‎2012 FIFA World XI: 

FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football is Pia Sundhage

FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football is Vicente Del Bosque

The recipient of the FIFA Presidential Award 2012 is Franz Beckenbauer

The winner of the FIFA Fair Play Award 2012 is the Uzbekistan Football Federation

The winner of the FIFA Puskas Award 2012 is Miroslav Stoch

The FIFA Women's World Player of the Year Award 2012 is Abby Wambach

The winner of the FIFA Ballon d'Or 2012 is Lionel Messi

Knibis, in the last 8 years, there has been only one Cl final that did not feature an English club. Just one. In that same period, there have been only 3 Spanish finalists, all Barca, and all victories. These last two years are the first time in almost a decade that Real Madrid even made it past the round of 16, and aside from Barcelona, the ONLY Spanish club to make a semi final in the last 8 years was Villareal, who lost to Arsenal.

By contrast, You have to go back over ten years to find a season without an English semi-finalist, and often there are more than one.

It's simple: La Liga's 'dominance' in Europe has been, for the last 8-10 years, in the form of Barcelona. And that's pretty much it.

@Lodatz

Yeah, that may be true, but you can't deny that Real have been rising up the ranks FAST after Mourinho arrived. Their true quality will be proved against English clubs after we see the outcome of Man United-Madrid in the CL. SO how about we hang this argument for now?

And @knibis

Judging from your arguments, you don't watch much EPL, do you? Yes, Madrid and Barca are two of the world's best clubs now, Lodatz and the others aren't denying that, but they haven't been that dominant over the last few years. Barca have been notably dominant after Guardiola's arrival (post 2008), and Real have rose up the ranks only recently (Mourinho came in 2010), whereas English clubs have been performing at a high level of football for a long time (10 years I believe?).

Yes Spain has won the most CL's, but look at it this way. If you read my "Club Profile", you would have found out that five of those CL titles were won by Madrid in the 1950's. Madrid has only won one CL title in the 21st century, and it was in 2002. Barca have won 3 Champions League titles, but they have all been in the within the past 3-4 years. So you can't say that Spain have dominated recently in club football, not even in statistics. If you're debating history, then its a different matter.

And as for the World XI, I would like to nominate Philipp Lahm instead of Dani Alves, Andrea Pirlo instead of Xavi, Mats Hummels instead of Gerard Pique. I'm not removing Casillas because he seems to be extremely underrated recently. His form has not dipped at all, but yet people claim that Buffon and Neuer are better. Casillas saves just about everything that comes at him, but it seems that only Real and Barca fans notice that.

@Dynastian: You're right, Madrid have been building something awesome -- I certainly wouldn't argue otherwise. It was more than, as you reiterated, aside from the last couple of seasons, they've been absent from the European arena. 

As you say, coming up against Man Utd will be a true battle of the big-boys. If Real progress, then we could be looking at the eventual winners. But they kinda have to, now. Otherwise they'll be looked at as the team who were created just to try and beat Barca in La Liga, and only managed it once. :p

@Dynastian, lots of respect at that post, someone who knows what he is talking about.

lol at the people who think cech should be gk of the year maybe buffon but not cech...definetely not

the startining 11 is bs pique,alves and xabi alonso no offence but i think pepe,thiago silva and pirlo should be in the starting 11

i mean hummels not pepe*

Why are you fangirls fighting over such a stupid topic. Who cares which leagues is the best, just enjoy the one you like the most... Fighting which league is the best is like two 10yo having a "sword fight".

If you wanna argue who has won more Cl in the past 10years, I think its 3 for Spain, England Italy and 1 Portugal.

But England has had more teams in the semis and finals...Who cares? The winners will be remembered.

@Dynasty loved the post but if you wanna mention Spain winning 5 CL with Real Madrid in the 50s make sure you mentioned England in the 76-82 with 3 Liverpool, 2 N.Forest and A.Villa.

Now, if you are still an insecure little fangirl, please continue arguing.

When discussing the strength of leagues, and comparing levels of dominance, then all the information provided before your post is entirely relevant, BidoneCR7. If you don't like talking about league comparisons, then don't; seems a little bit of a 10yo reaction to bitch and people who feel differently, instead.

But, y'know, if it makes you feel enlightened, or 'above' perfectly reasonable discussion, by all means keep calling people names. ;)

Alright this seems pointless comparing a how good a league is based on the teams preformance just in Champions or Europa. Some teams preform better in cups while being average in the league (Bilbao dominated till Europa final but struggled in the league and finished mid table).

what should really be done is do a head to head comparison. teams from respecting leagues that have gone agasint each other (Barca vs United, Spurs vs Valencia, so on). then figure out other categories such as average amount of goals scored per season.

Perhaps, but in another thread? I'm sorry for being part of the derailment, already. >.<

I made a thread like that and people just scolded me! These arguments always happen I don't see why I wasn't allowed to make another thread like it.

Dani Alves? Haha, the joke of the year for me!

Who voted for whom in the player of the year:

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/ballond%27or/playeroftheyear%28men%29/01/98/07/84/fboawardmenplayer2012-bycountry.pdf

Interesting choices:

Coach - Germany - Löw Joachim 1) Özil Mesut 2) Neuer Manuel 3) Xavi
Coach - Thailand - Winfried Schaefer 1) Busquets Sergio 2) Iniesta Andrés 3) Cristiano Ronaldo

Captain - Austria - Fuchs Christian 1) Xavi 2) Iniesta Andrés 3) Balotelli Mario

@fredtilson thanks for sharing that link

casillas voted for Sergio Ramos OMFG

^@puppermaster - lmao sometimes you gotta choose your friends :D

@knibis,

Hah, Villa and Soldado in top 5? That's ridiculous. Where's the quality? RVP, Rooney, Agüero and more are miles ahead. I understand why Jimskeleton doesn't want to argue with you. Although it's subjective, everyone should see the difference between e.g. Soldado and RVP. If they don't, the word 'subjectivity' looses its importance and sense.

@Golden  haha are u serious?  David Villa who scored 5 goals in the 2010 world cup. I didnt say Rooney, Aguero and RVP are bad but if you would to watch La Liga sometimes you would get my point....

Who knows, Soldado probably whould score more goals in Man U....

Its not even worth discussing cuz you guys are so narrow minded...

I have a question for you, knibis. Which year are we in? 2010, or 2013?

I don't need to be an "EPL fanboy" to understand that Soldado isn't anywhere close to those I mentioned. Trust me, I've seen them both. At the moment, the same goes for Villa.

(By the way, I'll just whisper the answer for you right here. We're in 2013.)

Well thats your opinion

I actually like his dress.