Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the three nominees for the Ballon d’Or this calendar year. But of course only one of them can win the award. The Ballon d’Or is meant to be awarded to the most outstanding player of the year and not given to someone who may be the best player on the planet. Of course team achievements are a huge part in the selecting of the winner. But ultimately it is down to personal achievements.
The obvious favourite is Barcelona’s Messi who is about to break Gerd Muller’s goal scoring record for a calendar year. The Argentine has, at time of writing, 84 goals with three league games remaining a Champions League fixture and a Copa del Ray fixture. This is a phenomenal achievement and one we will not see again for a long time. Unless the little man has a similar year in 2013. Despite this spectacular landmark Messi isn’t in a one horse race for the Ballon d’Or which he has won three years in a row. The two other contender’s have just of much of a chance of winning the prize. This is mainly down to the European Championship that took place this summer, which of course, Messi did not partake.
First up, his teammate, Iniesta. Iniesta is part of what could be considered the greatest international side there is. He’s the linchpin in Spain’s dominance of world football at the moment and was named player of the tournament of the European Championship. Iniesta also won UEFA’s Champions League best player this year, where Messi and Ronaldo were the other nominees, but many saw this as a mere token gesture to a fantastic career. Alas Iniesta is the outsider of the three and when the best player in the world today is argued it is argument between Ronaldo and Messi and not Iniesta.
So then the man from Madeira, Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo had probably his best season since his 07/08 season with Manchester United, which saw him win the Ballon d’Or. With Real Madrid he won the La Liga title as Jose’s men finally toppled their Catalonian rivals. He also was instrumental in Portugal’s Euro campaign as they were knocked out on penalties in the semi-final to eventual champions Spain. In that semi-final for 90 minutes it was Portugal that were more dominating and looked the more likely to grab a winner. In extra time tired legs showed and the game eventually went to penalties. Ronaldo, who always wants to be the hero, elected to take the fifth peno but it never came to that as Spain went through after their fourth penalty. Ronaldo who has similar percentage of importance of goals as Messi does at Barca has scored a remarkable 58 goals this year but even that number is dwarfed by Messi’s 84. But sometimes stats alone can lead you down the wrong path. What is 84 goals if they are all the third and fourth goal in a 6-0 win? Compared to a 1-0 winning goal? The difference is simple, one is a goal that boosts the goal difference and the other is changing one point into three. Of course, that is a very harsh statement and an exaggerated one but nevertheless can serve a purpose in deciding the Ballon d’Or winner.
Alas I am not going to sit down here and go through all 84 of Messi’s goals and 58 of Ronaldo’s but I will look at the key games of the year. When the El Clasico took place last season Real were four points clear and a victory would all but guarantee the title, the match took place in the Nou Camp and after Alexis Sanchez cancelled out Sami Khedira earlier effort. The match was perfectly poised, until Ronaldo got on the end of a Mesut Ozil pass and slotted the ball past Victor Valdes silencing the 90,000 Barca fans. On a night that ultimately decided the title where both Messi and Ronaldo were playing only one of them scored the winning goal. The other two defining games of the respective player’s season was their Champions League semi-final. Barca faced Chelsea and Real Madrid faced Bayern Munich. Both players saw their teams behind after the first leg and both where playing at home in the second leg. Barca drew 2-2 with Chelsea and Messi missed a penalty which saw Chelsea through 3-2 on aggregate. Real Madrid won 2-1 (levelling the tie on aggregate) and it was Ronaldo who scored both for Madrid, Madrid were eliminated on penalties. The other time Messi and Ronaldo faced each other throughout the year (bar the super cup) was in the league this season where both Messi and Ronaldo were on target twice in a 2-2 draw.
So despite Messi’s soon to be record goal scoring year, The Ballon d’Or may not fall on his lap and the Portuguese man may just take home the award four year’s after first winning it.