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FIFA have announced the shortlist for the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or, or simply the best player in a calendar year.
France Football introduced the Ballon d’Or in 1956 to honour the European footballer of the year. In 2007 the award became a world player award and three years later it merged with Fifa’s own world player honour.
This year the three making the final cut, are Lionel Messi, Frank Ribery, and Cristiano Ronaldo. This does not come as a surprise.
A number of high profile players were dropped off, in the likes of Gareth Bale, Radamel Falcao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar etc.
The winners, to be announced at a ceremony in Zurich, will be decided by a vote among the captains and head coaches of all Fifa-affiliated men’s national teams, as well as by international media representatives selected by France Football magazine.
Messi has won the FIFA Ballon d’Or for the last four times, which in itself is a record, however, injury has plagued the little maestro in the 2013 calendar year. He has still scored 37 goals in 34 games, a ratio of 1.09 per game and has 11 assists over the 34 games, meaning a ratio of 0.32 per game.
Furthermore, Messi has won the Spanish Super Cup and the Spanish League. Another important fact remains in favour of Messi who was the only player to have scored in every game in the 2012/13 Spanish league season.
Second up is Cristiano Ronaldo. He last won the FIFA player award in 2008 on the back off Manchester United winning the Champions league in Moscow. He is the favourite according to the bookies.
Ronaldo has scored 51 goals in 41 matches and has a ratio of 1.24 per game and he had 12 assists to his name, over the 41 games, which gives a ratio of 0.29 per game. Whilst his ratio of goals per game is better than Messi, he has a lower assist ratio than Messi and most importantly, his biggest drawback is that he has not won any trophies with Real Madrid, unlike Messi and Ribery.
Our final shortlisted candidate is Frank Ribery. The French man has scored 15 goals in 37 games and has a ratio of 0.41 per game, well below that of Messi and Ronaldo. However, he had 15 assists in 37 games, making his ratio 0.41 per game, which is far better that of Messi or Ronaldo.
Ribery’s strength is that Bayern Munich has won the Champions League, German League, German Cup and UEGA Super Cup, which can be matched by neither Messi nor Ronaldo.
On the trophies alone, Frank should win outright, however, as the old saying goes, the FIFA Ballon d’Or is an individual effort and not based on team success.
How you separately measure the individual performance which contributed to the team’s success is one that cannot be easily answered.
One thing that might play an important part in deciding who wins the Ballon d’ Or for the best of 2013 is how the three nominees faired for their national teams, considering World Cup qualification and the focus shifting from club football to national team.
Messi was instrumental in getting Argentina qualify as the top finishers from South America and in the process got a bag of goals, overall he finished as the second top scorer in the South American qualifiers.
Frank Ribery, helped France win their play-offs against Ukraine and in the process get France into the World Cup finals. However, it was Ronaldo’s performance against Sweden, scoring all 4 goals for Portugal which won him global accolade. He single handily dragged Portugal into the World Cup to Brazil.
Come January 13 2014, we will know who has won the FIFA Ballon d’Or, however, who do you think should win, based on the 2013 calendar form, who for you was the best player in the world.
Can Messi win in for the fifth time and break all records again, or will it be a double for Frank Ribery, first the UEFA best player this year and now the FIFA Ballon d’Or winner or would it be Ronaldo’s second after 2008. Surely they would not dare to break the commander’s heart, would they?
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