Though Cristiano Ronaldo was a reasonably unanimous choice for this year's FIFA Ballon D'Or, tonight's awards ceremony in Zürich has not been without controversy. The decision to include David Luiz and Thiago Silva in the centre of defence for the FIFPro World XI has raised eyebrows and there has been some disappointment over the failure to Stephanie Roche the Puskás Award, but surprisingly little has been made about Joachim Löw being named as the best Coach in world football over the last 12 months. International football, maybe. But the best in the world? No.

Perhaps, in a year containing such a joyous and memorable World Cup as that held in the game's spiritual home, it isn't wholly surprising that the winning manager would take home the award. But the fact of the matter is that the tournament was won by the best team, the pre-tournament favourites and as a culmination of work started by Jürgen Klinsmann a decade ago.

That is not to say that having the best team is any guarantee of success in the world's premier sporting event, bar the Olympic Games. The Dutch team of 1974, Brazil's 1982 vintage and Hungary 1954 are proof enough of that. The point is, though, that it does not take the best coach in the world to manage the best team in the world. If you put Germany's best XI in front of José Mourinho, Alan Pardew or Steve Kean, chances are they would still be more than a match for most sides, even on the international stage. An overstatement perhaps, but the point remains.

Germany only played half a league season's worth of games in 2014, and many of these were meaningless friendlies, some coming in the post-glory hangover which resulted in a string of poor results against Argentina, Scotland, Poland and the Republic of Ireland. Success in the World Cup may be the pinnacle of a manager's career, but in terms of this award it does not come close to sustained brilliance across an entire league and cup season. Such brilliance was only truly achieved by Diego Simeone, out of the final three.

Simeone broke the Barça-Real duopoly on the Spanish title, and did so with a team not even represented in the FIFPro World XI. Arguably no other manager could have come close to Simeone's achievements, which were only seconds away from being multiplied by an against-the-odds Champions League victory -  without his main striker. The fact that Atlético are now only four points from the summit of the La Liga table having been shorn of key first-teamers in Costa, Courtois and Luis only serves to illustrate his case for the award. His trophy may not have been the biggest in the world, but it was by far the most unexpected and the most worthy of praise. That Simeone only received 19% of the final vote is bordering on ludicrous, and highlights the warped perspectives of a World Cup year.

However, Carlo Ancelotti also had a reasonable case for the victory. Though any manager in the world would be jealous of the assembly of stars he has at his disposal, managing such an array is not easy and takes meticulous man-management and team building. The romantic inside each of us would perhaps like to see Ancelotti rewarded for finally bringing the Decima to the Bernabéu, and he has rightly written his name into the Madrid history books. But his case is the same as Löw's; he won the biggest tournament placed in front of him, but did so with the best team.

At the end of the day, it is probable that neither of the shortlisted managers is going to lose too much sleep over the whole affair. The Coach of the Year award is a nice adornment for the bookshelf, but it is not the World Cup, nor the Spanish League title, nor the Champions League. For what it's worth though, my response to the selected voters: you got it wrong.

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About the author
Sam France
Former Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Features Editor at VAVEL UK, part of the VAVEL team 2014-2018.