Andre Villas-Boas Finalist For FIFA Coach Of The Year

Chelsea FC manager Andre Villas-Boas has been named by FIFA as a nominee for the Ballon d'Or coach of the year, joining an elite group of managers (and Arsene Wenger*) as finalists for the award. Obviously, this is for his work with FC Porto, where he led the Primeira Liga side to an undefeated league season and the 2011 Europa League crown rather than his so far up and down spell with Chelsea, but still, he's our man now and so I hope he gets the win.

*Can I say that without it sounding bitter and sad? It's not meant to be bitter and sad!)

That said, there are plenty of other well-qualified candidates to choose from. Here's the full list:

Vicente del Bosque (Spain), Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), Rudi Garcia (Lille), Pep Guardiola (Barcelona), Jurgen Klopp (Borussia Dortmund), Joachim Löw (Germany), Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid), Oscar Tabarez (Uruguay), Andre Villas-Boas (Porto, Chelsea), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal).

Worthy choices, mostly. It's very difficult to know how much success should be placed at a team's feet rather than the managers, and there are other factors to take into account as well. How hard was it for Vicente del Bosque to win the World Cup with what was basically Pep Guardiola's Barcelona side, anyway? Obviously, I'm hoping that Villas-Boas does well, but if anyone else takes the crown but Wenger it's not like it'll be worthy of a riot.

At the end of the day, awards just don't matter very much. Ah well.