OFFICIAL: FIFA Ballon d'or 2013 - Voting extended

jibers wrote:Ronaldo is the most in form player for sure, but as lonfg as Messi exists he will never be the best. It's just not happening. Ronaldo will be the first player to win it without any silverware and breaking any records. I commend him.

The passes Moutinho made were more impressive than any of the goals that he scored, yet he takes the plaudits. This has become a WHOSCOREDTHEMOST D'OR. Ronaldo scored empty goals the whole of last season and his amazing ability is leading Madrid into....3rd place...did nothing in the 2 biggest games this season vs Barcelona and Atletico.

Let's compare his empty goals to Gerd Muller shall we...that is why  Ronaldo will never be greater than Gerd. Gerd scored goals and his goals won his teams silverware, Ronaldo did nothing in the group stages of WC qualifyer but he carried Portugal against Swede, who are amateur at best.

I'll sum this up saying this, Ronaldo is NOT the best footballer in the world and he never will be unless Messi stops playing. He is the most in form. At the end of the day if individual performances do not translate to trophies are you really the best player?

M99 wrote:

jibers wrote:Ronaldo is the most in form player for sure, but as lonfg as Messi exists he will never be the best. It's just not happening. Ronaldo will be the first player to win it without any silverware and breaking any records. I commend him.

The passes Moutinho made were more impressive than any of the goals that he scored, yet he takes the plaudits. This has become a WHOSCOREDTHEMOST D'OR. Ronaldo scored empty goals the whole of last season and his amazing ability is leading Madrid into....3rd place...did nothing in the 2 biggest games this season vs Barcelona and Atletico.

Let's compare his empty goals to Gerd Muller shall we...that is why  Ronaldo will never be greater than Gerd. Gerd scored goals and his goals won his teams silverware, Ronaldo did nothing in the group stages of WC qualifyer but he carried Portugal against Swede, who are amateur at best.

I'll sum this up saying this, Ronaldo is NOT the best footballer in the world and he never will be unless Messi stops playing. He is the most in form. At the end of the day if individual performances do not translate to trophies are you really the best player?

I do agree with Ribery deserving to win but smh at how Ronaldo is just discredited. Moutinho made the pass...and CR made the run and shot at goal. What he did was special, that was a brilliant performance and a crucial game for his country. Credit to him for an excellent performance.

Yohan Modric wrote:It would be for the past year, however the question is who's actually the better player if Ronaldo did win the Ballon d'Or?

When determining who is the better player, would all time status/ability count, or would it be what the player has done in the past year? Just a few things to consider.

harhar11 wrote:

Blue Barrett wrote:You do know the last month or two count as part of the year, right?

Total goals in 2013

Ronaldo = 66

Messi + Ribery = 64


Let's be serious, please.

And how big was the difference before Messi got his first big injury this season? I know that since Messi got his injury, C.ronaldo has scored 22(13 goals in the league, 5 in the CL and 4 against sweden), while Messi has only scored 3 goals(all 3 against Milan).

So basically the big difference between Messi's and C.ronaldo goaltally has been made this last 2 months, which means what I and Casciavit said is true.

jibers wrote:Ronaldo is the most in form player for sure, but as lonfg as Messi exists he will never be the best. It's just not happening. Ronaldo will be the first player to win it without any silverware and breaking any records. I commend him.

The passes Moutinho made were more impressive than any of the goals that he scored, yet he takes the plaudits. This has become a WHOSCOREDTHEMOST D'OR. Ronaldo scored empty goals the whole of last season and his amazing ability is leading Madrid into....3rd place...did nothing in the 2 biggest games this season vs Barcelona and Atletico.

Let's compare his empty goals to Gerd Muller shall we...that is why  Ronaldo will never be greater than Gerd. Gerd scored goals and his goals won his teams silverware, Ronaldo did nothing in the group stages of WC qualifyer but he carried Portugal against Swede, who are amateur at best.

I'll sum this up saying this, Ronaldo is NOT the best footballer in the world and he never will be unless Messi stops playing. He is the most in form. At the end of the day if individual performances do not translate to trophies are you really the best player?

RonaldoGreatestEverRM wrote:
Since Messi got his injury, Ronaldo has played vs sweden only...... lol

Dnmac4 wrote:I've said this in other threads and I will post it again here.  It is still shocking to me that people think Ribery was the best player in the world last year.

To come to that opinion you have to just completely ignore some pretty glaring facts about Frank Ribery.

1) He scored 1 freaking goal in last years Champions League.  That's right, 1 goal.  Yes, you read that correctly 1 goal.

2) Since he only had 1 goal he must have had a ton of assists in last years CL. Nope, 2 freaking assists.  Yes, 2 assists.

3) He is not the best player on his own team let alone the world.  Lahm and Neuer are easily better players and I would even add a couple other players Bayern have on there team that are better and no, Robben isn't one of them.  

