The Ballon d'Or battle: Who should win it this time?

The Ballon D’Or

Its back! Isn’t it? The battle of the best. The battle of the consistent. The battle of the greats. The battle of the superior.

Every year, at this time, they continue to battle among their rivals with the whole footballing world as the witness. They try to solve the problem. Their problem. The final problem. They are better, but who is the best? A question, the answer of which is unexplainable for a common football fan.

Filter the whole ocean of footballers, around the world, and you will get these two names towering above the rest – Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. They tower above anyone else every season consistently and hence can be considered as the bests.

They have come back yet again, bringing with them the prayers of the young and the wishes of the veterans. Once they come back, there is certainly no stopping them. They, trying to prove themselves better than the others, cross the level of imagination of many and bring lights in the hearts of millions.

This year also, it’s the same process all over again with one huge, maybe accolade-deciding, element which makes the competition much more interesting, tough and delicate – the one who has lost it the last three times has hit back even harder. This year many think Cristiano Ronaldo deserves it but you simply can’t think that Messi doesn’t.

Ribery, after all his heroics, may have to settle with a second or possibly third. (Photo by Harry Engels/Getty Images)

First of all, let’s take a look at Franck Ribery, the one many think deserves the ‘World Player of the year’ because he helped Bayern in reaching their record-breaking treble. He has scored 7 and assisted 6 this season while conceding 2 yellow cards. He was the strongest pillar of the Bayern team last season. While he has done extremely well with Bayern last season, he hasn’t done well enough for Le Blues. He was missing in France’s matches against Ukraine in the World Cup qualifiers and he also hadn’t done prolific in the matches before. He still has a great chance of winning the Ballon d’Or because he has won more trophies than either Messi or Cristiano last season.

Then come the all-timers, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But, let’s peek at the four-time victor first.

Messi may not be able to make it five in a row this season. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Lionel Messi, Barcelona and Argentina luminary has faded from the original picture this season scoring only 14 goals and providing 4 assists, something very low if compared to his standards. It is still something no one else can match but as they say, legends are created on a knife’s edge and he still has to do more in order to get back to his best. He, last season, was forced to play even if he had a, then, minor injury which later changed into a major one because of his carelessness and the Barca management’s recklessness. According to many, even some of his Barca teammates, he has not been up to the mark this season and hence doesn’t deserve a fifth successive World Player of the year title.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the front runner for this year’s Ballon D’Or. Lets see if he takes it home. (Photo by Martin Rose/Getty Images,)

Now, after everyone, comes the one with the most probability of winning the Ballon d’or, Cristiano Ronaldo. He has been nothing less than the greats at their best. Scoring goals, providing assists, deciding matches and taking his team to the world cup in stunning fashion with a hat-trick shows what he can do and what he is up to. He has scored an astounding 24 goals this season while providing 5 assists and conceding 3 yellows.  He, without a doubt, is the front runner for the award and more so after shattering Swedish dreams of reaching the world cup in breathtaking fashion, something that even the great Ibrahimovic applauded. He is the favorite, according to me, for the Ballon D’or and if he doesn’t win it this time, his dreams to win it shall forever be locked.

So here we are, with all the biggest competitors in the modern game trying to prove what they are capable of to the world and trying to solve the final problem. There is going to be one hell of a competition this time around as the bests of the European game lock horns to reach the award first.

We, the fanatics can just sit back, wait and watch them. If our favorite one wins, we will jump on the couch like a mad and if he loses, we will try to console ourselves by saying that he didn’t deserve this time or by arguing that FIFA was biased toward the winner but there is one thing everybody will enjoy, a competition in which the world will decide who is the best! Now, for all the Ribery, Messi or Ronaldo fans, there is nothing to do but post Facebook posts and tweets on why their much loved favorite should win the competition.