Today we’ll look at the Editors’ Picks for 2010, which is essentially who the SLA panel would have voted for, as well as review the changes made to the 2010 Soccerlens Awards and plans for next year.

The 2010 Soccerlens Awards Revamp

How do you improve the #1 football awards? This year’s Awards are the answer to that question – we streamlined the award categories to make them more relevant to the current state of the industry, we also moved the Awards to their own home and brought in sponsors to help us have the funding to reach out to a mass audience.

The move was a resounding success – with nearly 38,000 votes cast, the 2010 edition is the most popular SLAs yet, thanks largely to the efforts of the nominees in promoting the awards through Twitter, Facebook and their own websites.

Most importantly however, the cornerstone of the 2010 SLAs has been in giving publishers a voice and a chance to tell their story through the Nominees interviews. Keeping with the Soccerlens tradition of giving football fans a voice and a chance to tell their story, we feel that the Soccerlens Awards should not only stand for the best in football but also give football bloggers an outlet to share their success stories.

Without the excellent writers and websites shortlisted in this year’s Awards (and indeed, the hundreds of nominees who didn’t make the final cut), the football fan’s online experience would be that much poorer. We’re privileged to be able to cover, talk to and read such great sites and writers.

The 2010 Soccerlens Awards: Editors’ Picks

The Soccerlens Awards are decided by a popular vote. As is customary, the SLA panel also gives their picks for each year, looking at the best in football and giving everyone – newcomers and established professionals – an equal chance. This year we’ve picked our favourites for each category for 2010 – the sites and writers we would have voted for:

Best Football Website: Guardian Football

The Best Football Website award considers those websites who would be the #1 source of football news for football fans. In other words, if there was only one football website you were allowed access to, who would you pick?

Our shortlisted candidates were all websites that aimed to take that #1 spot in the lives of football fans.

When it comes to comprehensive football news coverage, entertaining fans with quality football writing, being the first to break news, being a reliable source of insider gossip and being the first port of call for many a football fan, the Guardian Football website edges out the rest of the competition. They’re bloody good, and while they have their flaws, they are still the industry standard in football news.

Editors’ Pick: Guardian Football
Read the Guardian interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Website page.

Best New Football Website: Zonal Marking

The Best New Football Website award recognises that outstanding performer who, despite only launching in the past year, has made an instant impact on the online football community.

And when it comes to making a splash, Zonal Marking has been the outstanding candidate for 2010 (quite similar to how good Football Ramble were last year). Whether tactical analysis of football matches is your idea of fun or not, it’s hard to argue against ZM’s popularity and more importantly, their ability to provide a fresh perspective on watching football and making football tactics easy to digest for the common football fan.

Editors’ Pick: Zonal Marking
Read the Zonal Marking interview.
See voting results on the Best New Football Website page.

Most Entertaining Football Website: Kickette

The drama of football can be too much even for the most hardened of us, but those in this category do their part to keep us entertained through the highs and lows of a long season.

The outstanding candidates in this category including the Studs Up comic, the excellent Dirty Tackle blog and the brilliant Run of Play. In the end it came down to sheer entertainment value and dedication to entertaining the readers, and Kickette not only ticks all the boxes, their community is a source of constant entertainment as well. And yes, guys read Kickette too, and not just for the photos. Well written and consistently humourous, Kickette is our pick for the most entertaining football site of 2010.

Editors’ Pick: Kickette
See voting results on the Most Entertaining Football Website page.

Best Football Gear Website: Footy Boots

This year the Best Football Gear Website award recognises all quality websites dedicated to gear, whether they sell products or write comprehensive reviews.

We all have our favourites when it comes to buying football gear online and there are many sites that give us leaks and reviews of the latest football shirts, but when it comes to football boots, there’s only one site head and shoulders ahead of everyone else. For their comprehensive product reviews and their all-round excellence, Footy Boots is the editors’ pick for the best football gear site of 2010.

Editors’ Pick: Footy Boots
Read the Footy Boots interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Gear Website page.

Best Football Videos Website: 101 Great Goals

The Best Football Videos Website category celebrates the ultimate time waster – your #1 source for football videos.

Footy Tube, TV Golo, Soccer Clips and Footy Room all have their respective merits, but 101 Great Goals is still raising the high standards they set in 2006/2007. Their comprehensive coverage of football videos will take some beating, and if they keep it up we might just retire this award and give it to 101GG permanently!

Editors’ Pick: 101 Great Goals
Read the 101 Great Goals interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Videos Website page.

Best Club Fansite: The Tomkins Times

The Best Club Fansite award celebrates those websites dedicated to a single club. It the ultimate populist vote, and this year saw Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham fans (amongst others) thrash it out for the title.

Despite the presence of heavyweights such as KUMB, Republik of Mancunia and Arseblog, we’ve gone for The Tomkins Times for the insightful news coverage and analysis of all things Liverpool. No one puts it better than the Independent when they called it “perhaps the most intelligent guide to Liverpool available on the internet”.

Paul has done a fantastic job, and while he may not win the populist vote, he gets ours for the best club fansite of 2010.