4)His form for France has been good.  Not exceptional but good.  IT's very obvious to me he doesn't really have the ability that Messi, Ronaldo, Ibra and others do to lead there national teams and put them on there back when need be.  In fact I would say Portugal to an extent underachieved and Argentina has at times as well but France since they lost Zidane (the same class of player Messi and Ronaldo are) have at most times been a total disaster, especially when you consider the talent at there disposal.

Now can any of the Ribery supporters really sit here and tell me if Ronaldo or Messi scored 1 goal and 2 assists in the CL they wouldn't be crucified?  Hell I've heard people say Messi and Ronaldo  didn't play well in certain CL games when they have scored 2 goals in that 1 game let alone the whole tournament.

If either Messi and Ronaldo had Ribery statistics from last year people would not in a million years consider them for the Balon D'or they would be posting things like "has Messi lost it" or What's wrong with Ronaldo, should Madrid sell him".

It's like people judge Ribery on a different level than Messi and Ronaldo.  They know he's not even close to as good as those 2 so they say well Ribery had a good year for Ribery so he should get the best player in the world award because his team is really good.

I mean I may be alone on this point but do people really think last years Bayern team couldn't win the CL with out Ribery?  I think they could have and pretty easily too.  

If you watch Bayern they are quite used to playing w/o ribery in the side and there really isn't a huge difference, the same can be said about France.

Can you say that about Barca or Madrid?  no, they are a shell of themselves w/o Messi and Ronaldo.

It's like people think Ribery is a Defensive midfielder.  He plays the same position basically as Ronaldo and very close to Messi yet his stats are a shell of what Ronaldo and MEssi put up.

To end this, if you judge Ribery under the same criteria as Messi and Ronaldo it's 100% impossible to think he deserves an individual award over those 2.  It's not even close.

Dnmac4 wrote:LOL, if you think Ribery is the best player on Bayern you don't know a thing about football.   Ribery has a well documented injury and history to miss games and when he doesn't play Bayern rarely misses a beat.  In fact they will play Dortmund this weekend with out him and they will be just fine.

Manuel Neuer and Phillip Lahm are better players then Ribery. You would be in the minority if you think otherwise as most people share this opinion.

Zealous wrote:9 games isn't that big a sample size tbf.

Ribery is a very big part of Bayern though, but is he the most crucial? If he is I don't think it's by that much.

Robben #10 wrote:Again, I am not sure if you watch us play on a regular basis, but there should be no doubt that Ribéry is our best and most important player.

In the Bundesliga, he is literally streets ahead of every other player in the league. None of Europe's top leagues have such a big difference as the Bundesliga. I can honestly tell you that Ribéry has not had a single bad match in the Bundesliga in his last 38 matches, which is all of last season and this season. He oozes consistency. There is not a single 'player rating' site that doesn't put Ribéry at #1 from what I have seen. Kicker, Bild, TM, even Whoscored rate Ribéry as by far the best player in the league.

He was our most important player in the Champions League. The ones that don't watch Bayern regularly will discount his influence, but several fans who's opinions I trust and appreciate know exactly what I mean. There is no player in our team who could have fulfilled the role he did for us in the knock-out stages of the Champions League. I'd go as far as saying there is no winger who was capable of doing that.

I don't like Ribéry, but I cannot possibly undermine his performances over the past 7 seasons.

Ask any Bayern fan about our best players in the past 7 seasons year-by-year, and Ribéry should be #1 in at least 4 of them, 5 of them if you discount Robben's injury-plagued season.

His influence to the team is even greater than Robben's was in 2010, when he almost carried us to the treble. Ribéry is actually so good, and it really takes seeing him to appreciate his value to the team.

He is easily one of our greatest players in the club's history, definitely in the top 15. I'd go as far as to say that he would be the starting winger in an all-time team. He's arguably the best player we've had since 2000. His form over the past year or so is comparable to Robben's peak in 2009-2011.

There are people who just look at the stats (look at Dnmac4 for instance) and arrive at a completely inaccurate conclusion. You can't just compare Ribéry's style of play to Messi's and Ronaldo's, it's just totally warped logic.

He is definitely not the most talented, or skilled player in the world, but his performances over the past year definitely make him a leading Ballon d'Or candidate.

Robben #10 wrote:I don't understand your point. You say that Ribéry had no role in the Champions League, but then you go on to explain very loosely how important he was in the semi-final and final.

The average positions of the players speak volumes - without Kroos, Ribéry sacrificed his immense offensive ability to play a much deeper role in the team to control the midfield. That's what made him so important.

In the group stages, he was our best player. In the knock-out stages, especially against Barcelona and Dortmund, he was our most important. It's exactly what I mean when I say that nobody in our team could play his role.

Look at the big teams we have played against with Ribéry, and we have not lost against: Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona, Dortmund, Manchester City, Chelsea. Ribéry was fantastic in many of these matches. Then look at the teams we have lost against without Ribéry: Arsenal, Dortmund, Leverkusen.

It's not even about if it's against relegation fodder or not. We have poor performances against the likes of Freiburg and Nürnberg without Ribéry in the Bundesliga. Our only draws in the Bundesliga last season were against Dortmund and Gladbach, and in both matches he was our best player from what I recall.

