International

Podolski won the FIFA young player award, and one of the attributes required was fair play. Below is a point made by a FIFA spokesman.
Holger Osieck, head of the Fifa technical study group that picked the winner, admitted that Ronaldo's antics had harmed his case.
"We want to have decent behaviour and I admit we were critical of this," said Osieck.
"Players should be role models and fair play is a consideration."
I am not happy that Podolski won, because he showed the exact oposite of those qualities in this WC, particularly in the game against Sweden. When Lucic was sent off, Podolski was the main instigator, waving an imaginary card and patting the ref on the back after he sent Lucic off. The replay showed afterwards that it was a harsh decision by the ref. Below is an extract from the game report.

"And things got worse for Sweden on 35 minutes as Lucic received a second yellow card after being judged to have tugged Klose's shirt.
Referee Carlos Simon was surrounded by Germany players brandishing imaginary cards - and the Brazilian eventually did what they wanted as he waved the red, receiving a pat on the back from Podolski"

Podolski should have received the same criticism as Ronaldo, if not more for his actions were worse , brandishing imaginary cards. It is terrible sportsmanship, after that act I had lost all respect for the German team. I feel the award should have gone to another who behaved with dignity. Your opinions??

In a word, much more worthy than Ronaldo.

I don't approve of card waving but in the grand scheme of things I find it much less offensive than diving.

Podolski was a poor choice...and the wrong one...not only was he card waving and diving but sexual stroking the refs with a big smirk on his face to influence decisions....Ronaldo was worse.

Kehl Lahm etc and any of the U-22 german defenders...were better choices...lennon of course may have figured if he hadn't had to look at becks plodding down the flank for most of the WC.

Ronaldo won the online poll run by FIFA and reading between the lines it appears that most of the voting committee wanted him to win as well but FIFA decided that cheating and play acting shouldn't be rewarded.

What a pity they didn't think that after the Spain v France game when the could have banned Thierry Henry. And did they really instruct the referee in the Portugal v France game not to book one of the ten players already on a yellow card?

Add on to that the fact that Podolski scored three goals - which puts him as joint second top scorer, while Ronaldo managed 1 goal (from a penalty) and 0 assists from 29-odd shots on goal. Podolski has gone down pretty easily throughout the tournament, but Ronaldo's consistant diving antics have been appalling. I don't blame him for the red card against Rooney - the press is blowing that way out of proportion, but i do think that it would be unfair to give the award to a player who consistantly tries to fool the referee, game after game after game.

Personally, i believe that Asamoah Gyan of Ghana was deserving of the award. He showed great maturity beyond his years in the game against the Czechs, and he was unlucky to not score more than the one goal. He's got great technique, great movement off the ball and one hell of a shot.

Cant see anywhere that suggest that Ronaldo won the online poll, unless someone in the Portuguese press understood the words of Luther Mathaus when he suggested that, in a very roundabout way, that players cheating was taken into account when the committee voted on the award, maybe in those very words was where Ronaldo lost that award.

Well if they were to only make these awards to a player who has behaved 'properley' then they'd struggle to find a candidate. Everybody's at it, though the media have decided that Ronaldo will be the one who takes the flak for it. Podolski, as well as his repugnant behaviour against Sweden, has been diving a lot too, in fact he committed more dives than Ronaldo in yesterdays game.

Reply Pintofstella Overdrive - Spot on

yes podolski does dive and has done so during the tournamnet but so have all the other major contenders
messi,ronaldo, valencia e.t.c

my vote would go to lahm of germany

sendoros then

and did anyone see podolski hi-five the ref last night