Editors’ Pick: The Tomkins Times
Read The Tomkins Times interview.
See voting results on the Best Club Fansite page.

Best Football Podcast: Guardian Football Weekly

With so many quality football podcasts going around, how do you pick the best one? More than any other SLA category, the competition for this award gets better and better every year as production values and on-air talent keep improving.

This is one of those cases where it’s easy to overlook the best candidate because they’ve been consistently good for so long. The Guardian Football Weekly podcast is top of the pile for a reason – they keep improving and pushing themselves to stay ahead of the competition every year, and where many shows suffer a decline, Football Weekly goes from strength to strength.

We love the Two Footed Tackle podcast, but if there’s one podcast you won’t want to miss, that’s the Guardian Football Weekly.

Editors’ Pick: Guardian Football Weekly
Read the Guardian interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Podcast page.

Best Football Blogger: Brooks Peck

Whether they run the whole show on their own or are an invaluable part of a team, the Best Football Blogger award celebrates the blogger who stands out among all others.

We’ve said this all along – every single candidate in this category deserves an award. Michael Cox for his excellent work at Zonal Marking (for which he’s won this year’s Best Football Blogger award), Adam Bader for getting the dream job for every football blogger, Brooks Peck for turning Dirty Tackle into a Yahoo-based powerhouse, Brian Phillips for his ridiculously top-notch writing on Run of Play (and elsewhere), and of course the Swiss Ramble blog.

Ultimately we picked the blogger who has leveraged his considerable talents to gain access to the widest possible footballing audience. Brooks Peck stands out for being able to bring you news that you won’t see anywhere else or would read on DT first. If we could vote for all five candidates, we would, but like everyone else we can only pick one, Brooks edges ahead of his competition thanks to his ability to entertain and inform a massive football audience.

Editors’ Pick: Brooks Peck (Dirty Tackle)
Read the Dirty Tackle interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Blogger page.

Best Football Journalist: Scott Murray

The Best Football Journalist award recognises those journalists who have been consistently outstanding and entertaining during 2010, those who broke news most frequently and those who were able to bridge the gap between traditional journalism and new media successfully.

From Marcotti to Wilson to Honigstein to Galarcep, this was a tough category to shortlist and tougher still to vote on. For us the key factor was their performances in 2010, and for that we whittled our initial shortlist down to two – Daniel Taylor for his peerless reporting and Scott Murray for his brilliant writing.

Our final vote in this category goes to Scott Murray, partially because he’s so under-rated in a star-studded lineup that is the Guardian’s stable of journalists, but mostly because he is just so damn good.

Editors’ Pick: Scott Murray
Read Scott Murray’s interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Journalist page.

Best Niche Website: Swiss Ramble

The Best Niche Website award is for those websites who endeavour to stay away from what the masses are doing and give the football world something unique.

The Swiss Ramble gets our vote for shedding light on a topic that is at once both essential and alien to the modern football fan – football finance – and for doing all the hard work so that bloggers can just quote stats and conclusions and pass them off as their own.

Few changes in football have impacted fans (and their support) as takeovers, football ownership and debt, and Swiss Ramble has made it easy for fans (and bloggers) to make sense of the mess their clubs find themselves in.

Editors’ Pick: Swiss Ramble
Read the Swiss Ramble interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Niche Website page.

That’s a wrap for the 2010 Soccerlens Awards, it’s been a pleasure working on this project for the last 4 years and I’d like to thank everyone once again for making this year’s Awards such a fantastic success.

Congratulations once again to all the winners and best of luck to everyone else for next year.

The 2011 Soccerlens Awards

Building on the success of this year’s Awards, the 2011 edition promises to be bigger and better than ever. Work has already begun on mapping out our plans for 2011, we have quite a few surprises in store for you, starting with an important announcement in January 2011.

To keep track of all the latest news and updates, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 2010 Editors’ Picks & SLA Review first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.

Before we get to the winners, I’d like to thank the people who helped make this year’s Awards a success. Thank you fans, thank you voters and thank you nominees for making this year’s Soccerlens Awards the best ever. Last but not least, a special thanks to our sponsors Castrol Football and Studs Up Football Club, without whom this year’s SLAs wouldn’t have been possible.

Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2010 Soccerlens Awards:

Best Football Website: Goal.com

The Best Football Website award considers those websites who would be the #1 source of football news for football fans.

In other words, if there was only one football website you were allowed access to, who would you pick?

Our shortlisted candidates were all websites that aimed to take that #1 spot in the lives of football fans. As the fan voting showed, Goal.com is a deserving winner thanks to their comprehensive worldwide coverage and global fanbase.

Winner: Goal.com
Runner Up: Football365
Read the Goal.com interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Website page.

Best New Football Website: Three and In

The Best New Football Website award recognises that outstanding performer who, despite only launching in the past year, has made an instant impact on the online football community.

The limitation that the site must have started in 2010 meant that this was always going to have few sites, but as the voting showed, we have two outstanding candidates in Zonal Marking and Three and In. While both of them would have been deserving winners thanks to their different but equally effective blogging styles, in the end it was Three and In who shaded it with a 4% voting margin.

