FIFA 2012 Awards Picspam

[flywoman]

I can't believe that the FIFA Awards have come around again; seems like only yesterday I was watching Leo Messi attempting to share his third Ballon d'Or with teammate Xavi Hernandez while dressed in a plum velvet jacket worthy of Willy Wonka. Anyway, FC Barcelona had five players named to the Dream Team of 2012, which incidentally consisted entirely of La Liga players. Here is the "before" shot:


Where's Geri?

And here is the after. They do clean up nicely, don't they? With a few exceptions. More on that in a minute.



My favorite moment from the presentation of the players, escorted by a bevy of adorable youngsters:

Kid to Cristiano Ronaldo: "How can I become such a good player as you?"
CR: "It's not easy! [audience laughs] Just be yourself, work hard, and be humble."
I... don't even know where to start.

Vicente Del Bosque won the Men's Coach of the Year Award, which was basically inevitable, and as far as I'm concerned, absolutely the right decision.

Pia Sundaghe accepted the Women's Coach of the Year Award by serenading her players: "If not for you..." God that woman rocks. And I was so happy to see Abby Wambach awarded Women's World Player of the Year, stylish suit and all.



Speaking of suits, Leo's fourth Ballon d'Or proved that not only has his playing continued to get even better...


... his fashion sense has continued to get even worse.


Leo: I make this look even better than Diego.
Andres: This is the last time Xavi will ever let Leo pick out his own suit.
Cris: Would you get a load of these dorks? If only this award were going to the best-dressed male footballer of the year...

Still, we all knew that it was going to be Leo, right? Adorably, he interrupted his own thank-you speech to say, "I'm sorry, I'm so nervous!" You'd think that he'd be used giving this particular acceptance speech by now ;).

Side note: In the pre-award press conference, CR dodged the question of whether he would have voted for one of his rivals by explaining that he couldn't vote because he had been injured during an international match and instructed not to leave the house. On the other hand, Leo uncharacteristically tackled it head-on, saying that he would have voted for Xavi, Iniesta, and Kun. (Previously he had been coy about exactly which Argentinian he would vote for, but aww, we all knew that it was Kun.) He also claimed that this hadn't been a very good year for him (presumably because Barcelona lost La Liga and the CL), so maybe he was really as surprised to receive a fourth Ballon d'Or as he claimed to be.

CONGRATULATIONS TO LEO AND TO ALL OF THIS YEAR'S WINNERS AND FINALISTS!