Ahead of the 2023 Ballon d’Or award, we take a dash to nearly a decade ago, when Franck Ribery branded the 2013 Ballon d’Or award as the “biggest robbery” of his career.
Ribery finished behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo who went home with the prestigious individual honor.
Despite helping Bayern Munich win a handful of trophies in the year 2013, his efforts went unrewarded.
He assisted the Bavarians to win the UEFA Champions League, German Bundesliga, DFB-POKAL, UEFA Super Cup, and Club World Cup in that calendar year.
Franck Ribery scored 23 goals and provided 20 assists for Bayern Munich during the year 2013.
However, Cristiano Ronaldo still went home with the award despite not winning any trophy with Real Madrid that season.
Individually, Ronaldo had the better statistics regarding goal contribution, as he scored 69 goals and provided 15 assists in 59 matches.
Franck Ribery finished 3rd in the 2023 Ballon d’Or shortlist
It would interest you to note that Ribery didn’t even finish 2nd on the shortlist, he finished 3rd, behind Lionel Messi and eventual winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 2013 award was the 6th year in a row that either Messi or Ronaldo went home with the prestigious honor, and at that point, it was a worrying trend.
An award that was meant to reward the best-performing footballer for the year, appeared to have begun tilting to a popularity contest.
Seeing the 2010 Ballon d’Or, and the way it turned out with Lionel Messi beating Wesley Sneijder to the individual honor, many were quick to draw conclusions over the award 3 years later.
It appeared like the organizers of the award were enabling a situation whereby popularity rules actual individual brilliance witnessed during the calendar year.
Speaking to German paper Bild in 2014, Franck Ribery termed the award as one that is politically driven.
He said: “The 2013 Ballon d’Or was the biggest robbery of my career. It was injustice.
“There is a lot of politics involved. I saw how Blatter was hugging Cristiano Ronaldo and how his entire family was there. I’m not stupid. It was clear FIFA wanted him to win it.”
FIFA and Ballon d’Or partnership
The award was then jointly given by FIFA and France Football, having entered into a partnership in 2009.
However, in 2016 both parties decided to go seperate ways, and the award has taken a different outlook since then.
The Ballon d’Or is normally given out in October and the yardstick for players winning the award is their performances throughout the previous season.
For FIFA, the governing body of football usually hold their award ceremony either at the commencement or end of a particular year.
It majorly takes into account the performances of players for the calendar year, and looking ahead to the 2023 Ballon d’Or Award, two names continue to reverberate in the minds of football enthusiasts.
2023 Ballon d’Or Award
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi are the players tipped for the honor, with many sitting on different ends of the divide.
However, two words are prevalent in the assertions of many, and that is “individual brilliance” and “politics” or “popularity contest”.
Some believe “politics” or “popularity contest” might be on show come October 30, 2023, if Lionel Messi does go home to win the award, ahead of the “individually brilliant” Erling Haaland.
Whichever spectrum you are standing, only time will tell if (based on your parameter) France Football will give out the Ballon d’Or to the individually brilliant player for 2023.
