Before i start off i will to let you know that first i am not a fan of Manchester United.
The entire world today now understands the sentiment of UEFA against English based players particularly when it concerns selection of the European footballer of the year and world player of the year award.
When last month Christiano Ronaldo lead Manchester United to win the English Premier League and the UEFA champions leading scoring over 40 goals in the process, the feat for a midfielder, all agreed was unprecedented and were it not for the fact 2008 is a Euro year, one could easily have picked Ronaldo to clinch coveted world player award without much opposition to fight against.
However we knew his performance in Euro 2008 will be very important if that award is to swing his way. The game has come and has gone, agreed C. Ronaldo unfortunately didn't go far in the tournament, but so was Luca Toni whom to me appear his only contender for the award. However, Ronaldo did enough to at least be included on the bench of the tournaments best players.
But from the list released as posted below, C. Ronaldo was conspicuously absent and that to me seems like a way to deny him of the award.
Team Of the Tournament As released by UEFA:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas (Spain), Edwin van der Sar (Netherlands).
Defenders: Bosingwa (Portugal), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Carlos Marchena (Spain), Pepe (Portugal), Carles Puyol (Spain), Yuri Zhirkov (Russia).
Midfielders: Hamit Altintop (Turkey), Luka Modric (Croatia), Marcos Senna (Spain), Xavi Hernández (Spain), Konstantin Zyryanov (Russia), Michael Ballack (Germany), Cesc Fàbregas (Spain), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Lukas Podolski (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands).
Forwards: Andrei Arshavin (Russia), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Russia), Fernando Torres (Spain), David Villa (Spain).
With Xavi Hernandez Snatching the player of the tournament award, isn't this another way to push Ronaldo aside?