It has to be Ribery for me, even if bla bla he isn't individually better than Ronaldo/Messi he deserves it more than them.
FIFA Ballon d’Or 2013
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It's a fair point that he's more creative in the hole, much like he was the previous year at Milan, but I'm not sure where his technique falls down compared to Ribery or Ronaldo. In fact that aspect of his game is what sets him apart from other strikers, despite playing in France - such is his propensity to pull off the spectacular. Particularly when he combines it with heavy goalscoring - 43 last year, 16 so far this season. Throw in the good but not outstanding calendar years from Messi and Ronaldo and there's no reason why he shouldn't be in the mixer for the award.
This especially annoys me. Vidal was clearly Juve's key player last season, after Pirlo's form fell away after the Euros.
It'll probably take a couple of consistent seasons as Juve's main man before they clock onto it.
I wouldn't be surprised if a Bayern player, namely Ribery, would win this. I'm sure Real Madrid wouldn't mind Messi winning it. They hardly need him extra motivated.
It's not really as consistent as the rest of the three or few other players for that matter. He can pull off insane stuff at times but most times he doesn't even bother and his game is take and give the ball back for large periods.
In simple words, when the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Ribery etc have the ball there is a sense of excitement and I'm keen on seeing what will happen next, it's not there with Ibra. With Ibra, he might come up with something memorable but you have to wait long times for that, while the others produce such moments far more regularly.
How is Wenger nominated for manager of the year and Simeone isn't?! That's just plain ridiculous.If there is a classic World XI again I'm gonna throw a fit.
How are Wenger and Mourinho in this list but Simeone and Vilanova not? And how is there only Dortmund player in the whole list?
I think Mourinho is the worst one in that list, but with him it looks like even loosing the dressing room and missing out on all titles with the biggest club in the world is an award nomination worthy year. Simeone missing out is really shocking though, I agree.
I think Gündogan and Reus were just unlucky that already a lot German and Bundesliga players were nominated because of Bayern's treble and Fifa won't let the list be dominated by one country or league.
Anyway, anyone other than Heynckes winning the manager award will be a complete joke. Though did Ferguson win one of these? I'm guessing for the 99 season. I wonder if they'll give it to him as a kind of lifetime achievement award.
Ribery should win it this season. I guess the thing that works against him is that many people will, probably rightly, still consider Messi the best player in the world and Ribery wasn't necessarily a standout from an exceptional Bayern squad. But he deserves it.
Ribery should win it this season. I guess the thing that works against him is that many people will, probably rightly, still consider Messi the best player in the world and Ribery wasn't necessarily a standout from an exceptional Bayern squad. But he deserves it.
As far as I know, until 2009 the Ballon d'Or was only an award for the best player. In 2010 the FIFA award merged with France football's Ballon d'Or and they also created the FIFA world coach of the year, so Mourinho in 2010 was the first one to win it. There are other manager of the year awards, I'm sure Ferguson won some, but nothing official given by FIFA.
True, seems a bit unfair though. Bit idealistic of course and doesn't matter too much, it would be preferable if there wasn't as much politics in the awards.
And you're right, he won UEFA manager of the year, which was a different thing.
I would be delighted for Zlatan to get it!
Ribery / Messi / Ronaldo to make up the top three, with Ribery the very slight favourite over Messi.
Only possible challengers for the top 3 are Ibrahimovic / Neymar / Robben.
Pretty awesome shortlist though.
Only possible challengers for the top 3 are Ibrahimovic / Neymar / Robben.
Pretty awesome shortlist though.
Mourinho and Xavi seems to be on auto-inclusion list. Seriously there is no reason why they are nominated.
Together with Wenger, Yaya, Hazard and a few of the others.
I can actually understand that Gündogan did not make the list. Given that this is more about the calendar year 2013 than the last season, Gündogan was simply unlucky to be injured for pretty much the whole current season so far, so he could not show his qualities recently. Same could be said about Lukasz Piszczek. If he would not had a needed surgery in the summer and could have held his level from the first half of 2013, he should be on there aswell.
Reus should be on it, though. He really arrived at Dortmund in the winter and has gotten even better since then, being Dortmund´s best player so far in this season. He also had a lot of good games for Germany. His non-consideration gets even weirder when a light version of him (Eden Hazard) somehow made the cut.
I also don´t know if a wanted versatility of countries and leagues is really a factor for the Fifa. Remember their world XI 2012? You know, the one with exclusively players from the Primera Division and 90% (!) from two clubs?
