Ballon d'Or: Profiling the three contenders for the title of the world's best footballer in 2014
Monday 12 January 2015 11:15, UK
Two familiar names and a World Cup hero will vie for the ultimate personal accolade in football at the Ballon d'Or awards on Monday night. James Galloway takes a closer look at the contenders.
Football may be a team game, but managers need stars just as much as fans need heroes and on Monday night one of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi or Manuel Neuer will be awarded the prestigious FIFA Ballon d'Or.
In an unprecedented era of domination by two men, Ronaldo, last year’s winner, and four-time victor Messi have shared the award between them over the last six years, but for Bayern Munich and Germany star Neuer, it represents a rare appearance for a goalkeeper on the final shortlist.
Who deserves the 2014 award the most? We assess the three candidates…
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo in 2014:
Real Madrid: 51 games, 56 goals / Portugal: 9 games, 5 goals
Total: 60 games, 61 goals
Trophies won: Champions League, Spanish Cup, Super Cup, Club World Cup
Having broken Lionel Messi's stranglehold on the award in 2013, Cristiano Ronaldo is the red-hot favourite to make it back-to-back triumphs after another scintillating 12-month period in which the Portuguese has plundered a glut of goals. Since Messi broke the world goal-scoring record for a calendar year in 2012, the perception has been that the Argentine genius, in part due to injuries, has slightly dipped from the rarefied realm he was operating in for several seasons, whereas Ronaldo, fast approaching 30, has found a new peak.
It's now become so routine to see the Real Madrid star's scoring statistics as showing better than one goal in every game that it's actually no longer surprising. Such repeatedly astonishing feats should continue to be held in awe however, particularly when they contribute to the winning of football's biggest prizes. That was certainly the case in 2014 as Ronaldo, at the fifth attempt since arriving at the Bernabeu from Manchester United, finally got his hands on the Champions League trophy as a Real Madrid player. The Portuguese's penalty put the icing on Real's dramatic extra-time victory over city rivals Atletico and was certainly fitting given he contributed 17 goals during the course of Real’s run to a coveted 10th European title, a new competition record.
While injury kept him out of his side's Copa del Rey final triumph against arch rivals Barcelona, the lowpoint of Ronaldo's year ultimately came in Brazil at the World Cup when Portugal meekly bowed out in the group stage thanks in part to an opening game thumping by eventual champions Germany. Battling against an injured knee, the task of captaining a hardly-vintage Portuguese side to any achievement of note was always going to be a tall order, and anyway Ronaldo had more than done his bit to get them there in the first place with a hat-trick to turn the tide in their play-off match against Sweden the previous November.
In short, with more than 60 goals to his name along with an array of team and personal accolades in 2014, it proved another phenomenal year from a truly phenomenal player.
Lionel Messi
Messi in 2014:
Barcelona: 52 games, 50 goals / Argenti
