FANTASTIC PLAYER: Messi (centre) receives the FIFA Ballon d’Or award from Platini at the Kongresshaus during the FIFA Ballon d’Or ceremony in Zurich. FIFA president Sepp Blatter (left) looks on. — AFP photo
ZURICH: UEFA president Michel Platini heralded Lionel Messi as “a killer” on Monday after the Barcelona star matched the Frenchman’s record of having won three consecutive Ballon d’Or awards.
Messi, 24, was awarded the 2011 FIFA Ballon d’Or at a ceremony in Zurich, which made him the first player to win the honour for three years running since Platini did so during his Juventus heyday between 1983 and 1985.
Messi’s achievements with Barcelona, with whom he won five trophies last year, have prompted comparisons with some of the greatest names in the game’s history, but Platini believes it is too early to start judging his career.
“Let him finish his career,” said the former France captain.
“Things go very quickly in football. You know, when Ronaldinho won his first Ballon d’Or (in 2005), I said: “He’s going to win a lot more, this guy.” And he didn’t win any more after that.
“But Messi is the whole package. He needs to have a team like Barcelona, and he’s a killer in his soul.
“He seems nice and kind, but to score goals like that, you have to be a killer. You don’t win anything in football if you’re too nice.”
Messi occasionally receives criticism over his inability to replicate his club form with Argentina and some critics feel he cannot be compared to greats such as Pele and Diego Maradona until he has won the World Cup.
Platini, though, feels that time is on his side.
“At 24, he still has time to win it,” said Platini.
“He’s already a superb, fantastic player. You shouldn’t try to place him in time. He’s the great player of this generation, like there were great players in other generations.
“It’s only in football that people compare generations. I’ve never heard someone compare (Italian singer) Adriano Celentano, the Beatles or Edith Piaf, but in football it happens.
“They used to say: ‘(Alfredo) Di Stefano is the greatest player of all time.’ Then there was Pele, and (Johan) Cruyff. Messi is a tremendous player.”
Meanwhile Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said Monday he thinks it is fair he isn’t being chosen as FIFA world coach of the year because he has not won a major championship in 2011.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola or Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, the other two finalists, “deserve it more”, said the Portuguese, who won the honour last year.
“This year I think I won’t win it and I think that’s fair,” he told a news conference.
“In 2010 I deserved it with the treble but not this year,” he said, recalling when he led Inter Milan to victory in the Champions League, Serie A title and Italian Cup.
“I think you have to win the Champions or one of the big championships and I only won the Cup,” Mourinho said, referring to Real Madrid’s victory in domestic King’s Cup competition.
“Guardiola or Ferguson deserve it more,” he said.
Mourinho said he regretted not being able to go to the awards ceremony in Zurich, blaming his absence on Real Madrid’s away game with Malaga in the King’s Cup yesterday.
“To be among the three finalists is an honour and I would have liked to be with the other two finalists and to congratulate this year’s winner, who I think will be Guardiola,” he said.
In the Ballon d’Or, which is also to be handed out Monday, Mourinho said both Barcelona’s superstar Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo had more Ballon d’Ors ahead of them in their careers.
“Neither Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo will stay with the number of Ballons d’Or they already have,” Mourinho said.
“Both play in great teams, they are a long way from 30 and they are going to win more trophies.” — AFP