Winner: Three and In
Runner Up: Zonal Marking
Read the Three and In interview.
Read the Zonal Marking Interview.
See voting results on the Best New Football Website page.

Most Entertaining Football Website: Football365

The drama of football can be too much even for the most hardened of us, but those in this category do their part to keep us entertained through the highs and lows of a long season. The Most Entertaining Football Website award merges the best football gossip website and funniest football website awards from previous awards.

The competition in this category was fierce – the winner comes away with only 19% of the overall votes, with their nearest rival at 17%. At the end of the day, Football365 has been an industry standard in entertaining football fans, and while the likes of Kickette, Studs Up and Pies are fantastic in their own domains, the voting shows that they still have some way to go before catching up with the original entertainer.

Winner: Football365
Runner Up: Kickette
See voting results on the Most Entertaining Football Website page.

Best Football Gear Website: Soccer.com

This year the Best Football Gear Website award recognises all quality websites dedicated to gear, whether they sell products or write comprehensive reviews.

More often than not this category is about who has the most satisfied customers / the widest fanbase, and the voting reflects it with football gear stores dominating this category over the years.

This year review sites Footy Boots and Football Shirt Culture put up a spirited challenge but eventually lost by more than a 10% voting margin to the best football gear website of 2010, Soccer.com.

Winner: Soccer.com
Runner Up: Footy Boots
Read the Footy Boots Interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Gear Website page.

Best Football Videos Website: FootyRoom

The Best Football Videos Website category celebrates the ultimate time waster – your #1 source for football videos.

Traditionally this category has been dominated by heavyweights like 101 Great Goals and Footy Tube, and this year the two combined to take nearly 45% of the total votes.

However, our eventual winner blew both of them out of the park, gaining nearly 46% of the total votes and firmly establishing themselves as the populist choice for best football videos website of 2010. Congratulations FootyRoom on a well-deserved award.

Winner: Footy Room
Runner Up: 101 Great Goals
Read the FootyRoom interview.
Read the 101 Great Goals Interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Videos Website page.

Best Club Fansite: Arseblog

The Best Club Fansite award celebrates those websites dedicated to a single club. It the ultimate populist vote, and this year saw Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham fans (amongst others) thrash it out for the title.

With half a season still to go there’s no clear winner between Arsenal or Manchester United but in the 2010 Soccerlens Awards, the Gunners are clear winners. Arseblog is, hands down, one of the most popular football websites around and the most popular club fansite around, and they picked up 46% of the overall votes, or over 4000 votes.

Winner: Arseblog
Runner Up: The Republik of Mancunia
See voting results on the Best Club Fansite page.

Best Football Podcast: Guardian Football Weekly

With so many quality football podcasts going around, how do you pick the best one? More than any other SLA category, the competition for this award gets better and better every year as production values and on-air talent keep improving.

However, we’re all still playing catch up with the industry giant and undisputed winner of the 2010 Best Football Podcast award, the Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast. And until Jimbo retires or Barry decides to pitch his tent somewhere else, we’ll struggle to find a comparable or more deserving football podcast.

Winner: Guardian Football Weekly
Runner Up: Football Ramble
Read the Guardian interview (with Sean Ingle).
Read the Football Ramble Interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Podcast page.

Best Football Blogger: Michael Cox

Whether they run the whole show on their own or are an invaluable part of a team, the Best Football Blogger award celebrates the blogger who stands out among all others.

A category that produces the most complaints and bruises the most egos, but football blogging can be a thankless task and only the very best can survive in this business and still produce quality on a regular basis.

Michael Cox of Zonal Marking is a deserving winner of this year’s Best Football Blogger award, although as we said at the start of this year’s award, every single blogger in this list deserves to win, they’ve all been excellent throughout the year and there’s very little separating them.

Winner: Michael Cox (Zonal Marking)
Runner Up: Brooks Peck (Dirty Tackle)
Read the Zonal Marking interview.
Read the Dirty Tackle Interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Blogger page.

Best Football Journalist: Sid Lowe

The Best Football Journalist award recognises those journalists who have been consistently outstanding and entertaining during 2010, those who broke news most frequently and those who were able to bridge the gap between traditional journalism and new media successfully

There were many outstanding candidates in this category (including former winners in Ives Galarcep and Jonathan Wilson) and the eventual winner, Sid Lowe, richly deserves this award for his outstanding work in covering Spanish football in 2010.

Winner: Sid Lowe
Runner Up: Jonathon Wilson
Read Sid Lowe interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Journalist page.

Best Niche Website: Fantasy Football Scout

The Best Niche Website award is for those websites who endeavour to stay away from what the masses are doing and give the football world something unique.

Football fans will be spoiled for choice going through this category – with sites like Kickette, FM Scout, European Football Weekends and Swiss Ramble, there is plenty to read, enjoy and celebrate as the best in football blogging. This year’s winner, Fantasy Football Scout, reflects not only the sheer popularity of fantasy football but also FFS’s ability to dominate a niche hitherto lead by fantasy football game sites.

Winner: Fantasy Football Scout
Runner Up: Kickette
Read the Fantasy Football Scout interview.
See voting results on the Best Football Niche Website page.

