Lionel Messi named World Soccer's Player of the Year

The winners of the 2019 World Soccer Awards have been announced in World Soccer's January edition. Messi was named World Soccer's Player of the Year, Jurgen Klopp - Manager of the Year, and Liverpool - Team of the Year. Messi edged out Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk by a slim margin, with just 11 more votes than the Liverpool defender (613 to 602). Messi has now won the World Soccer's Player of the Year award five times - 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, and now, 2019, matching Cristiano Ronaldo. The latter was ranked fourth best this year. Luka Modric who won the gong last year finished forty-fourth this year. Since 2009, the winner of the award has either been a Barcelona or Real Madrid player.

The World Soccer Awards being non-gender specific in nature saw the the USA's Megan Rapinoe - the leading female vote-getter - ranked 21st best player.

Jurgen Klopp won the Manager of the Year award, beating rival Pep Guardiola by a large margin - 67 votes to 2 votes. Guardiola's achievements with Manchester City last season cannot be overlooked however as he steered Manchester City to become the first English team to complete the domestic treble of League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

Liverpool won the Team of the Year award, beating rivals Manchester City by a large margin - 60 votes to 3.

Comments

Princess Qajar - The Revolutionary Persian Princess

Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltaneh commonly referred to as Princess Qajar was a princess and memoirist of the Qajar Dynasty. Princess Tadj was one of the best known daughters of the Persian king, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar who ruled Persia from 1848 to May 1896. The Persian princess was born on February 4, 1883 and died on January 25, 1936, in Tehran, at the age of 52. Princess Qajar revolutionized beauty standards with her full look and ragged unibrow, and her unmistakably evident mustache. She was a true epitome of beauty at her time. Princess Qajar was declared a symbol of beauty in Persia and was coveted by many men. Thousands of men wanted to marry her, 13 of whom committed suicide upon being rejected by the princess. Princess Qajar eventually married Amir Hussein Khan Shoja'-al Saltaneh and had they had four children - two boys and two girls. They later got divorced in 1907 after enduring an unloving arranged marriage - she married Khan when she was 13. The princess argued f...

The Lehman Brothers Scandal (2008)

Company Background : Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a firm specialized in the provision of global financial services. It was founded in Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States of America. The company had headquarters in New York City, New York, in the U.S. It ceased operations in 2008. The founders were: Henry Lehman, Emmanuel Lehman and Mayer Lehman. What Happened? Lehman Brothers hid over $50 billion in loans disguised as sales. They allegedly sold toxic assets [1] to Cayman Island Banks with the understanding that they would eventually be rebought. How they were caught : Their bankruptcy led to the discovery of the fraud. They filed for bankruptcy in 2008, which is the largest bankruptcy ever recorded. Their case was larger than that of Enron, Washington Mutual, WorldCom and GM combined. On September 15, 2008, Lehman brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (Montgomery, n.d.) . Their bankruptcy filing came in as a blow to the financial indu...

The finger-cutting tradition of Indonesia's Dani tribe

The death of a loved one is always an extremely painful thing to bear, and people of different cultures grieve in diverse ways, some more unique than others. A typically unique way of grieving is that of the Dani (an Indonesian tribe). Finger-cutting is a fundamental part of grieving for women of the Dani tribe, and pertains to their women only. According to The Globe and Mail, an estimated 250,000 Dani tribe members live in a town named Wamena, in the extremely remote central highland area of Papua Province. Wamena is only accessible by plane. Upon the death of a loved one, the top joint of one of a woman's fingers would be amputated, and smear ashes and clay across their faces. Prior to amputation, a string would be firmly tied to the upper half of the woman's finger for 30 minutes, to cause numbness. This was to reduce the pain from amputating the tip. In most cases, the responsibility of cutting off the top joint of the finger is assigned to one of the woman's...

Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Search This Blog