Cristiano Ronaldo
The Real Madrid forward had one of his best performing seasons, finishing the 2013 calendar year with 69 goals scored in 60 games, combining his appearances at both club and national team level. From those 69 goals, he got to score 59 out 51 matches for Real Madrid, while netting 10 in 9 games for Portugal. He broke his own personal record for the most goals scored in a single calendar year [69], became the UEFA Champions League 2012-13 top goalscorer with 12 goals and played a decisive role in leading Portugal straight through into Brazil’s 2014 FIFA World Cup. At the end of 2013, he was also the top goalscorer in La Liga and this season’s UEFA Champions League, on which he set a new all-time record for the most goals scored during the group stage . His individual stats are by far the most impressive when looking at the 3 FIFA Ballon d’Or candidates and the only thing weighing against him has to due with the fact that Real Madrid didn’t get their hands into any silverware during any stage of 2013.
Ronaldo is still by far the favorite to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or according to SkyBet odds and only a shocking surprise this Monday night would result in Ronaldo not adding his 2nd Ballon d’Or to his new museum in Madeira.
Lionel Messi
Barcelona’s living legend and the club’s top goalscorer of all-time, has already won 4 straight consecutive FIFA Ballon d’Or (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012). He has not had what we could call a bad year, but judging his numbers to his own standards, he has also had a year far from being perfect. Lionel Messi finished 2013 with 45 goals in 46 games. He had a perfect 39 goal and game record for Barcelona and scored 6 times in 7 matches for his home country Argentina. As usual, the 26-year old forward was a vital piece in Barça’s season last year, but had a big setback in September in a game against Almería, when he suffered a harsh thigh injury. Those muscle problems would force him to sit out for roughly the whole last 3 months of 2013 and somehow, many still believe that it might had been enough to put him out of the FIFA Ballon d’Or race this year.
Frank Ribery
If the FIFA Ballon d’Or was a race on which club titles weighed more as a voting factor as they do now, then Franck Ribery would certainly be in the pole position to take home his first ever Ballon d’Or. That doesn’t seem to be the case though and the most likely scenario is that the Frenchman will leave Zurich this Monday night with empty pockets, despite a memorable season at the helm of Bayern Munich’s historic treble. Ribery scored a total of 22 goals in 47 games throughout 2013, 18 of those for Bayern Munich (in 40 appearances) and 4 for France (out of 7 matches). He has been very important in Bayern Munich’s campaign last season, leading the way to win the Champions League, Bundesliga, German Cup and UEFA Super Cup, as well as helping his home nation getting the ticket for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. However, he doesn’t exactly carry neither France or Bayern Munich on his shoulders, at least not as Ronaldo and Messi seem to do with the teams they represent.
Bayern Munich won everything they have competed at in 2013 and even though it could be debatable that Franck Ribery was in fact the team’s main figure in most of the decisive games they’ve had (Arjen Robben has also been quite important in several stages of the season), the Frenchman was probably the most regular high-performance player that the Bavarian team had at their disposal.
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