Lothar Matthaus is regarded as one of the finest players to have represented the German national team. He has said that he regards the Barcelona midfielders Xavi and Iniesta to be more worthy of winning the FIFA Ballon d'Or award this season over the duo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Both the superstars have scored a lot of goals for the team, but when it comes to the overall play the midfielders have been much better. This has been seen as a record-breaking season for both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, as they have been far more superior than they have been in recent seasons.
However, they have not done enough for the national teams to be able to win this award according to the German international Lothar Matthaus. He has said that only the Spaniard should be able to win this award. Spain managed to win the European championships this time around, which was the second consecutive win in this tournament. They also retain the FIFA World Cup as well. Xavi and Iniesta have been linchpins of the Spanish team over the past few seasons. They have been not only instrumental in the Euro 2012 success, but also the previous successes as well.
"In my opinion there are currently several exceptional footballers who could justifiably win the title, but I think a Spaniard should win the Fifa Ballon d'Or. My favourites are Xavi and Iniesta. Maybe they don’t stand out as much as Ronaldo and Messi because they don’t score as often, but they’ve won one trophy after another for club and country. They’re the heartbeat in both teams [Barcelona and Spain] and are always pulling the strings on the pitch, as they impressively demonstrated at Euro 2012," said Matthaus. Lionel Messi was the winner of the award last season.
