Ronaldo Wins Ballon d’Or

Finally.

A realisation of another of the many dreams the boy from Madeira might have had, Ronaldo now becomes only the first player since George Best to win the Ballon d’Or as a United player. This, in itself, is a shame and does a disservice to the vast number of outstanding players that wore the famous red shirt. But, then again it’s a great achievement, especially in an era where the likes of Platini and Blatter attempt to do everything in their power to undermine the growing power of English clubs in Europe.

Ronaldo would forever have his detractors; to be fair he hasn’t been a saint. But as a player he has been remarkably consistent and prolific over the past two years. And beyond a certain point, it really becomes hard to ignore what the lad has done for us. Like him or not, but when a player wins an award as overwhelmingly as he has done, it goes to show how bloody brilliant he’s been.

We United fans have been fortunate to be seeing such an outstanding talent who gets recognition for his greatness. So let’s savour this moment while it’s there in front of us. Kudos Ronaldo, may this be the first of many more.

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Speaking of awards, Red Rants has been nominated in the 2008 Soccerlens Awards in the “Best Blog Community” category. It’s a fault on my part for being less prolific lately, but when the readers can be so committed while I was away on a brief vacation (or what I’d call, an escape from life) as to swell the comment count to over 800, I must say this blog’s certainly been a facilitator for a community to grow around it. Credit of course has to go to the readers — it’s your contributions below the fold that gave this place a community atmosphere. So, dear readers, if you feel that this community that you are a part of deserves votes, then go ahead and feel free to vote us up. It’s more a recognition of your efforts than mine, which is great to see. We are up against some biggies though, which include the likes of Arseblog (which averages 1000+ comments daily!), so I wouldn’t keep my expectations too high. Also, do look up other categories in the awards. There are some very good blogs out there.

To vote for us, click here.

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Finally, a word on a personal front. I was extremely busy with personal commitments and once I got that load off my shoulders, I decided to take a breather and went on a brief jaunt to some icy peaks. As an aside, I learned that extreme cold weather is not my cup of tea, although I had fun skiing. I am back now, and I should be in a position to talk about United, Ronaldo, the City game (although it’s probably now too late to write a match report for it) and the season as a whole.