That’s a wrap for the 2010 Soccerlens Awards, it’s been a pleasure working on this project for the last 4 years and I’d like to thank everyone once again for making this year’s Awards such a fantastic success.

We’ll publish our Editors’ Picks and a detailed review of this year’s awards, as well as share plans for 2011.

Congratulations once again to all the winners and best of luck to everyone else for next year.

The post The 2010 Soccerlens Awards Winners first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.

1) You’ve been nominated for Best Football Gear Site, chosen by both fans and industry experts, how does it feel?

It feels good! Don’t think we’ve been nominated for anything in the past, so it feels good to be nominated together with all those great football sites.

2) What kind of year has 2010 been for FootballShirtCulture.com?

2010 has been a very colorful year for us. Lots of new products came out because of the World Cup, and we did a site update. Also, many new fantasy kit designers joined our community and uploaded their work for all of us to see.

3) What do you think has been the key factor in your success?

Leaks… leaks… leaks… We have to be honest about it… we’re the Wikileaks of football products.. It’s a dirty job, but someone got to do it.

In all seriousness.. The key factor is probably our community of football shirt minded people, who visit and contribute to the FSC website. Many have been around for years and a big thanks goes out to them.

4) If you were casting a vote for your any of your fellow nominees, who would it be?

We would vote for our friends over at Footy-boots.com. They’ve done a great job in 2010 and are definitely THE site to visit if you want to know all about the latest football boots and related products.

5) What’s next for FootballShirtCulture.com?

We hope 2011 will be an even better year for us, and we have planned some new projects for next year. There will also be another site update, with even better community features.

6) Have you seen the Castrol Football Rankings? What do you think about them, and who do you think is the best footballer in the world at the moment?

Well I just took a look at it. I was looking for Wesley Sneijder, but found him on place 174, instead of the top 5. For me he’s one of the best players in the world right now. Too bad he didn’t bring home the World Cup this year.

You can vote for Football Shirt Culture in the following award category:

Best Football Gear Website

Back to the main 2010 Soccerlens Awards nominee interviews page.

The post Football Shirt Culture Interview first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.

1) You’ve been nominated for Most Entertaining Football Website, chosen by both fans and industry experts, how does it feel?

It’s great, I never get used to the fact that anyone but me enjoys my kind of humour so to get recognised for it is pretty damn cool. I owe a lot to my readers for spreading the word and all their support.

2) What kind of year has 2010 been for Studs Up?

It’s been good, with a lot of fantastic opportunities opening up with some pretty cool people. It’s a dream to be able to work in football full time, so every day, let alone year, that I can keep it up is a blessing. I also branched the brand out into clothing with Studs Up Football Club, and have almost finished work on the first published book – something the fans have been asking for for a while so it’s going to be amazing to finally give it to them.

3) What do you think has been the key factor in your success?

I think my constant desire to create has served me well. It can get a bit crazy at times, I’ve got probably a hundred ideas for new football projects that I have to bury in the back of my head because I just don’t have the time to start them with everything else going on. Some day, maybe.

4) If you were casting a vote for your any of your fellow nominees, who would it be?

Since Ahmed can’t be nominated for his own awards, I’ll pop one for him in here. The guy works his ass off.

5) What’s next for Studs Up?

The release of the first book in early 2011, as well as the launch of a proper SU “merch” store. Studs Up Football Club is more of a lifestyle clothing line, but the SU readers have been crying out for more merch related to the comics and characters so that will be a priority for early 2011 as well.

6) Have you seen the Castrol Football Rankings? What do you think about them, and who do you think is the best footballer in the world at the moment?

I have, I’m a huge stat head so I was excited to see them come out. I hope they take it further and further and really make it a statto’s dream. You can’t really say the best player in the world right now is anyone other than Messi. Ronaldo scores as much, but seems to do it by taking about a million shots a match. Messi seems to move through a football match like Neo through the Matrix.

You can vote for Studs Up in the following award category:

Most Entertaining Football Website

Back to the main 2010 Soccerlens AWards nominee interviews page.

The post Studs Up Interview first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.

1) You’ve been nominated for Best Football Podcast, chosen by both fans and industry experts, how does it feel?

It’s an honour to be nominated. Hat’s off go to the team that hosts the EPL Talk Podcast: Host Richard Farley and co-hosts Laurence McKenna and Kartik Krishnaiyer. They’ve taken the show, tightened it up and created what I believe is one of the must-listen soccer shows of the week that rivals The Guardian’s Football Weekly, but goes far deeper into the topics.

2) What kind of year has 2010 been for EPL Talk?

It’s been our best year ever. In November we celebrated our five year anniversary. And during the World Cup tournament, we broke our record for the most traffic in one month, more than 500,000 unique visitors and more than 258,000 podcast downloads. Throughout the rest of the year, we broke several stories which were picked up by major media outlets around the world. To be honest, 2010 couldn’t have been better.

3) What do you think has been the key factor in your success?

I wouldn’t say it’s one key factor. It’s many. It’s been a combination of hard work by the EPL Talk Podcast team, great feedback from the listeners and providing analysis that very few, if any, soccer podcasts provide.

4) If you were casting a vote for your any of your fellow nominees, who would it be?

