Golden balls
Can anyone prize individual awards from Messi and Ronaldo?
Football changed in 2007. Nobody noticed at the time but it is there in black and white. That was the year that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo first took their place on the podium for the FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d’Or awards and they have been there ever since. Kaka won the award back then, if anyone remembers, with Messi second and Ronaldo third, but the pair have been the only winners since the Brazilian, with the titles swapping between them for almost a decade. Ronaldo and Messi have been ever present on the podium during that time. They were there for the final two years when the awards remained separate – the players split the final two FIFA World Player of the Year awards (Ronaldo in 2008, Messi in 2009) and it was the same outcome for the France Football Ballon d’Or in both years – and after awards merged to become the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010. Indeed, the duo have traded first and second place on every podium since 2008 except for the first awards of the FIFA Ballon d’Or era in 2010 when Andres Iniesta came second to Messi and Ronaldo was consigned to third. It’s fair to say that Ronaldo and Messi have completely dominated the six years of the FIFA Ballon d’Or. The Argentine has lifted the award four times – 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015 – while his Portuguese rival picked it up in both 2013 and 2014.
New era
For 2016, France Football are back in control of the Ballon d’Or once again, resurrecting the award which they introduced in 1956. Meanwhile, FIFA have chosen not to reintroduce their FIFA World Player of the Year award they began in 1991, instead marking the 25th anniversary of that with their inaugural Best Men’s Player award in early January. Will anything change following this split? Not likely. There may be a 30man shortlist but Ronaldo is the favorite to lift a fourth Ballon d’Or when it is announced on Monday. In fact, he has already been told he has won it
according to Mundo Deportivo, with the Spanish sports paper declaring that both he and Real Madrid had been notifified notified of his victory in order to facilitate France Football’s photoshoot ahead of the magazine’s release next Tuesday, just hours after the announcement at the awards ceremony which is streamed live sister publication L’Equipe.
It would not be unexpected if the Portuguese won. Ronaldo has had quite the year, describing it as the best of his career, despite the widespread view that he is on the wane.
He lifted the Champions League with Real Madrid, top scoring in the competition and firing in the winning penalty over city rivals Atletico Madrid to cap a season where he once again scored more than 50 goals for his club.
On the international stage, his goals helped Portugal progress to the final of the European Championships in Paris and despite going off injured against the hosts Ronaldo was on the sidelines as he encouraged his teammates to an unlikely victory.
While he has struggled to recover from the injury that curtailed his Euros final, it has been his worst start to a season since joining Real Madrid, he still scored a hat-trick in the derby – overtaking Alfredo di Stefano as the greatest derby scorer in the process – and Real sit top of La Liga.
Messi’s 2016 has not been too shabby either. His goals were instrumental to Barcelona lifting the Spanish title once again and he dragged Argentina to the final of the Copa America Centenario in the USA where they lost to Chile.
He became his country’s topscorer during the Copa before deciding to retire from international football following the final, only to change his mind since, and frighteningly he has made his best ever start to a season in 2016-17.
There’s little doubt that the record winner of the Ballon d’Or would be deserving of a sixth crown.
Battle for third
One or the other will win, but who will join them on the podium?
Of the other 28 players on the Ballon d’Or shortlist, Antoine Griezmann makes the most compelling case for being named the best of the rest after a season where he top scored in the Euros and finished runnerup at both that tournament and in the Champions League.
The Frenchman has already been named – with Ronaldo and Messi, of course – in the shortlist of three for FIFA’s impending Best Men’s Player and it would be little shock if the votes of the journalists canvassed by France Football echoed the game’s governing body.
In making that shortlist – and potentially finishing third on Monday – Griezmann has become only the eighth player to share a podium with Messi and Ronaldo.
Aside from Iniesta’s second place in 2010, third spot has been shared between Neymar, Manuel Neuer, Iniesta and Franck Ribery (twice).
Of that list, Griezmann is 25 and Neymar is 24 so time is on their side to dislodge 29-year-old Messi and 31-year-old Ronaldo but not yet.
For the foreseeable future the rest of football is confined to competing for the title of third best player on the planet.