Upon the completion of the 2014 calendar year, FIFA has announced it's annual award winners. In this article, we'll take a look at who won which awards, which records were broken, and examine the selected team of the season.


Cristiano Ronaldo has finally broken Lionel Messi's dominance of the title of "best player in the world". The Argentinian wizard had won five straight Ballon D'Or titles, but now Ronaldo has returned to the throne and won his second, his first coming back in 2008. The Real Madrid winger tore up every team he faced last year, scoring 43 goals in 52 appearances and leading Los Galacticos to the fabled La Decima, tenth UEFA Champions League crown.


Belgian 21 year old striker Romelu Lukaku is this year's Golden Boy. The Paris St.-Germain front man is enduring a wonderful first season for the French side, and, combined with his exploits from the 2014 part of last season with Everton, he has scored 18 goals in 39 appearances. Having failed to make the cut at Chelsea, Lukaku has justified his €23.5m price-tag and is once again showing why he is touted as one of the world's best young forwards.


The 2014 Team of the Season holds a few surprises, but generally represents the best eleven players of the calendar year. No less than 3 Real Madrid players won the cut after Ancelotti led his squad to La Decima; fullbacks Marcelo and Sergio Ramos join Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo.

Barcelona and Chelsea both have two representatives in the squad as Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, Juan Mata, and Eden Hazard are included. Manchester City's Vincent Kompany is also chosen, widely considered one of the best defenders in the world.

The biggest surprise comes in central midfield, however, where Manchester United's Marouane Faellani joins AS Monaco's superstar Joao Moutinho. Fellaini had a distinctly average year but is still included, though fans of the Red Devils are certainly not complaining.

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Fellaini appears to have turned it around at United...

Calender, lel. Anyways, WHERE ARE DOSE ROMA PLAYERS AT?!?

Great job with the update! Interesting indeed to see fellaini

Griffo: The best part is he still only has an average rating of like 7.05

Pauker: I don't know man, FIFA is just biased against us

pokarioboy: Interesting is a very kind way of putting it

35 year old midfield maestro Andrea Pirlo has agreed to join AS Roma for free upon the expiry of his contract with Juventus this summer.

Andrea Pirlo is undoubtedly one of the greatest central midfielders to have ever graced the field. The mercurial deep-lying playmaker has dominated the Serie A his entire life, first making his name at AC Milan before really coming into his own in the latter stages of his career at Juventus.

Throughout the course of his illustrious career, Pirlo was won the Serie A four times, the UEFA Champions League twice, amassed over 100 caps, and even led Italy to their historic World Cup win in 2006 where he was voted third best player and led the tournament in assists.

Now, it seems, the veteran regista is set to make one last stop before he hangs up his boots. With his contract with Juventus expiring this summer, Francesco Totti has acted fast in offering his former Italy international teammate to sign a pre-contract agreement with AS Roma. Pirlo agreed quickly and is now set to earn €95k per week until the end of next season with the Giallorossi.

This signing will add yet another element of depth to Roma's already abundant central midfield. With the world class likes of Daniele De Rossi, Nuri Sahin, Marco Verratti, Clement Grenier, and Miralem Pjanic already available, it seems as though player-manager Francesco Totti will have a selection headache every week trying to pick which players to start.

Though some critics are saying that Pirlo, being 35, will be far too old to make a real difference in the side. Totti hit back at those critics quickly, telling members of the press, "Pirlo is, in my opinion, the best central midfielder of this era. He will add more options and more creativity to central midfield, and that will be vital to any success we have next year."

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Good signing, but you'll need to make the most of him in the short time he'll be with you.

Good signing, obviously he may be getting on but there is no denying his class.
Hopefully he will provide his quality and prove of good use even in short time he has left playing!

LFC: I plan to use him as a rotation player depending on his form, plus mentoring the youngsters

pompeyblue: Yes, he won't start every game, but hopefully he can add another element of creativity to our midfield

Veteran Hero: Despite his age and his managerial duties, Francesco Totti scored the crucial injury time goal to lead Roma to their 2-1 over Empoli.

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ATALANTA 0-4 ROMA (COPPA ITALIA QTR FINAL)
DESTRO (x2), LJAJIC, VERRATTI
LJAJIC

ROMA 0-0 ATALANTA (SERIE A)
CORCHIA

EMPOLI 1-2 ROMA (SERIE A)
PJANIC, TOTTI
PJANIC

ROMA 0-1 AC MILAN (SERIE A)
CANNAVARO

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It was a very difficult start to January for AS Roma as they slumped to two very poor performances at the Stadio Olimpico, drawing lowly Atalanta before losing 1-0 to title rivals AC Milan.