From the podcast category, it would have to be our closest rival, which is The Guardian’s Football Weekly. As for soccer blogs, I would recommend adding a category specifically for soccer blogs. I would then include write-in votes for the best-of-the-best that were overlooked including Du Nord Futbol, FootySphere, Soccer By Ives, A More Splendid Life and Les Rosbifs, just to name a few.

5) What’s next for EPL Talk?

We’re getting ready to launch an Android version of the EPL Talk Podcast app in early 2011. On the heels of that, we will be making a major announcement which will be the most exciting launch we’ve ever had.

6) Have you seen the Castrol Football Rankings? What do you think about them, and who do you think is the best footballer in the world at the moment?

I’ve been a big fan of the Castrol rankings since Euro 2008 which they covered head to toe. The data they provide is really intriguing. As for the best footballer in the world, most people will probably say Lionel Messi. But being Welsh and a former winger myself, I have to vote for Tottenham wunderkind Gareth Bale.

You can vote for EPL Talk in the following award category:

Best Football Podcast

Back to the main 2010 Soccerlens Awards nominee interviews page.

The post EPL Talk Interview first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.

1) You’ve been nominated for Best Football Videos Site, chosen by both fans and industry experts, how does it feel?

It’s always great to be recognised for the work we do. We’ve been at this now for over four years and we’d like to think that rather than following the crowd we’ve been leading the way.

2) What kind of year has 2010 been for 101 Great Goals?

2010 has been, as ever, a year of much hard work, late nights, and overall satisfaction. Anyone whose done this for as long as us will know that it’s not all strawberries and ice-cream, but the past 12 months has seen major developments on 101GG and at the end of the year we can look back and feel proud of what we’ve achieved. Lots more to do though!

3) What do you think has been the key factor in your success?

Our passion for football is the key to everything. We love the beautiful game, and we know our 101ers do too. But passion only gets you so far. Bloody hard work from our small team of dedicated workers is the real backbone for everything.

4) If you were casting a vote for your any of your fellow nominees, who would it be?

We are big fans of Guardian Football Weekly, Football Ramble, Zonal Marking, Sid Lowe and Rafa Honigstein.

5) What’s next for 101 Great Goals?

Plenty. We have just released a new syndication tool which we are very excited about and believe it can improve the video content on any and every football website out there. We are also in the process of developing an iPhone Application for 101 Great Goals which we hope will be greatly received.

6) Have you seen the Castrol Football Rankings? What do you think about them, and who do you think is the best footballer in the world at the moment?

Like most football fans we enjoy statistics although ranking individual players is difficult for a team game. Castrol have it right about Lionel Messi, no doubt about that, but where is Gareth Bale in the top 40?!

You can vote for 101GreatGoals in the following award category:

Best Football Videos Website

Back to the main 2010 Soccerlens Awards nominee interviews page.

The post 101GreatGoals Interview first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.

We’ve collected their answers to the last question below:

“Have you seen the Castrol Football Rankings? What do you think about them, and who do you think is the best footballer in the world at the moment?”

Andreas Voniatis of Football Superstars:

I have and this is something we could definitely use for our virtual world ranking, currently this is handled by our own leaderboard system. The best footballer in the world has to be Lionel Messi because he has raw talent, flare and passion for the game.

Will Wood, PR Director of Goal.com:

Football is all about opinions and the Castrol Football Rankings are a fantastic way of igniting discussion as to who is the best player in the world, what the outcome of games will be and a number of other topics. In my eyes the best player in the world is Lionel Messi, something the Castrol Football Rankings agrees with too.

Scott Brown of ManUtdTalk:

Easy to use, insightful and probably most accurate by the methodology described. Best player at the moment has to be Messi for me.

Michael Cox of Zonal Marking:

I have, it’s a good idea. I know the data all comes from OPTA who are terrific, their twitter feeds are superb and they also power the Guardian chalkboards that I use on the site. It’s interesting, the top two are who you’d expect, then there’s a few surprise names up there – but I suppose that’s the point. The best player in the world, in my opinion, is Lionel Messi.

Tim Vickery:

I haven’t, and to be honest, I think too much time is spent discussing individual awards in what is a collective sport.

Gabriele Marcotti:

I think trying to put footballers in a statistical framework as the Castrol Index does is very difficult, but that does not mean it’s not worth doing. Only through more research and trial-and-error can we hope to understand the game from a more objective standpoint. Castrol’s Index is working towards that and I think it’s valuable tool, as long as it continues to grow and evolve. As for the best right now, I’ll go with Messi, by a shade over Ronaldo. (Distincly unimaginative, I know…)

Raphael Honigstein:

I’m surprised Arjen Robben still features in the top ten. But there’s no argument: Lionel Messi is – easily – the best in the world right now.

Alan Spurgeon of Footy Boots:

We’re big subscribers to the Castrol Rankings, and have done several articles based on their astounding collection of data in the past! It’s unbelievable how much stuff they track from every game in Europe!

As for the best player; has anyone answered this question and not said Leo Messi? Every season people wonder if he’s going to go off the boil and have a bad few months; but it just doesn’t happen! And it’s not just showmanship or tricks, he’s neigh-on impossible to take the ball off of and his work off the ball is always making room for the rest of the Barca strike force.

