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2014 Club of the Year – Real Madrid

By on December 25, 2014

The case of picking the world’s best player has, for the past five years, been easy. There is a fifty percent chance you will get it right as long as you stick with the only two viable options – Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, whom are both on the three man shortlist for the 2014 Ballon d’Or. This year, Ronaldo is tipped for the award ahead of Messi and Manuel Neuer. It used to be that finding the best club team was just as simple – Ronaldo’s club, Real Madrid, against Messi’s Barcelona.

This year, that front gets a lot more complicated. First of all, it was a World Cup year, and if there was any doubt, the World Cup winners Germany are absolutely the team of the year. Neuer, Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil, Phillip Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, and many more all star on this team. However, if Germany are the best team, than you also have to consider Bayern Munich for the best club team. This is where it gets tricky. Ever since Bayern’s Champions League win in 2012/2013 it is clear that they are in the picture, while Barcelona, which lost to Bayern 7-0 on aggregate in the Semifinals, are not.

This shakeup leaves our job far less easy, on multiple levels. First of all, of we are saying that the contest is between Real and Bayern, among them splitting the past two Champions League titles, which wouldn’t be outrageous to say, then judging the better side is simply harder. Unlike Madrid and Barcelona, the two sides to not play in the same league, country, although thankfully, for our purposes at least, have met twice in Champions League semifinal ties in the past five years, which each side won once. Madrid got the better of Bayern when they met in early 2014. Still, that doesn’t indicate who has been the better side over a course of a year.

Taking a step back, however, is it really just a two horse race? Atletico Madrid comes to mind, having won La Liga ahead of their cross-city rivals in the 2013/2014 season (though they trail them so far in this season), and nearly doing the same in the Champions League final, only for Madrid to stage a late comeback. But considering they have looked just a class lower after their exodus of players over the summer, Real probably comes out on top. There are other options too, although they look considerably less convincing. Chelsea are a possibility due to their storming start to the Premier League season, but on Europe they haven’t looked strong enough. Barca, of course, finished third in the 2013/2014 La Liga and were eliminated in the Quarterfinals of the Champions League that season. Currently, they are also one pint behind Real in the league.

So if it is a two-horse race, then, who is better? On paper alone, Real have Ronaldo, who most agree was the best player in 2014, James Rodriguez, one of the standouts of World Cup 2014, Toni Kroos, a World Cup winner (although he was ironically at Munich for the first half of 2014), Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema, Isco, and Gareth Bale as standout players. Bayern had equally as good a team, though, with seven World Cup winners in Mario Gotze, who scored the winner in the World Cup final, Muller, Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Jerome Boateng, Philipp Lahm, and Neuer all starting for both Germany and Bayern. If Germany are the best team of 2014 including internationals, then shouldn’t Bayern be the best club team? They indeed have even more talent outside that, with Arjen Robben just one name. Bayern won the Bundesliga last season with months to spare, and are on the same track this season as well, with Borussia Dortmund having dropped out of the title race. As nothing in 2015 counts, it isn’t about how good Bayern prove to be but how good they were, the proof we have now.

Madrid’s squad strength comes from their international diversity, however, with stars from many nations in the finals. So Bayern’s German core doesn’t necessarily give it to them, and plus, it is how well they performed with Bayern, not Germany. In such a tight race (while Real did not win La Liga Spain has a considerably tougher title race than the Bundesliga), the one tipping point may be when Bayern and Real met in the Champions League Semifinals, twice. And twice Madrid won, 5-0 on aggregate in fact. Champions League winners and all it might seem an obviously conclusion, one that you can stumble upon without much thought, but then again, it is really only a two-horse race, and Madrid seem the best club over the course of 2014.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.