World

South America

Ecuador

Valencia Loses Out on Best Young Player Award

July 7th, 2006 | By: Trent | 7 Comments »

Ecuador midfielder Luis Valencia was denied the award in favor of Germany’s Lukas Podolski. As I said here, I thought Podolski would be a good choice, even though the German offense depended less on him that Ecuador’s did on Luis Valencia, my personal choice.

I would have been shocked if Barnetta won, while Messi and Fabregas just didn’t play enough to merit consideration in my book. Ronaldo had a great World Cup, but the charges (right or wrong) of unsporting conduct eliminated him from an award that relies on such extra-curricular criteria. And giving Podolski the award is a nice way to say thanks to the Germans for being such good hossts. I can’t complain.

At any rate, congrats to Valencia for a great tournament.

Note: Valencia beat Podolski by 271,000 votes in the poll. Just sayin’.

Tags: Ecuador, FIFA Best Young Player Award, Luis Valencia

Ecuador World Cup RSS Feed

del.icio.us:Valencia Loses Out on Best Young Player Award

digg:Valencia Loses Out on Best Young Player Award

newsvine:Valencia Loses Out on Best Young Player Award

reddit:Valencia Loses Out on Best Young Player Award

fark:Valencia Loses Out on Best Young Player Award

Y!:Valencia Loses Out on Best Young Player Award

stumbleupon:Valencia Loses Out on Best Young Player Award

Comments

By Danny | July 7th, 2006 at 3:06 pm

Wow. Im just shocked. He came in fourth in the voting and they still give it to him. This is mindblogging. Why isn’t it based on popular vote?

Posted from United States

By Nolan | July 7th, 2006 at 6:06 pm

Of course they picked someone from the home team wins it. FIFA is run by crooks.

Posted from United States

By los | July 7th, 2006 at 6:29 pm

oh well, Valencia will show them that he is one of the best young players out their. so what are they looking for in the player, a goal scorer, or a playmaker, i would think they would give the award to the player who had the best overall game.

Posted from Canada

By Ecuador4life | July 7th, 2006 at 11:03 pm

What Valencia didn’t win! What a total sham! No one was even close to being as good as he is! Just because I am a huge Ecuadorian Soccer fan doesn’t mean I’m bias.. uhh.. right?

E4L

Posted from United States

By Kenny | July 7th, 2006 at 11:49 pm

A fuckin disgrace!!!!!!!!! FIFA are a bunch of pigs just eating the money thrown at them for crowning this loser as Champ!!! A poor man from a poor country cant win anything in World Class soccer……I’m so pissed!! I’m sorry Luis….U deserved it man!

Posted from Canada

By Jose Miguel | July 8th, 2006 at 1:20 am

I’m not surprised the host team player got it. The FIFA has to give them something for doing such a great jobs as hosts.

What do you think this does to Podolski? Nothing really. Perhaps Valencia was more deserving and could’ve benefited from the award more, but the world now knows who he is and what our players can do.

Looking forward to 2010, I think we may have some more players running for this award.
Based on the following article, the U-20 team will have 2 players playing in Europe and 2 more in Argentina.
The future looks bright!!

Posted from United States

By Jose Miguel | July 8th, 2006 at 1:25 am

Sorry, I forgot to add the link,
http://www.futbolecuador.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=347

Posted from United States

Comments are closed