Kieron O’Connor of Swiss Ramble:

As a numbers guy, I like the concept of the Castrol Football Rankings and admire the objectivity. What’s interesting to me is that the rankings don’t just highlight the obvious stars like Messi and Ronaldo (though they are indeed the top two), but they also feature lesser know talents like Lucas Barrios, the Dortmund striker, who is currently in sixth place. That said, it’s difficult to look beyond Messi as best footballer in the world, especially with El Clasico so fresh in the memory.

Paul Tomkins of The Tomkins Times:

I’m renowned for my love of stats, and I think anything that helps us better understand the game is to be welcomed.

While there are a number of outstanding players, for me, Lionel Messi is in a class of his own. Cristiano Ronaldo has an incredible goalscoring record, Xavi is a joy to watch, but Messi just has the something extra.

Adam Bader:

I love the concept a lot, but I don’t think it will put a stop to who is the best player debate. It will, however, show based on facts who is actually the best performing player. I’d love If FIFA considered Castrol’s system in their FIFA Player of the Year Award.

The best footballer in the world right now? It’s hard to answer and it’s “IMPOSSIBLE”, in my humble opinion, to compare between football players especially if they were ones like Ronaldo & Messi.

My answer is this; it is all down to preference. For me it’s Cristiano Ronaldo not because he plays for Real Madrid, but I like his style, I like the fact he is physically very strong, can score from free-kicks, headers..etc a “complete” player, but that doesn’t mean he is better than Messi. As I said it is all down to preference, I prefer Ronaldo over Messi the same way I prefer Maradona over Pele.

Comparing footballers will always be inaccurate especially if they were of the calibre of Messi, Ronaldo Pele and Maradona.

Jonathan Teague of Football Ramble:

The best footballer in the world at the moment is either Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez or Liam Lawrence. Take your pick.

Ibracadabra of Never Captain Nicky Butt:

I’ve certainly seen the rankings. I think, like any other ranking system, algorithm, or football debate there will always be two football fans with three opinions. At the moment, I agree that Messi and Ronaldo are the two best players in the world. It disappoints me a bit that I follow the Premier League so closely whilst two La Liga studs sit at the top of the world rankings. They are the best, little argument is needed there.

After those two, I think it’s wide open. I think the rankings are a bit off at the moment. Take Wolves’ goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann for example. No offense to the American goalkeeper, who is a fine shot blocker and wears the small patch of facial hair just below his lower lip and above his chin very well, but he’s not amongst the Top 30 players in the world. (Currently listed at 28 ahead of the likes of Fabregas, Berbatov, Ozil). Raise your hand if you think Hahnemann is better than even one of those three players. I doubt anyone just raised their hand.

Danny Last of European Football Weekends:

I have. Messi and Ronaldo, who knew? The rankings are good, the players are all great, obviously, but if I’m being honest, I prefer fans to players. The last player I really worshiped was Bobby Zamora at Brighton. I know it’s bad, but when I’m bouncing along the terraces at Spartak Trnava, I can’t help but enjoy the actions of the fans more than what’s actually occurring on the pitch. I don’t, in truth, watch that much Premier or Champions League football either. Give me the Conference South or the Slovak First Divsion any day of the week.

In Bed With Maradona:

Yes I have, and it is very impressive! Invaluable when I was looking at players earlier this year. Best player? Well Cristiano Ronaldo has stepped up again and I’m a huge admirer of Iniesta, Villa and Sneijder, but can’t look past Messi. It will only be when he retires that we will realise how special he is.

The Equaliser:

They seem to give an objective view of performance, which can only be a good thing. It’s hard to look beyond Lionel Messi as the world’s best player, but I think Xavi deserves to be put in the same bracket for his incredibly high standard of midfield play over the last eight to ten years. Both players are absolutely phenomenal.

Demetrie of SoccerClips:

I’ve seen it everywhere. I’m sure the rest of the team has as well. You can barely watch Press Pass or visit Soccernet without noticing the conspicuous red, white and green banners. It’s a tall order to do what they are doing, but I think their approach is definitely the most sound and objective method I’ve seen to date. Castrol ranks Messi above Ronaldo so clearly the system is working fine. Messi is the best by a country mile.

Iain Macintosh:

They make for fascinating reading and I certainly can’t disagree with the number one. There just isn’t another footballer out there like Lionel Messi. He’s an absolute genius.

Harry Hotspur:

That appears to have been hacked. Wayne Rooney? And no Gareth Bale? I’d update your AVG mate.

Denis Pshenov of FootyRoom:

Yes I’ve seen it on multiple websites before. They have Messi and Ronaldo in top 3. That sounds just about right to me. They couldn’t be too wrong, I’ve read they use latest technology to make the rankings. As for myself I think that Messi deserves to be recognized as the best footballer at the moment.

Three And In:

I think it’s a toss up between Lionel Messi, Samir Nasri and Christian Poulsen. Too close to call though.