I wish this whole thing would be less about politics. What would be left would be the simple fact that the most important game of the year was rightfully played by two German clubs and even more importantly two teams with strong German cores.
Regarding the actual winner I really hope Ribery gets it. Messi is still the best player in the world, but he was simply not the best performing one in this year. This title goes clearly to the French.
Ribery is as a player still a little bit underrated. What is even more underrated is his role and importance for Bayern Munich, though. Even with their mega squad they still lose a lot of quality and creativity when he is not on the pitch. Easily one of their three player, who are the hardest to replace and the clear stand out player among a team full of top performers.
The award for the coach should be an obvious choice. Nobody deserves it more than Heynckes, who created a monster of a team and still gets too little credit for it in my eyes. Runner ups should be Klopp and Conte.
Isn't that world XI a different vote? I think FIFPro organises that and every player registered for one of participating countries is allowed to vote. I agree that it was a joke last year with not a single player from one of the CL finalists making that XI, but I think we can't blame FIFA for it.
It was the same in 2008 for us and Chelsea.
EDIT: Just remembered ronaldo won it that year
I'd actually lose my mind if Piszczek were ever shortlisted for Ballon d'Or. Not because he doesn't deserve it but because I remember going to a Hertha game in 2007 where he was by a distance the worst player on the pitch. He was basically appaling during his whole time there, I didn't understand why Dortmund would want him and then they turned him into possibly the best right back in the world.
I just noticed this but why the feck is del bosque in the managers of the year?? 
He did about one thing this year... Get wrecked 4-0 by brazil in the final of the confed cup. Probably the least deserving one on there.
He did about one thing this year... Get wrecked 4-0 by brazil in the final of the confed cup. Probably the least deserving one on there.
I'm not sure how the shortlist is developed. Is it the top 23 from all the votes that were cast by players, coaches and journalists? Or is it put together by some FIFA committee? There are idiots involved either way.
The way they make the shortlist is stupid, a lot of deserving players absent and a lot more idiots present.
Wenger's inclusion
France Football (the newspaper) and FIFA make that list and send it to the players, coaches and journalists who are allowed to vote.
That's a pity - I enjoyed seeing some of the random votes who would crop up in the old format such as Russell Latapy and Emmanuel Olisadebe.
Even though Messi has won it 4 times on the trot, I cannot see beyond a Ribery win this time. He has done it all in a treble-winning year and even though Messi has won La Liga, and both Messi and Ronaldo have scored lots of goals to help their respective games, it can only go deservedly to Ribery. A brilliant player and he could have a brilliant 2014 should France finally get to the final and win.
Pretty sure you can make a case for all three, whoever wins it is a deserved winner, imo. Messi is still the best player, but he missed a lot big games or underperformed because he wasn't fit. Sucks for him, but it matters. Ronaldo scored the most goals this calender year, always a strong case. Ribery was the best player in a treble winning team, that performed significantly worse without him. I'd argue that Ribery also performed best for his nationalteam out of those three, he's been amazing for France lately. It's one of those seasons where it really shouldn't be clear-cut.
Ah come on, it should be Messi. This is the award for the best player in the world, right? So that's Messi. It's actually very simple. Best player in the world = Lionel Messi.
Shouldn't it be for the player who performed best throughout the whole calender year? And not who's the best in theory when fully fit, even though he clearly underperformed in basically all big games in 2013? If you think he deserves it because of his performances, fair enough. He doesn't deserve it because he's the best player in general though. That would be stupid.
No, that's not how it works. It works by awarding the best player in the world in a calendar year, not the best player by default. And as far as I'm aware, Ribery has had a superior year to Ronaldo and Messi.
He was brilliant, and won more than them certainly, but I'm not sure he was near thier level really. That said, I wouldn't mind if he did win it.
Ribery didn't have a superior year to Messi and Ronaldo. Bayern had a superior year to Barcelona and Real Madrid..
IMO it should be Messi, Ronaldo, Ribery, in that order, although I wouldn't mind if Ribery wins it..
However, the race is far from decided.. IMO if Messi picks it up and gets back to his pre-injury level, I think he'll win it.. But if his slump continues till the end of the year, then Ribery will win it. If Ronaldo breaks the calendar year goal record, then he'll be in the mix too.
I think that's debatable.
