Jerome Boateng, Diego Godin, Angel Di Maria Lead Way For Unsung Heroes in 2014
Figuring out the best players of any given calendar year in football is a tricky task. Quite apart from the fact that working on such a timescale is rather counter-intuitive in the context of the timescales of Europe's major competitions (although the World Cup does offer a degree of balance in 2014), it is always subjective singling out individuals in a team sport.
Underpinning that particular dilemma is the difficulty of distilling what meant most in that year in particular; in other words, the contributions that weighed the most heavily as opposed to simply compiling a list of who the players widely considered to be the world's greatest are. Nobody is kidding themselves that anybody other than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi boss the latter category, though Mario Gotze is unlikely to trouble the podium of many observers' best of 2014, despite scoring the most defining goal of the year in the July 13 final.
Despite each again posting barely credible numbers and continuing to smash records in 2014, both Ronaldo and Messi would have undoubtedly given most of that up to have enjoyed the moment that Gotze grasped with such aplomb in Rio de Janeiro.
So this column concludes the year by trying to highlight and praise outstanding, and unsung, individuals who made telling contributions to collective successes.
Jerome Boateng set the tone for a triumphant tournament in Germany's opening game against Portugal; curiously, in a position other than the one that he habitually defines his excellence in. The Bayern Munich man was used at right-back during the encounter with Paulo Bento's men in Salvador. This was at least partly due to Germany's dearth of specialist full-backs (on the left, Schalke's Benedikt Howedes also did a great job playing out of position), but it thrust Boateng into a direct duel with Ronaldo, in his own customary starting spot on the left side of Portugal's attack.
His emphatic response to the challenge, successfully shutting out the man generally accepted to be the world's greatest player (at this moment, at least), set the tone for both his and Germany's run to glory in Brazil. He was arguably the best defender at the World Cup. At 26, Boateng has grown beyond what many thought possible for him for club and country, as an athletic and controlled centre-back who has improved by grasping Pep Guardiola's ideas as well as any of his teammates.
Boateng's Atletico Madrid and Uruguay counterpart, Diego Godin, made a few more headlines, by scoring three crucial goals in the space of just over a month. His towering header at Camp Nou on the final day of La Liga 2013-14 clinched the title for Atleti at Barcelona's expense, and his goal against Real Madrid in Lisbon almost deprived Los Merengues of La Decima before his winner against Italy in Natal dumped Cesare Prandelli's side out of the World Cup.
Yet these were all overshadowed, to an extent. Atleti not receiving the Liga trophy until this season, and the Champions League heartbreak after Sergio Ramos' last-ditch headed equaliser, meant Godin received barely a toot, let alone a fanfare. The storm over Luis Suarez's bite on Giorgio Chiellini later meant that his strike for his country in Brazil was reduced to a mere footnote. One of the world's outstanding defenders deserved better.
It seems strange to say that Angel Di Maria is undervalued, given his August arrival at Manchester United for a British record £59.7 million fee. Yet it seems that there has only been a belated acceptance that the 26-year-old is one of the world's finest players. A consistent supplier of goals for Real Madrid, he was highly influential in a central midfield role for Carlo Ancelotti's side, especially in the moments when Ronaldo was limited by fitness issues.
Having scored the opener in the Copa del Rey final win over Barcelona, Di Maria was the player who turned the Champions League final (and awarded UEFA's Man of the Match as a result), before going on to show his quality at the World Cup, notably in scoring the extra-time winner against Switzerland in the last 16.
How much Di Maria was missed by Argentina when injured in the semi-final and final displayed exactly what he was worth. His excellent early displays in England, in a disjointed United team, showcased a mental strength and adaptability that is often overlooked.
So, by all means celebrate the extraordinary talents we've enjoyed in 2014, but take a minute to realise that there's more of them than we might recognise at first.
