I went for Lukas Podolksi to win the Best Young Player award with the way he electrified the crowd at Germany. True enough, the Best Young Player award is not based on popularity for which he will be a runaway winner given the games are played in his hometown; rather players who have impacted the course and performance of their team throughout the tournament.

If you do not know how old Lukas is, you would have guessed wrong adding more years to his current age. His maturity is way beyond his age which can be seen on how he reacts on tackles, drawing fouls, positioning himself on the field; on the other hand you will have a feeling he is a kid with all his energy running back and forth without showing fatigue or slowness of age.

I liked the guy so much and it was always fun seeing him and Miroslav combine as the deadliest striking force in the tournament — resulting in 11 goals (3 from Lukas) and counting.

Yesterday I ran a poll on who do you think will be the winner of the Gillette Best Young Player and Lukas also won that poll slightly ahead of Christian Ronaldo. The result of the poll were:

C. Ronaldo: 39%
L. Valencia: 1%
L. Messi: 1%
L. Podolski: 44%
T. Barnetta: 6%
C. Fabregas: 0%

Some may argue that Ronaldo is more important to Portugal than Podolski is to Germany; I would disagree as Germany would have never gone that far without a scoring threat alongside Klose which anchored Jurgen Klinsmann revolutionary style. Germany was faster, moved the ball outside the box at lightning speed, and created attacking options faster than the opponent where Podolski’s participation were vital — 563 minutes, took 21 shots, scoring three goals and drew 15 fouls. The numbers speak for Podolski.

While C. Ronaldo’s dazzling, though most of the time uneccessary, dribbles all over the field was a joy to watch; Lukas is by far above him and the rest of the candidates.

Congratulations to you coming from Sporati!

[tags]FIFA World Cup, World Cup Germany, Gillette Best Young Player, Lukas Podolski[/tags]