Messi has struggled to get to optimum level for "long" periods this year. He's really not been that great this year, certainly not enough to win the Ballon d'Or. And this season, Neymar, if we're judging on performances, has been better. "Tata" has played Messi on the RW a few times and he's looked a bit off, though he's been defensively good (El Clasico performance was the best defensive performance by Messi in a long, long time).
Ronaldo has probably been slightly better this year than Messi, but his team were embarrassed in the CdR final and they failed to reach the final of the CL. He's had a very good start to the season, though, so that could prove to be irrelevant.
Ribery has had his best year in football. He was excellent in the Bundesliga, both legs vs. Barcelona in the semi-final and though the numbers don't show it, his defensive work was fantastic. In the UCL final, though he should have probably been sent off, he provided a pre-assist to Robben for the Mandzukic goal and set up the winner with a delightful back heel. In the Super Cup, he scored the equaliser and caused problems for Chelsea, often helped by Alaba to create a 2 v 1 situation. This season, he's adapted well to Guardiola's system and has had an excellent start.
There's more confidence in the way Ribery dribbles and more intelligence when he's on the ball. He's transformed from an individualistic player to a team player and mixed with his output in 2013, he should win it. In contrast, Messi's pressing was non-existent, while Ronaldo's lack of defensive effort was exploited.
Based on 2013, I would have Ribery, Ronaldo, Messi. But I feel goal output still plays too much of a role. If it's based on this, then it should be Ronaldo, Messi, Ribery. As I mentioned, the difference between Ronaldo and Messi hasn't been big, they've been at a very close level since 2009, and no disrespect intended to Ronaldo, but I would put that down to injuries on Messi's behalf. However, as you've stated, there's still a couple of months, so we'll see how everything pans out, but I think we're going to have a different winner this time.
The Club World Cup is at the end of the year, too, so that could play a big role.
Neymar hasn't been as good as Messi this year IMO, two very good games from Neymar, but I won't go as far as him being better than Messi (this season)..
Ribery didn't have a better year on personal level than Messi or Ronaldo, and IMO the only reason why his name is talked about seriously in the race is because Bayern won the treble. If Dortmund has won the CL I think Messi would have been a clear favorite.
Also IMO Ronaldo is out of the race this year, unless he does something spectacular before the end of the year (like breaking the all time calendar year goal record). There is no way Messi or Ribery is going to finish third as things stand now. Ronaldo is 99% going to finish 3rd because he didn't have a stellar year (I mean all-time stellar) on personal level, nor did he win any trophy in 2013..
The next two months could still decide the winner though...
Usually who's in the top 3 will already be annouced by the end of november, then only who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in January. So the voting is done in the next 2-3 weeks, what happens after that like for example the club world cup can't influence the vote anymore. The world cup knockout games maybe could still have an impact, for example if Ronaldo fails to qualify with Portugal and a lot of voters haven't sent their vote in by then. He was awful for large parts of Portugal's qualification games and really needs to get his act together for those 2 games, that really should count against him.
By the way I really don't understand the point that Ribery was lifted by Bayern's team performances while Ronaldo seemingly performed brilliantly despite Real Madrid's circus, because when played out of their comfort zone for the nationalteam, Ribery clearly outperformed Ronaldo indivdiually so far and it was far from easy for Ribery to become the leader for the nationalteam after the drama at the last world cup. A few of the French users on the Caf already described in this thread how Ribery lifted the team, that really should count for him in comparison to Ronaldo.
By the way I really don't understand the point that Ribery was lifted by Bayern's team performances while Ronaldo seemingly performed brilliantly despite Real Madrid's circus, because when played out of their comfort zone for the nationalteam, Ribery clearly outperformed Ronaldo indivdiually so far and it was far from easy for Ribery to become the leader for the nationalteam after the drama at the last world cup. A few of the French users on the Caf already described in this thread how Ribery lifted the team, that really should count for him in comparison to Ronaldo.
Indeed, Ribery is much more important to the French team than Ronaldo is to the Portuguese team. I feel that even if Ronaldo doesn't play, Portugal still have the personnel to do the job.
If it was purely down to individual performance, rather than the fairly obvious unspoken 'your team has to have won stuff' clause, I'd give it to Ronaldo. By his own high standards Messi has been a bit on and off recently, and for me Ronaldo has been better in individual terms than Ribery.
Yet at the same time, we were all claiming on here that the player that deserved it most was Wesley Sneijder rather than Messi,so what is the difference between Sneijder and Ribery? I don't see any difference at all.
Heynckes should win it. If he had not won the Treble then Ferguson should have won it for wrestling back the title in his final season.