2015, another category was added, the winners and categories were:
*Fan’s Five Star Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Best Player: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Goalkeeper: Claudio Bravo (‘’ ‘’)
Best Defender: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Best Midfielders: James Rodriguez (“ “)
Best Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Coach: Luis Enrique (‘’ ‘’)
World Player (South American): Neymar Jr Santos (“ “)
“ “ “ “ (Africa): Sofiane Feghouli (Valencia)
No Breakthrough Player
No Fair Play
No Best Goal
No MVP
League Winners: Barcelona
(Categories with * were newly added)
In 2015/2016, the categories and winners are:
Breakthrough Player: Marco Asensio (Espanyol)
World Player: Luis Suarez (Barcelona)
Fan’s Five Star Player: Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid)
Best Player: Antoine Griezmann (‘’ ‘’)
Best Goalkeeper: Jan Oblak (“ ‘’)
Best Defender: Diego Godin (‘’ ‘’)
Best Midfielder: Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
Best Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Best Coach: Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid)
No Fair Play
No Best Goal
No MVP
League Winners: Barcelona
Following the progression of the awards, the categories and who won it when they won it; you will see how inconsistent and mediocre the Liga awards have been.
In 2011/2012, Real Madrid won the league under Jose Mourinho with a record breaking 90points and a huge goal difference margin, Pep Guardiola won the award for Best Coach, and Lionel Messi won the award for Best Player. On normal grounds these award categories are supposed to be awarded to the team that won the league. You can’t lose the league and get the accolade for Best manager and Best Player.
In 2012/2013, the organizers of the award added another category that made a one season debut. The category for League MVP which was won by Cristiano Ronaldo is an eye-service. If you carefully followed the league Diego Simeone’s Atleti side was superb but every Best Manager award has gone to the man who won the league. Barca won the league with Tito Villanova with a record matching 90 points formally held by Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid. Pep Guardiola during his reign at Barca won the league three-straight times and in those times, he swooped the award for the Best Coach. Inconsistency? Year to year the organizers of these awards have shown inconsistency and incompetency in terms of coordination. This gets me thinking, who does the nomination, voting and what is the criteria for winning the awards?
Categories are not added to an award because you want to please some certain group of players. It is by merit. This questions the genuinety of the award and makes it look cagey to the players, teams, managers and fans at large.
In 2013/2014, Atletico Madrid won the league, holding Barcelona to a 1-1 draw on the Final day of the league season at Nou Camp conceding fewer goals[26] in the whole of the season, infact that season Barcelona couldn’t beat Atleti in almost all their meetings but the Best Goalkeeper award was won by Keylor Navas who finished mid-table with Levante. The less said about who won the Best Player award the better.
Following the progression of the award, the categories for the Best Coach, Best Forward and Best Players have consistently raised controversies. The introduction of Fan’s Five Star Player is totally meaningless; it is a platform to arouse mayhem because fans surely do have their favourite player(s) making it totally flawless.
In 2015/2016, the whole fans got talking, especially the Barcelona fans.
If the LFP thinks that Diego Simeone has done great with his “average” Atleti team and they want to appreciate his greatness, it is better they gave him a deserved award rather than awarding him the Best Coach and sidelining the person who won the 3major trophies in Spain that season. This is the Liga awards, not some European or World Charity organized gala. You begin to wonder why Antoine Griezmann was the Best Player and Lionel Messi the Best Forward in the league. According to the LFP, the criterion for choosing the Best Player is gotten from the statistics of the players nominated. Here’s a quick look at the statistics of Luis Suarez Vs Antoine Griezmann.
It was quite flagitious on the path of Luis Suarez who, from the start to the end of the season was unarguably the Best player in the league besting other players in all ramifications. He gave a record 3 assist and scored 4goals in the process in one of the games of the season against Deportivo La Coruna, a game Barcelona went on to win by a huge goal margin of 8.
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| Luis Suarez |
His immense contributions helped his team win the Spanish Super Cup, the Copa Del Rey and the La Liga. Suarez was league’s highest goal scorer (40). He also scored more hatricks than any other player in the league that season, a record he holds in Europe in 2015/2016 not even Messi nor Ronaldo came close.
This is football not politics, when things are not done right it spoils the marketing platform and paints the picture to the public that the administrators and organizers of the league are clueless. It is either the wrong category is won by the wrong person or the right category is awarded to the wrong player and vice versa. It is also unprofessional to use a player’s marketability to award them a category they don’t deserve.
The fans are watching.
However, as part of that fan who loves Spanish football, I am appealing to the LFP to go back to their drawing board and right the wrongs of these eyesores than continue in such huge mediocrity. Remember, football is not a reward system.
Tags: Barcelona, Real Madrid, LFP, Atletico Madrid, Javier Tebas, Copa Del Rey
As written by our correspondent Williams Chibuike.
About Author:
Williams Chibuike is a graduate of Computer Science and a lover of Spanish football and football in general. He has the flare for writing and has written many piece of different kinds.
twitter.com/chibyyke_
Disclaimer: This piece is not written to rubbish or cast aspersion to any organization or person of any kind. We hereby state that all information given here is factual and for enlightenment purposes.
KOKSNATION
follow us on twitter @koksnationn
Disclaimer: This piece is not written to rubbish or cast aspersion to any organization or person of any kind. We hereby state that all information given here is factual and for enlightenment purposes.
KOKSNATION
follow us on twitter @koksnationn
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