The Bangladesh national football team captain, Aminul Haque, said he had voted for Iker Casillas and the coach, Robert Rubcic, for Andres Iniesta for the FIFA Golden Ball Award, announced in Zurich on Monday.
Argentine forward Lionel Messi won the award receiving 22.65 per cent of the votes cast by national team coaches and captains plus selected journalists around the glove.
Messi beat out his Barcelona team-mates Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta for the renamed FIFA Golden Ball Award, which merged the FIFA player of the year with France Football’s Golden Ball (Ballon d’Or).
Aminul’s choice was Casillas, the Spanish goalkeeper who led to their first win in World Cup in South Africa in 2010. His second and third choices for the award were German midfielder Mesut Ozil and Messi.
Aminul voted for Joachim Low, Vicente Del Bosque and Jose Mourinho as his first, second and third choices for the best coach award, which eventually went to Mourinho, who led Italian giants Inter Milan to the European Champions League, Serie A and Italian Cup titles before joining Real Madrid.
‘I liked Germany’s attacking brand of football in the World Cup. So, Low was my first choice as coach. As a goalkeeper, I had close eye on all goalkeepers and I found no one better than Casillas,’ Aminul told New Age.
Coach Rubcic said he had voted for Iniesta as he played the most important role for Spain to win the World Cup.
‘Also he is always a positive player which impressed me,’ said Rubcic, who preferred Messi and Uruguayan forward and golden ball winner in the World Cup Diego Forlan as his second and third choices.
Rubcic voted Spain’s World Cup winning coach Del Bosque as the best coach and opted for German coach Low and Uruguayan coach Oscar Tabarez as his second and third choices for the award.
‘I voted for Del Bosque because I think he did a great job in the World Cup. It’s not easy to guide so many star players in a World Cup, but he did that with a success,’ said Rubcic.
Both Aminul and Rubcic said they cast their votes during the Asian Games held in Guangzhou, in China in November 2010.
Each player received 5 points for first choice, 3 points for 2nd choice and 1 point for third choice.
