Is Wesley Sneijder now the best player in the world?

Rooney? Failed.
Ronaldo? Failed.
Kaka? Failed.
Messi? Failed to score.

Those four were supposed to be the best, and when it came to the best place to see them at their best, it was not the best we got.

Instead, we got petulance from the first three, and an endless succession of shots that didn't go in from Messi. And it was really, really disappointing.

So maybe we need to look elsewhere for who the best player in the world is? And for sure in the context of World Player of the Year, there's a player most people thought was not going to soar as high as he could. So step forward Wesley Sneijder, the player I'd now say is the world's best.

He doesn't play where Bergkamp did, and he certainly doesn't have Bergkamp's grace. But for the first time since Bergkamp in world football, there's a passer of the ball so deadly, so artful, that teams have lost, temporarily at least, the power to stop him. Sneijder has won it all this season with Inter, very much their dominant force as they powered towards a treble unprecedented in Italian football. For English fans, his destruction of Chelsea will remain a highlight, but he was every bit as good across the later stages of the competition.

With all that winning behind him, you might have expected him to be as rubbish in the World Cup as the other top players have been. But he's been brilliant. He's scored goals – two against Brazil (though how the first of those could be accredited to him, no sane person knows). He's passed sensationally. He even played the same ball De Boer did to Bergkamp back in 98 to van Persie in the group stage. Unfortunately Robin shanked it into Row Z, but never mind!

What Sneijder has single-handedly shown, is that the top-players don't arrive burnt out at the World Cup. That fatigue alone is not a reason for their failure. No-one has played as many big games as he has this season, and with such a pivotal role in the Inter team, no one has more pressure on them than he does to deliver. What he's shown simply is that brilliant players will play brilliantly when the team they play in is structured in a way that gets the best out of them. Sneijder's position in the Dutch team, with Robin van Persie ahead of him, and two of Kuyt, Van Der Vaart and Robben either side of him, is the right one for him. How Messi, Rooney and Ronaldo have been forced to play by their national team's tactics was not – and they've failed accordingly. It's a tragedy for football that we've had such poor displays by the very best – but we might yet get the coup de grace as the World's new best player, Wesley Sneijder, can continue his run of brilliance all the way to the World Cup.

User Comments

User Comments

• Got something to say?
• Read comments

Vs chelsea