It all started so well against Atalanta in the cup. A brilliant attacking showing from the Giallorossi saw them dismantle their opposition 4-0 with a brace from Mattia Destro. After this, however, things started to go downhill, especially after Mehdi Benatia departed for Morocco duty to play in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Despite thrashing Atalanta just days before, AS Roma struggled immensely to create anything in the Olimpico in their Serie A rematch. In their next match against Empoli, the capital city side almost dropped points yet again, conceding a late equalizer, only to be saved in the third minute of injury time by a long-distance Francesco Totti strike.

It was the game at the end of the month that truly was disappointing for Roma fans. Expecting to pull further ahead of fellow title contenders AC Milan, an 80th minute mistake from Nuri Sahin gifted Kaka the ball, who made no mistake in slipping in Alessandro Matri to score a heartbreaking late winner.

These matches spelled not only the start of a shaky defense for Roma, who severely struggled without lynchpin Mehdi Benatia, but also the end of an era of dominance for the Giallorossi's attack; even the normally mercurial Miralem Pjanic struggled to find space and time with which to influence matches.

With a two-legged Coppa Italia semifinal coming up against powerhouse Juventus, Roma really need to get their stuff together if they want to make the final.


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Don't blame it on the Veratti
Don't blame it on the Destro
Don't blame it on the Pjanic
Don't blame it on the Totti

Not the best of months Neal, but if you can win your next match you'll still be top! Good Luck!

Justice: It's spelled "Verratti" you amateur

The Madridista: Yeah a couple of tough results but thankfully our fate is still in our own hands!

When AS Roma were drawn with hated rivals Juventus in the Coppa Italia semifinals, all of Italy began anticipating the two-legged clash between these two Italian giants. Without Mehdi Benatia, away on Morocco duty for the African Cup of Nations, and Mattia Destro, who pulled a hamstring in training, many pundits were quietly confident that Juve could finally banish their Roma demons and move on to the final.

The First Leg

The first leg was to take place in Turin. Totti, as he usually does during very difficult matches on the road, dropped an extra man into midfield, playing with a sort of 4-1-3-1-1 with Adem Ljajic the lone striker.

Juventus pounced on this unwillingness to get forward, amassing 65% of the possession and managing 14 shots, almost three times as many as Roma. However, the Giallorossi very nearly stole the game in the early stages through Ljajic, only for veteran Gianluigi Buffon to make a brilliant diving save to save the Serbian striker's sizzling strike.

In the second half, however, it was the pure aerial prowess of Fernando Llorente that won the day. Martin Cacares's long ball into the box was expertly flicked into the corner, out of the reach of the extended fingers of Asmir Begovic.

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Fernando Llorente's super header led Juventus to their first victory over AS Roma in the Francesco Totti managerial era.

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Juventus managed to keep control of the match after that goal and held on for a 1-0 victory, and the Giallorossi knew that they had it all to do back at the Stadio Olimpico if they were to reach their third straight Coppa Italia final.

The Second Leg

In the home leg of the semifinal tie, Roma player-manager Francesco Totti knew he had to change things up to get a result. Thus, he switched from his usual diamond midfield to a 5-3-2 type of formation, similar to that of Juventus.

Tactically, the formation worked very well as the capital city side managed to get 20 shots off. However, merely 5 found the frame, thanks mainly to a very poor shooting display from Spaniard Alvaro Morata.

That was largely unimportant, though, as central defender Leandro Castan nodded home Marco Verratti's 7th minute corner kick to send the Olimpico into raptures. The Giallorossi pushed forward lots of numbers all game but did not manage to score again, and the match went into extra time.

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Despite being fourth choice central defender for much of the season, Leandro Castan won the hearts of thousands of fans with Roma's aggregate equalizer in the second leg.

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In extra time, Juventus very nearly cost themselves the game when Arturo Vidal barged Marco Verratti down from behind, meriting a second yellow card and thus being sent off. Even with 10 men, Antonio Conte's men hunkered down and survived the Roma onslaught to take the game to penalties.

The spot-kicks, though certainly nerve-wracking for the fans, seemed a breeze for the takers. The first four takers for each side easily netted their penalties, leaving the Old Lady's Guido Pizarro and the Giallorossi's Clement Grenier for the final round.

Pizarro was up first. The Argentinian midfielder took a short run up...and blazed the ball well over the net, leading to an auditory explosion from the Roma fans. Clement Grenier stepped up for the win and rifled the ball in off of the inside of the left post, leading Roma to a third straight Coppa Italia final.

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Ex-Olympique Lyonnais player Clement Grenier was the hero for Roma as he smashed home the winning penalty past Gianluigi Buffon.

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Post-Match

Having now made the finals yet again, AS Roma will have to take on giants AC Milan to lift the trophy for a second year running. However, the semifinal victory was not without casualties, as Tin Jedvaj will miss 3 weeks with a knee injury. Marco Verratti and Paolo Cannavaro will miss out on the final through suspension, as well.

The final is four months away, but all of Italy is already counting down the days.

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Great Update and FORZA ROMA