Davy Gorman | Contributing Writer
The FIFA Ballon d’Or, the most coveted individual prize in world football, is given annually to the player who is considered to have performed the best in the previous calendar year. With the shortlist announced, and the result out in January, the speculation has already begun. Will Messi win his fifth consecutive award? If not, who else can?
Lionel Messi:
Why should he win?
Messi is still the best player in the world. If the aim of the Ballon d’Or is to identify the best footballer Messi is practically a shoo-in every year. Over a goal a game over the past three years, his consistency is a trait that makes him the best player. His half hour cameo against PSG in the Champions League quarter-final underlined his greatness. The sheer presence of the injured Messi illuminated a struggling Barcelona team and led them through the game. Had he not been injured against Bayern Munich in the semi-final of the Champions League, it may have been a different story.
Why not?
Messi has had a fine year but he will have better calendar years than this one, which makes the Ballon d’Or a more open contest this year, surely. His forty goals in 2013 are dwarfed by Cristiano Ronaldo’s fifty-seven. He has suffered from a number of niggling injuries which left him used sparingly at key stages of the Champions League last season. His impact in big Champions League games was hampered by injury but even when he was fit he struggled to match the heights of previous seasons. There were no goalscoring records broken and he did not spearhead Barcelona to European glory. Messi could not turn the tide in any of the El Clasicos, as Barcelona failed to win any of three in 2013 and he was average at best in the latest encounter between the big two in Spain this season.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been overlooked since 2008
Cristiano Ronaldo:
Why should he win?
Similarly to Messi, Ronaldo is clearly one of the best in the world. He is a goalscoring machine, with 216 goals in 212 games for Real Madrid since 2009. As was previously mentioned, he outscored Messi in 2013 in all competitions and he was the 2012/13 Champions League top goalscorer with twelve goals. Since Messi did not outshine Ronaldo this year, another Ballon d’Or would be well deserved. The Portuguese forward finds himself to be unlucky not to have a Ballon d’Or at Real Madrid, his single award coming at Manchester United in 2008.
Why not?
Despite Ronaldo’s best efforts, Real Madrid did not win anything. Ronaldo was not playing for a struggling team either, Madrid were more than good enough to provide the platform for him. Ronaldo did not take charge of any CL latter stage matches like Lewandowski or Robben did. He is a brilliant goalscorer but sometimes he cannot make things happen without a high standard of service.
Franck Ribery:
Why should he win?
Bayern Munich were easily the best team in 2013 and a lot of their success was down to Franck Ribery. The tricky French winger was crucial for Bayern in a record year for the club and his talents have already won him the UEFA Best Player award. Ribery may only have scored sixteen goals this year but his dazzling dribbling excited fans across Europe in 2013. Ribery’s importance to his team is unquestionable too; he set a new Bundesliga record of consecutive games without losing last weekend – thirty-nine consecutive games when he has played. Bayern have never lost a game in which he scored in either.
Why not?
He struggles to stand out individually because his team-mates were so good also. There are six Bayern players on the shortlist and all of them were exceptional. Ribery heroics were not exclusive, star performances came from all areas of the team. For example, Arjen Robben stood out more than Ribery in the Champions League semi-final and final. Ribery’s single goal in the Champions League does not stack up well against Ronaldo’s twelve from the same position.
Ribery was part of the Munich team that conquered Europe in 2013
Other contenders:
With neither Messi nor Ronaldo having conclusive arguments this year, it is a great opportunity for a more defensive-minded player to win the Ballon d’Or. Philip Lahm captained Bayern Munich to their triumph in May and was ever-present in their march to the treble. The main stumbling block for Lahm is that a full-back has never won the Ballon d’Or. Defenders in general have been underrated, by comparison, for decades. The closest that a full-back has come to collecting the prize was Giacinto Facchetti in 1965 when he finished in second place.
The well-oiled Munich machine would not be the same without Bastian Schweinsteiger, the brains in midfield and the hearbeat of the team. However, the last deeper lying midfielder to win the Ballon d’Or was Lothar Matthaus in 1990. Unfortunately for Schweinsteiger if Xavi, the tika-taka master and instigator of some of the best football modern football has seen could not win the Ballon d’Or then it is unlikely that Schweinsteiger will.
Other honourable mentions are Zlatan Ibrahimovic who has had a season of fantastic stats and achievements to back up a year where he wowed football fans with sumptuous skills and virtuoso displays and Arjen Robben who scored impressively in both legs of the semi-final and the final of the Champions League.
Verdict:
Ribery for the Ballon d’Or. Bayern annihilated Barcelona in the Champions League and there is a broader picture that exists outside of the Messi/Ronaldo goals race. In Bayern’s attack, Ribery demonstrated how someone can compete with those two by consistently performing in a winning team. Ronaldo and Messi are still worthy of top three due to their records. Schweinsteiger and Lahm should narrowly edge out Robben for places in the top five.