In the past 7 seasons (2007/08-2013/14), Ribéry has been the best in the majority of them: 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. Robben was injured for the majority of 2011 and I made a note of it in my post.

I have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to the Super Cup in 2012. Our first goal came from one of the best assists I have ever seen in the past 20 or so years from a Bayern player.



I do rate Robben higher than Ribéry in terms of ability, but in terms of performance Ribéry is ahead for the year. I just don't understand why some of the people here have to put down Ribéry to make the players they prefer seem better...

Footyfan wrote:*snip*

sportsczy wrote:Let it go Robben...  most here are pseudo footy guys who have no real idea that football is not about just the goalkeeper save or the goal scores... it's just as much about everything else that goes into it.

In the end, Bayern and Ribery will keep collecting trophies while Cr7 will revel in his own personal shrine with virtually no team trophies.  

In the NBA, a majority of people complete disgarded Lebron James despite his personal stats until he won a trophy.  he played for a meh team like cleveland and lifted them...  he got deserved credit for that.  But at miami with an elite squad, it's trophy or bust.  Same for Kobe and all of them...  even Mj was mostly laughed at until his team won (it took him 7 years).  Yet in footy, the guy who doesn't win despite playing for an elite team should be celebrated

Robben #10 wrote:Again, I am not sure if you watch us play on a regular basis, but there should be no doubt that Ribéry is our best and most important player.

In the Bundesliga, he is literally streets ahead of every other player in the league. None of Europe's top leagues have such a big difference as the Bundesliga. I can honestly tell you that Ribéry has not had a single bad match in the Bundesliga in his last 38 matches, which is all of last season and this season. He oozes consistency. There is not a single 'player rating' site that doesn't put Ribéry at #1 from what I have seen. Kicker, Bild, TM, even Whoscored rate Ribéry as by far the best player in the league.

He was our most important player in the Champions League. The ones that don't watch Bayern regularly will discount his influence, but several fans who's opinions I trust and appreciate know exactly what I mean. There is no player in our team who could have fulfilled the role he did for us in the knock-out stages of the Champions League. I'd go as far as saying there is no winger who was capable of doing that.

I don't like Ribéry, but I cannot possibly undermine his performances over the past 7 seasons.

Ask any Bayern fan about our best players in the past 7 seasons year-by-year, and Ribéry should be #1 in at least 4 of them, 5 of them if you discount Robben's injury-plagued season.

His influence to the team is even greater than Robben's was in 2010, when he almost carried us to the treble. Ribéry is actually so good, and it really takes seeing him to appreciate his value to the team.

He is easily one of our greatest players in the club's history, definitely in the top 15. I'd go as far as to say that he would be the starting winger in an all-time team. He's arguably the best player we've had since 2000. His form over the past year or so is comparable to Robben's peak in 2009-2011.

There are people who just look at the stats (look at Dnmac4 for instance) and arrive at a completely inaccurate conclusion. You can't just compare Ribéry's style of play to Messi's and Ronaldo's, it's just totally warped logic.

He is definitely not the most talented, or skilled player in the world, but his performances over the past year definitely make him a leading Ballon d'Or candidate.

Robben #10 wrote:I don't understand your point. You say that Ribéry had no role in the Champions League, but then you go on to explain very loosely how important he was in the semi-final and final.

The average positions of the players speak volumes - without Kroos, Ribéry sacrificed his immense offensive ability to play a much deeper role in the team to control the midfield. That's what made him so important.

In the group stages, he was our best player. In the knock-out stages, especially against Barcelona and Dortmund, he was our most important. It's exactly what I mean when I say that nobody in our team could play his role.

Look at the big teams we have played against with Ribéry, and we have not lost against: Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona, Dortmund, Manchester City, Chelsea. Ribéry was fantastic in many of these matches. Then look at the teams we have lost against without Ribéry: Arsenal, Dortmund, Leverkusen.

It's not even about if it's against relegation fodder or not. We have poor performances against the likes of Freiburg and Nürnberg without Ribéry in the Bundesliga. Our only draws in the Bundesliga last season were against Dortmund and Gladbach, and in both matches he was our best player from what I recall.

In the past 7 seasons (2007/08-2013/14), Ribéry has been the best in the majority of them: 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. Robben was injured for the majority of 2011 and I made a note of it in my post.

I have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to the Super Cup in 2012. Our first goal came from one of the best assists I have ever seen in the past 20 or so years from a Bayern player.



I do rate Robben higher than Ribéry in terms of ability, but in terms of performance Ribéry is ahead for the year. I just don't understand why some of the people here have to put down Ribéry to make the players they prefer seem better...

farfan wrote:2012 was not deserved . iniesta was more deserving of the award  .


messi flopped in the most important games of that season : the classico agianst real, the 2 matches against chelsea..

ronaldo is more popular when it comes to commercial value in the mainstream world , but in football  , he's  easily one of the most  disliked characters in the sport.