To be honest, some of you football 'purists' start to annoy me after a while. Yeah Deco, Carvalho and Zagorakis have all played well this year, but can you really say they have played better than Henry, Ronny and Sheva? Deco is a bit of a pansy diver, he's good but I dont think he's better than Ronaldinho. I just dont buy this idea that its all media hype, smoke and mirrors. These players who are dubbed merely the most marketable by some of you are the most marketable for a reason; BECAUSE THEY'RE F*CKIN AMAZING, thats why.
This marketability argument doesnt stand up on closer inspection. Henry, fair enough he's lucky enough to be a good looking guy as well as a mint footballer, which is why he's in loads of ads etc. But look at Ronaldinho! Mate, he's got to be the most butters footballer for years! The reason he gets so much media attention is because he is a sick sick sick footballer, it aint cuz of his looks. You could say similar things for Sheva, he's from a very unfasionable former soviet bloc country who have never produced someone approaching his standard. Yet he gets a lot of attention, becasue he is a well proven, devastating striker.
The bottom line is that all 3 on the short-list deserve to be there, media friendly or not. Yes it is player of the YEAR ie best of 2004, but FIFA are clearly concious of giving such a grand award to a one season wonder, so yeah perhaps you have to establish yourself a bit first, ie play more than one good season. Deco will get his chance...