Dani Alves: "I've had it up to here with the Ballon D'Or. It's as if the player who does the best campaign has the best chances of winning, it's a circus.

For me the player who should win it is the best player in the world, who scores goals and wins titles.

If you have to win best player of the year, your goals need to win your teams titles.Cristiano has to be more decisive. He’s always scored goals, but important ones?

With all due respect to Sweden, they were goals in a playoff, this can’t be considered important; it’s a playoff, please!

For me credit comes from qualifying directly, not by a playoff."

^But then if he was honest and said that Ronaldo does deserve it, then you would say that he is a fake fan. its a lose, lose, sorry tdot. It is almost impossible to be unbiased when selecting a Balon D'Or winner.

@tdot

Well, for starters, Ronaldo plays in every competition alongside Lionel Messi and Barcelona. Someone has to lose out.

Another thing is, Real Madrid were nowhere near Champions League contenders before Ronaldo came. Even then, they were merely a decent team, that got knocked out by Lyon. What's Ronaldo's accomplishment, you ask? His accomplishment is making Real Madrid one of the world's best teams again. Before he came, Real could not reach the quarters of the CL in 8 years. Four years after his arrival, Real reach the semis 3 times in a row (once losing out to Barcelona, on the controversy of Dani Alves himself. If we could tie 1-1 at the Camp Nou, I can't see why we couldn't have won the match at the Bernabeu with 11 men).

Messi, on the other hand, was always playing in a side that was a Champions League contending side. I mean, when the guy was 18, they won the Champions League. Shows how much quality he had to begin with. Why do you think Ronaldo had more chances at trophies with United? Because he shared only one competition with Messi, and his team was experienced and well put together by Ferguson. How many years have the Madrid starting XI today played together? We get a new face every year. Sometimes, we get 4 or 5 straight into the starting lineup (Ronaldo, Alonso, Benzema, Kaka, and Arbeloa all came at once. Ozil, di Maria, Khedira, and Carvalho all came at once). This creates a huge rift in understanding within the players. A rift you would not understand, as your team only gets a maximum of one new entry into the starting XI per year (Villa one year, Alexis the next, then Neymar two years later. I do not count either Alba, Pique, or Fabregas as they played with most of the starting XI as young'uns).

@tdot

"Messi has won the Ballon d'Or four years in a
row because he is the best player to ever play the sport. I'm not saying
Ronaldo is not one of the greats but he is not in Messi's category when
it comes to goals, trophies, reputation, etc, you name it."

Sigh, this is the typical analogy I see. I don't think you've been watching football for very long. Yes I know Messi is a better player than Ronaldo but that doesn't mean he should always win it. Couple of years ago people have said Zidane is the best player in his generation. (If you don't think of it that way replace with another player of your choice) Still, some other players have won it, like Luis Figo for instance. Is Luis Figo ever a better player than Zidane? Most people would say no, and that doesn't mean Zidane should always win it. Luis Figo has performed better than Zidane during that season so that's why he won it.

"By the way "1 or 2 might not have been deserved" can be argued. If this
is what you argue and if anyone agrees with this then they agree that
Ronaldo DOES NOT deserve the Ballon d'Or ahead of Ribery."

You are totally right, that's why I said "MIGHT". And yes, Ribery deserves the award if we look at it as Messi shouldn't have won 1 or 2 awards. But the criteria has changed and since Messi won those awards, shouldn't ronaldo win it as well?

"Firstly, it is argued that only one, not two isn't deserved."
OMG, I didn't know everyone thinks of it that way!!! /sarcasm
In all seriousness, I think Xavi or iniesta should have won it that year. Sometimes I do feel that Messi did deserve the award that year but this is pretty debatable.

"Ronaldo in the same season, netted 62 goals and 14 assists in 68 games for club and country but won NO trophy"
HAHAHA Funny how you mention that Messi won 4 trophies (the previous year) but failed to mention anything for Ronaldo. You just counted "supercopa" as a trophy, didn't you?
You've counted Messi goals and assists for only club (for 2009/2010) and I wonder why? How did Messi perform in the World Cup?
Trophies CANNOT be WON by just one player. It is a TEAM EFFORT. Ronaldo could have been won something that year if the team was united. You should be amazed how consistent he was even when there was trouble in the dressing room.

