Real Madrid superstar Luis Figo has claimed that England skipper David Beckham is not good enough to walk away with next month's Balon d'Or (Golden Ball) award, Figo said that Beckham has not even been the best player at Manchester United this year, preferring the wing wizardry of Ryan Giggs.
But Figo believes that his Bernabeu team-mate Raul deserves to follow in his own footsteps and take the prestigious honour for his goalscoring ability in the major domestic and European competitions this calendar year.
Player performances analysts Opta Index have monitored the form of the aforementioned individuals and the majority of the individuals short listed in the final 50 and have decided to reveal just how much they have contributed to their teams in 2001.
Beckham's exploits on the international scene have been well documented as he almost single-handedly took England through to the World Cup Finals with that inspirational display against Greece last month as he matured a great deal after Sven Goran Eriksson gave him the captains armband.
These performances for England should give him the edge over Giggs, who despite some fine exploits down the left-hand side has not been as outstanding as Beckham. Both men may have notched eight goals for the English champions this year but the England man's overall game has been sharper.
Beckham's passing accuracy of 78% for United in the Premier and Champions Leagues this year is ten percentage points higher than Giggs' ratio in these two major club competitions, and Beckham also has more assists to his credit.
While one of the most thrilling sights in British football is Giggs in full flight gliding effortlessly past opponents, Opta can disclose that the more conservative dribbles from Beckham are more productive with 85% of his forays being completed compared to just 58% from Giggs.
Nevertheless the Welshman has made 252 dribbles, considerably more than his United team-mate. Ninety of these came in the Champions League and he would have obviously added more before the team's exit to last season eventual winners Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.
Giggs' admirer Luis Figo has made 147 dribbles in Europe's premier club competition and his statistics make a good case for him retaining his individual crown. Six goals and five assists so far this year has played a big part in Figo's name being included in the shortlist.
And he played a major part in Portugal qualifying for the World Cup at the expense of Holland, with some highly influential displays. Alongside Figo there are four other Real Madrid stars in the shortlist, and as already mentioned, golden boy Raul is many people's tips to scoop the award.
Raul was the leading scorer in the Champions League last season and he has already added a further two in this year's competition as Real easily progressed into the second phase. But the 24-year-old striker is not just about putting the ball into the back of the net as he has great awareness of other players around him, claiming four goal assists in the Champions League in 2001.
Like Figo, Roma coach Fabio Capello also thinks the Balon d'Or award should go to Raul. The former Madrid boss said: " I think Raul deserves the award for what he has done in the last few seasons, showing his great talent on many occasions".
But there have been some great displays this year from the young talents such as the commanding Steven Gerrard and explosive Michael Owen for Liverpool, to the sublime displays of the more mature Roberto Baggio. Whoever gets selected for the award is bound to be a worthy winner.
