Malawi flops on World Player of the Year vote
None of Malawi’s three voters got it right on 2013 Fifa Ballon d’Or World Player of the Year Award which Real Madrid and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo won Monday night in Switzerland.
National team captains, coaches and sports journalists from each country voted for the award which extended to best coach, best women football coach and best woman footballer.
FAM technical director John Kaputa, in the absence of Flames coach, chose world record signing Gareth Bale (Real Madrid’s player) as his first-choice followed by Robin van Persie (Manchester United) and Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich) as second and third choices respectively.
Kaputa also did not get it right in best men’s coach as he chose Sir Alex Ferguson (ex-Manchester United) on first position followed by Rafael Benitez (now Napoli) then Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) on third place.
On players, Sangala, who recently quit football but was still asked to vote, put his money on Messi as his number one, followed by Bale, then Ronaldo.
On coaches, the Flames defender cast his votes for Vicente Del Bosque of Spain national team as number one, trailed by Ferguson and Felipe Scolari of Brazil. The list of voters has been published on http://www.fifa.com.
The sports writers’ first choice was Lionel Messi then Ronaldo and Ribery. They only got it right in voting for former Bayern Munich manager Jupp Heynckes as best coach while Scolari and Benitez were their second and third choices. Benitez, writing on his Twitter account, thanked the journalists for the vote.
Abbay Wambach, Saki Kumagai and Lana Goessling were the sports writers’ choices for best woman footballer, runner-up and third choice respectively, but it was Nadine Angerer of Germany who scooped most votes.
Malawi national women football team coach Temwa Msuku and his captain Chisomo Kazisonga also opted for Wambach and Marta as their respective choices for best woman footballer.
On the world stage, Portuguese coach Carlos Quiroz shockingly chose Messi ahead of Ronaldo.
