"While the footballing world is focused on Monday's Ballon d'Or ceremony in Zurich where Real Madrid's Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is the favourite to take home the trophy for the third time, ESPN FC is recognising a group of players who excelled within their respective confederation.
We have selected a writer from a specific region to provide who they think was the best club player and the best national team player in their respective confederation. So with that, we give you the ESPN FC Confederations' Players of the Year.
(AFC - John Duerden)
International: Mehrdad Pooladi
Facing Lionel Messi is never easy for a defender, but there are positives. If you have a good game against the player recognised by many to be the best in the world, then people are going to sit up and take notice. For a hitherto unknown left back drafted into the Iranian team by Carlos Queiroz at the World Cup, this is exactly what happened. The then-Persepolis left back carried on his excellent performance in a goalless draw against Nigeria in their group stage opener and then went on to place Messi in his pocket for much of their contest versus Argentina, which ended 1-0 thanks to a Messi goal in stoppage time. Much is not all, of course, but Pooladi was simply excellent in Brazil."
http://www.espnfc.com/blog/espn-fc-u...rs-of-the-year
We have selected a writer from a specific region to provide who they think was the best club player and the best national team player in their respective confederation. So with that, we give you the ESPN FC Confederations' Players of the Year.
(AFC - John Duerden)
International: Mehrdad Pooladi
Facing Lionel Messi is never easy for a defender, but there are positives. If you have a good game against the player recognised by many to be the best in the world, then people are going to sit up and take notice. For a hitherto unknown left back drafted into the Iranian team by Carlos Queiroz at the World Cup, this is exactly what happened. The then-Persepolis left back carried on his excellent performance in a goalless draw against Nigeria in their group stage opener and then went on to place Messi in his pocket for much of their contest versus Argentina, which ended 1-0 thanks to a Messi goal in stoppage time. Much is not all, of course, but Pooladi was simply excellent in Brazil."
http://www.espnfc.com/blog/espn-fc-u...rs-of-the-year
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