The best soccer player in the world

I have tried to find this essay by Brian Doyle online with no success. It is a very moving essay about a UP alumni on the inside cover of the Winter 2012 edition of the UP's magazine "Portland". Maybe one of our more savvy members will be able to find a link or some other way to post it here for all to read.

The online version of the magazine is here: LINK

http://issuu.com/universityofportland/docs/winter_2012_portlandmagazine-for_web?mode=mobile

Thanks guys, I knew there were more skilled searchers than myself.

The story is on page 2.

Brian Doyle once argued with the Dalia Lama the merits of basketball and soccer.
Doyle argued for basketball.
Ask him about it.

Dan No Yell wrote:Brian Doyle once argued with the Dalia Lama the merits of basketball and soccer.
Doyle argued for basketball.
Ask him about it.

I'm pretty sure Brian wasn't going to talk his holyness out of sponsoring the

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Soccer Cup.

PurpleGeezer wrote:

Dan No Yell wrote:Brian Doyle once argued with the Dalia Lama the merits of basketball and soccer.
Doyle argued for basketball.
Ask him about it.

I'm pretty sure Brian wasn't going to talk his holyness out of sponsoring the

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Soccer Cup.

Yes, that's an actual Tibet kit. Without getting into politics, just the design is awesome.

Apparently FIFA doesn't agree with BD, not even including her in the top 3 players of the year for 2012.

A_Fan wrote:Apparently FIFA doesn't agree with BD, not even including her in the top 3 players of the year for 2012.

The voting process for FIFA women's player of the year is pretty skewed, in that it is the exact same process the men use. Each country's FIFA federation (US Soccer, here) has three voters: the senior team coach, senior team captain, and a media rep (the US women's rep is Grant Wahl). They cast their votes for their top three players (from a list of 10 compiled by FIFA and two other committees; the men's short list is 23 players); the results compiled and the top 3 finishers are invited to Zurich to learn which one if them finished in first place.

In this year's voting, more than half of Marta's votes came from countries without any established women's league, and/or a national team that doesn't compete at/for major tournaments. So the 3 voters from Uganda, for example, don't really have any vested interest in following the women's game too closely, and looking at a list of 10 players, likely cast their votes in Marta's favor because of name recognition. Players like Sinclair, Abily, and da Mbabi will always lose out in this kind of voting. On the men's side, there is little doubt the Ugandan national coach, captain, and journalist would fail to recognize the quality of Messi, Ronaldo, or Iniesta, and instead voted for Buffon instead just because they recognize his name and he hasn't retired yet.

Wambach finished with roughly 20% of the vote, Marta 13%, and Morgan 10% demonstrating how fractured the process is. In contrast, Messi won with 41% of the vote, Ronaldo 23%, and Iniesta 11%. For the record, Wahl voted for Wambach, Sinclair, and Carli Lloyd.

Here was the 2012 short list:
Abby Wambach (United States)
Alex Morgan (United States)
Megan Rapinoe (United States)
Carli Lloyd (United States)
Aya Miyama (Japan)
Homare Sawa (Japan) - 2011 winner
Miko Fukumoto (Japan)
Camille Abily (France)
Christine Sinclair (Canada)
Marta (Brazil)

I saw a voting compilation someone did counting only the top 50 federations in the rankings. There Abby came in first and Christine second. They were one off, but that's not too bad.

Here are the official voting records, released by FIFA:

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/ballond'or/playeroftheyear(women)/01/98/08/17/fboawardwomenplayer2012-bycountry.pdf

Of note:

Full credit to the Ugandan coach for picking Rapinoe first!

Jill Ellis was the voting coach for the US.

Sinclair picked Miyama, Morgan, and Marta, in that order.

Christie Rampone did not select any foreign players.

England coach Hope Powell picked Carli Lloyd as her top player.

For the statistical wonks among you, along the lines of what UPSoccerFanatic mentioned, here's a very intelligent breakdown of the balloting for the women's Ballon d'Or from Benjamin Massey in Canada. There's graphs and everything...

http://www.maple-leaf-forever.com/2013/01/08/the-womens-ballon-dor-is-a-joke/?theme=mapleleaf&wpmp_switcher=desktop

The statistical analysis of the entire process is spot-on; easy to see the flaws in the process.