Brian Phillips of Run of Play:

It’s funny to find myself in agreement with a company that makes industrial and automotive lubricants, but I can’t help but notice that Castrol and I share a strong admiration for Leo Messi. I am more likely to buy Castrol and Castrol-related products as a result of this realization.

Grant Wahl:

I haven’t spent much time with the rankings, but they look interesting. I’ll probably get criticized for sounding American here, but I think increased use of the right statistics will help soccer, not hurt it. Best in the world right now? Lionel Messi, an absolute joy to watch.

Mark of Fantasy Football Scout:

I’m certainly aware of them but to be honest they operate at a different level, my head lives in a more humble space where Kevin Davies’ key passes are more relevant than whether Messi is a better player than Ronaldo.

Player indexes have their value and they make a great platform for debate and discussion but I’ve pretty certain that if I started soaking up the stuff that the Castrol rankings supply, I’d literally burn out. These days I have to be pretty single minded; If the information isn’t likely to earn me or my visitors Fantasy points, then it gets ignored. I’m a little worried that one day I’ll start applying the same rule to conversations.

Oliver Irish of Who Ate All The Pies:

I just took a look. The absence of Xavi or Iniesta in the top 20 is plainly wrong and makes me question the criteria.

Sid Lowe:

I use a lot of statistics. Not so much as the basis of arguments as a way of supporting them. I love the way that can reinforce what you think or totally destroy what you imagined to be true. They have to be handled well, of course, but I like them a lot. And I agree with Castrol’s Ranking right now. There can be absolutely no doubt at all in my mind that Leo Messi is the best player in the world. Maybe even one of the best ever.

Andy Brassell:

I’m aware of it, but not really clear how it’s worked out. Personally I feel that individual awards are all well and good, but it’s a team game and that should be remembered rather than constantly singling out individuals. That said, I’ve just come back from Barcelona where I had the good fortune to see Lionel Messi doing his stuff against Real Sociedad, so it’s hard to look at anyone else for current best footballer. He is quite breathtaking.

Sean Ingle of Guardian:

You mean the same Castrol Football Rankings that are sponsoring these awards? Can I plead the Fifth? Actually, they’re not that bad but I have my doubts about how effectively you can boil down the dozens of actions a player might make over the course of year to a single number. But I agree at least with their No1: because Leo Messi is clearly the best player in the world right now.

James Maw of FourFourTwo:

Afraid not. As for the best player in the world, it’s hard to argue for anybody other than Lionel Messi right now, however hard Cristiano Ronaldo protests and Richard Keys prattles on about Gareth Bale…

Ives Galarcep:

Coming up with a thorough system to rank players is probably close to impossible but the Castrol Rankings do a good job of providing a measure of just what players bring to each game. For me, Lionel Messi is the best in the world, but Xavi is much closer than many give him credit for being.

101GreatGoals:

Like most football fans we enjoy statistics although ranking individual players is difficult for a team game. Castrol have it right about Lionel Messi, no doubt about that, but where is Gareth Bale in the top 40?

Christopher Harris of EPL Talk:

I’ve been a big fan of the Castrol rankings since Euro 2008 which they covered head to toe. The data they provide is really intriguing. As for the best footballer in the world, most people will probably say Lionel Messi. But being Welsh and a former winger myself, I have to vote for Tottenham wunderkind Gareth Bale.

Chris Toy of Studs Up:

I have, I’m a huge stat head so I was excited to see them come out. I hope they take it further and further and really make it a statto’s dream. You can’t really say the best player in the world right now is anyone other than Messi. Ronaldo scores as much, but seems to do it by taking about a million shots a match. Messi seems to move through a football match like Neo through the Matrix.

Football Shirt Culture:

Well I just took a look at it. I was looking for Wesley Sneijder, but found him on place 174, instead of the top 5. For me he’s one of the best players in the world right now. Too bad he didn’t bring home the World Cup this year.

Aaron Lavery of Umbro.com:

We have seen them, and they’re obviously a good thing for fans, coaches, managers and everyone involved in football. However, they can’t measure whether a player is going to get homesick, get caught cheating on his missus or demand a better contract, so they’re not perfect! It’s tough to pick the best footballer in the world, because it’s so subjective, my heart says that it’s Jon ‘The Beast’ Parkin at Preston North End, but my head says that it’s one of the Barca trio – Messi, Xavi or Iniesta.

Also see: 2010 Soccerlens Awards Interviews.

The post Castrol Football Rankings – What They Said first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.

1) You’ve been nominated for Best Football Niche Site, chosen by both fans and industry experts, how does it feel?

We are honoured, we have spent the last three years developing Football Superstars and to be considered for this nomination is indeed an honour.

2) What kind of year has 2010 been for Football Superstars?

It’s been one hell of a ride; reaching more than 1.5m registered users. In addition we have set up our own in house team for the ongoing management and development of Football Superstars IP. In short it’s been and continues to be a fantastic year, if 2011 is anything like this then we are in for another great ride.

3) What do you think has been the key factor in your success?

High quality game offered within the F2P environment, freemium content bringing football to the masses.

4) If you were casting a vote for your any of your fellow nominees, who would it be?

I think it would have to be Footy Tube as we are very much into video as a means of communication. Words are great but nothing beats video for getting so many things across in an engaging and efficient way and Footy Tube does this best.

