I could sit here and list Ronaldo's stats from 2013 as the reason why he has to win the most coveted individual prize in football. To be fair, they are pretty damn good. He has 25 goals in 18 Real Madrid appearances this season alone, and with 10 goals in 9 internationals for Portugal in 2013, 8 of which have come since the start of the new season, surely he's the only real candidate for the trophy? For me, he possesses something that Messi and Ribery lack in order to be one of the greatest, and that is arrogance. He knows he's good; you can tell from the constant 'calm down' celebration that he does. But he uses his arrogance in the right way. For example, he could have been a right little rapscallion against Manchester United in the Champions League when he scored at Old Trafford, but showed respect to the club and manager that essentially got him to where he is today, and a lot of respect has to go to him for that alone. Take note Mr van Persie.
Now for why the other two can't win the Ballon D'Or. Let's start with Franck Ribery shall we? Sure, he's won the Champions League and the Bundesliga in 2013 (he also won the DFB-Pokal but who cares). But so have the majority of Bayern's current squad. What has he done that makes FIFA think he's one of the top three players in the world this year? He was never a stand out in the Bayern side for me, and to be franckly honest (see what I did there), he shouldn't be in the top three. I think Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had a better individual year than Franck Ribery. If it was a team competition, then Bayern would be in there, of course, but it isn't. He hasn't even been a stand out player for France who laboured to qualification for Brazil next year.
Lionel Messi. Winner of the last four Ballon D'Or awards. Surely not a fifth on the trot? Surely? Well, no. The fact of the matter is, it is judged by who has had the better year, not who the better player is. And Cristiano Ronaldo has had a much better year than Lionel Messi. I know he's been hit with injuries and so on, but he has failed to live up to his incredible standards that he set in the 2011-12 season when he hit 50 goals in La Liga alone. He got 46 last season, in five less games, so did perhaps deserve the title on those occasions. But he's not done a lot internationally for me in the past year. He's scored 20 goals in his last 20 internationals, which is wonderful, but Ronaldo's performance against Sweden alone should win him the Ballon D'Or. To single-handedly take your team into the World Cup finals is an incredible achievement, but the way he did is was simply astonishing. Is Lionel Messi declining as a footballer? What a stupid question I've just asked there. Of course not, he's just had bad luck that's all.
Let us finish by admiring Cristiano Ronaldo and why he has to win the trophy. He's proved himself not only in Spain, but in England too in two of the toughest leagues in the world. Has Messi? No. Has Ribery? No. He was the world record transfer until some Welsh bloke came along and stole that from him. Did that faze him? You bet it didn't. And finally, he has more goals than he does games for Real Madrid. 226 goals in 217 games in all competitions. Give him a sticker. Or the Ballon D'Or.
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