I'm not trying to diss Messi or anything but @tdot is making me question his anology. I don't think he realised how biased he sounds on his posts. If you want to debate, at least do it objectively.

Ballon d' Or has become about politics, before being with Fifa best player of the year, France football magazine gave Ballon d' Or votes to 400 journalists who were able to vote with the year stats and performence, i remember the year they gave it to Pavel Nedved...
But now, they changed the way of voting, its coaches and Captains of National teams who vote, when Sneider or Iniesta could have won by achievements in 2010, they gave it to Messi for his stats and performences...
Coach choice is about the players they want to have, and Messi/Ronaldo would be every year choice, as for National teams captains, many of them would be obliged to vote for a specific player.

If Ronaldo wins it this year, i would not be surprised because he was amazing this year and was unlucky in key Matches against Atletico (copa del rey final) and Dortmund (CL semi), but he shined in every other game.

Ribery has absolutely no chances of wining because of the votes change,most of journalists are for Ribery as they were for Sneider/Iniesta in 2010, but we all have seen how it is voted, and it will go another time to Messi-Ronaldo.

Im surprised that some captains and coaches are still thinking to rate Messi first, but for me if i would pick 3 players in order to play in my team, i would pick 1-Messi 2-Ronaldo 3- Ribery.Soi still think Messi have a small chance, and Alves knows it too....
I think Mourinho started this ugly methods of pointing rivals, and Barcelona started to use same methods when guardiola went Under Tito/Roura, I dont like trolling rivals but RM should not complain because they are World champions of using those methods....

They are all great players, and all deserve it this year, lets see the vote result...

One last thing : If Ronaldo wins it instead of Ribery, then all RM fans who said that 2012 was a steal should stop talking, Tdot explained it very well, Ronaldo has even not Messi 2012 stats and achievements and everybody is saying that he MUST win it. Just be objective next time...

My prediction :

1- Ronaldo
2- Messi
3- Ribery

@tiki_taka

lol at the pic but it should really be 1 title for Messi if you (or the person who made the pic) aren't going to count supercopa. I see fifa club world cup or the super cup in the same category as supercopa simply because only few teams can play.

Regarding to your post:

"One last thing : If Ronaldo wins it instead of Ribery, then all RM fans
who said that 2012 was a steal should stop talking, Tdot explained it
very well, Ronaldo has even not Messi 2012 stats and achievements and
everybody is saying that he MUST win it. Just be objective next time..."

Not sure if this is directed to me but I'll assume it is (if not then I apologize).
Ronaldo should win it because Messi won it. Is it fair to say that Ribery wins it and not Sneijder (in 2010)?

"all RM fans
who said that 2012 was a steal should stop talking"
Ballon n'or hasn't even been finalised yet. You should bring this up if people continue to talk after the results.

"Ronaldo has even not Messi 2012 stats and achievements and
everybody is saying that he MUST win it'
Did you even read my post above? I wonder who is really talking objectively? Whether Messi scored 1000 goals or 0 goals, it isn't even relevant this year. Yes, Messi has scored more (for that year) but Ronaldo scored more this year.

Ballon N'or shouldn't even be based only on stats but I'm not sure why you guys like to show stats so much. Yes Goals show consistency but like I said, goals are not the only way to show consistency in the game.
It really should be based on how consistent and a difference maker you are which is why Messi won those 4 awards. (whether it is controversial or not).

@tdot and @tiki_taka
Regarding this post: "1 or 2 might not have been deserved"
Btw I only mentioned this because I only wanted to make a point out how consistent (and good) Messi is despite the popular opinion over the controversy of those awards. I wasn't trying to make it to another "Does Messi deserve those awards" thread but someone didn't like what I wrote. I even said "MIGHT" which doesn't mean he should have never won it.

My prediction would be:

1- Ronaldo
2- Ribery
3- Messi

Why you may ask? Messi has been injured a lot this year so I can't see him winning it. I think it will be a close battle between Ronaldo and ribery. (I could be totally wrong of course.)