5) What’s next for Football Superstars?

We are making many more changes to FS adding features that we could have only dreamed about 6 months ago. We will be adding further real world brands.

6) Have you seen the Castrol Football Rankings? What do you think about them, and who do you think is the best footballer in the world at the moment?

I have and this is something we could definitely use for our virtual world ranking, currently this is handled by our own leaderboard system. The best footballer in the world has to be Lionel Messi because he has raw talent, flare and passion for the game.

You can vote for Football Superstars in the following category:

Best Niche Website

Back to the main 2010 Soccerlens Awards nominee interview page.

The post Football Superstars Interview first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.

1) You’ve been nominated for Best Football Site, chosen by both fans and industry experts, how does it feel?

We are very pleased to have been nominated, that goes without saying. That it’s a combination of both fans and industry types doubles that sense of satisfaction.

2) What kind of year has 2010 been for Soccernet?

This has been the busiest year yet for Soccernet, with the World Cup heading the queue for attention. It was a gruelling yet hugely rewarding month for all the team, and that’s not to mention the months of build-up to the tournament itself. We were rewarded with record figures, but we have not rested on our laurels just there. We’ve been redesigning the site ever since, with no rest offered for the wicked… our new site launched last month and we’re hoping that our users and peers are enjoying it.

Another change has been the growth of our ability to break news stories and we especially led the way with the Liverpool takeover, the collapse of Portsmouth, Capello’s new contract (!) and the Wayne Rooney saga, though like almost everyone, we were caught out by Rooney’s sudden volte-face. It has been heartening to see many of our stories picked up by the mainstream media. I think that serves as some form of recognition.

3) What do you think has been the key factor in your success?

The key factor has been, without doubt, the hard work of our editorial and production teams. And perhaps a revision of strategy in augmenting our news stories, our feature/comment writing and our match coverage, with the last of those including a greater ability to attend events and also better coverage them from our offices using our new Gamecast service.

4) If you were casting a vote for your any of your fellow nominees, who would it be?

I’d have to say Guardian Football. Their “Knowledge” and “Joy Of Six” features are appointment reading. And, go on, I’ll admit we all read F365’s Mediawatch but they still won’t be getting my vote… they’ve been rude about us in the past, though not lately.

5) What’s next for Soccernet?

Apart from getting to grips with the new site, I’d say it will be business as usual in terms of seeing out the 2010-11 season. No major, major tournament in 2011, though we will be turning our attentions to the Asian Cup, Women’s World Cup, Copa America and CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Oh, and the January transfer window is almost upon us, so that will be getting the full treatment as ever. That’s the thing with football, it just never stops. So, in summary, the evolution will continue; we’re always looking at new approaches to covering the game.

You can vote for ESPN Soccernet in the following award category:

Best Football Website

Back to the main 2010 Soccerlens Awards nominee interviews page.

The post ESPN Soccernet Interview first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.

1) You’ve been nominated for Best Football Site, chosen by both fans and industry experts, how does it feel?

Warm and fuzzy, like your favourite duvet. In all seriousness, we’re very flattered and proud, particularly considering some of the other sites up for the award are far bigger operations than our own. We’d like to take a moment to say thanks to those who nominated us. So, thanks.

2) What kind of year has 2010 been for FourFourTwo.com?

In a word, busy. We have a staff of just three hardy souls, which seems to surprise some people – that said we’ve been lucky to have the help of some very keen, very willing and certainly very able young writers, who have gone above and beyond the call of duty, really. Then of course there’s our global network of bloggers, who have consistently produced brilliant articles all year.
Obviously the World Cup was an exceptionally hectic period for us, with an email newsletter going out each morning and live blogs for every match, but watching football isn’t exactly a hardship, is it?

3) What do you think has been the key factor in your success?

We’re very lucky to have the name FourFourTwo behind us – it’s a name people know and trust having been established over 16 years. The fact we don’t tend to chase traffic with really spurious transfer rumours probably goes a long way to develop that trust. Then, as we previously mentioned, we’ve been fortunate to have a group of mainly student journalists chipping in – writing news stories, helping with our Champions League live blogs and generally just being very lovely and useful.

4) If you were casting a vote for your any of your fellow nominees, who would it be?

Without wanting to speak for my colleagues, I’d probably say the Guardian. They’ve got some great writers – Jonathan Wilson, Barney Ronay, David Conn and now Michael Cox to name just four – and as a site they generally strike the right balance between in-depth analysis and humour.

5) What’s next for FourFourTwo.com?

More analysis, more live events and even more fun. And a revolutionary switch to cricket. Not really.

6) Have you seen the Castrol Football Rankings? What do you think about them, and who do you think is the best footballer in the world at the moment?

Afraid not. As for the best player in the world, it’s hard to argue for anybody other than Lionel Messi right now, however hard Cristiano Ronaldo protests and Richard Keys prattles on about Gareth Bale…

You can vote for FourFourTwo in the following award category:

Best Football Website

Back to the main 2010 Soccerlens Awards nominee interview page.

The post FourFourTwo Interview first appeared on Soccerlens Awards.