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Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Fernando Torres, Xavi and Kaka were all presumably in the running for the FIFA world player of the year award announced last night.
All of them are terrific players for their respective world class clubs, with an ability to turn a game of football on its head with their unique talents.
In the end, they were recognised as the top five players in world football at the moment, and few could argue with the selections.
But when judging the ultimate honour FIFA has to offer, there was always going to be only one winner out of a talented ensemble player cast.
Ronaldo was the man that dominated in the voting process, just like he dominated everything before him in a 2007/08 season that yielded 42 goals in all competitions, not to mention guiding Manchester United to Premier League and Champions League glory.
His only sour note – an unexpected early exit for Portugal in Euro 2008.
In the end, Ronaldo’s only real challenger was Argentine and Barcelona midfielder Lionel Messi, who played well last season, but failed to win any tournaments in a very lacklustre Barcelona outfit.
Regardless, he was the star in an side that had lost the magic of Ronaldinho and the goal scoring potency from star forward Samuel Eto’o.
Indeed, Messi’s flair and skill nearly guided Barcelona to a Champions League semi-final victory over Manchester United, considering he tormented the Red Devils inside out in both legs in 2007/08.
But despite outplaying Ronaldo in their own personal duel, the Portuguese superstar was always going to end up winning the coveted World Player of the Year award.
Ronaldo finished with 935 votes last night, compared to Messi’s 678 – a huge gape that was expected nonetheless.
The voting showed that Ronaldo was by far the best player in 2007/08, while Messi humbly accepted his second consecutive year of finishing runner-up.
Messi could take heart from the fact that he too produced an enormous gap between second and third player placings.
He beat Fernando Torres of Liverpool by over 400 votes as the Spaniard finished in third position with a meagre 203 votes.
But what of 2009/10?
Ronaldo is not having the most dominant of seasons, all the while Messi is helping craft Barcelona as the most in form club in Europe.
Torres is also becoming an integral part of a Liverpool outfit that sits in first position in the Premier League standings.
It seems now that even though Ronaldo won the award by a lengthy margin, the title of world’s best is much closer than one thinks.