Real Madrid enjoyed a near clean sweep at the recent La Liga awards much to the chagrin of most of the League’s fans. Now, Madrid are usually the target of vitriol with their exorbitant transfers usually dominating headlines and their wage bill which dwarfs most of the League. But this time it’s completely justified. To be frank the La Liga awards were a complete farce and officials should be ashamed of some their decisions.
A cursory glance at the award winners should show some alarming choices. It can be argued as well that the League likely did not want to give out any awards to players who may have departed- such as EPL new boys Diego Costa, Felipe Luis and Thibaut Courtois. While Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick of awards do hold some merit, Sergio Ramos’ recognition as the “Best Defender” really lacked any sort of analysis.
Not only was Diego Godin the standout defender on Europe’s best defensive team last season, but also the scorer of the League winning goal in the Nou Camp on the last day of the fixture list. Compare this to Ramos who struggled badly at the beginning of the season and only found form by the turn of the year. Of course Ramos finished the season on a high but much of that included his Champions League performances, which should have zero bearing on these awards. Some detractors have pointed to his overall popularity and status as a Spanish international as the reason he was regarded so highly.
It’s an even more incredulous decision considering the judges would not have had to look too far to even find a better alternative. For all accounts and purposes Pepe had the best season of his career last year, leading the Madrid backline while Ramos continued to stumble early on.
Andres Iniesta as the “Best Attacking Midfielder” was also a dubious decision. Over the years Iniesta has been among the best in the world but there are a host of players who should have been ahead of him in the pecking order, chief among them Ivan Rakitic whose imperious performances provided the impetus for a fantastic season for Sevilla. Even Koke, who solidified himself as one of the best midfielders in Europe last season, should feel shafted by Iniesta’s victory.
There were some cases, however, where La Liga got it right. Diego Simeone was far and away the “Best Coach,” and the acknowledgment of Luka Modric as the Best Defensive Midfielder” (though the positioning is a bit suspect) was well deserved, although Atletico captain Gabi Fernandez may have something to say about that. In goal Keylor Navas was a deserved winner for his exploits at Levante last season and the selection of Rafinha Alcantara as the “Breakthrough Player” showed the type of nuance that was conspicuously omitted from some of the other awards.
But overall it was Atletico Madrid’s relative absence from the podium that was alarming. If La Liga is to be taken seriously on the world stage and abandon the “two horse race” rhetoric that became synonymous throughout the League in the past few years, they need to make a greater effort to award those who deserve it and not pander incessantly to the giants.
