Ronaldo did not win anything & does not deserve Ballon d’Or – Ribery

• Posted on January 20, 2014January 20, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Frenchman has ridiculed the outcome of the award, while also voicing his dismay with the absence of several Bayern stars in the Fifa FifPro World XI

Bayern Munich star Franck Ribery has slammed the outcome of the 2013 Fifa Ballon d’Or and feels Real Madrid attacker Cristiano Ronaldo did not deserve to win the award as the Portugal international did not collect any trophies last year.

Ribery initially reacted calmly after last week’s Fifa gala in Zurich as he had to settle for third spot in the election behind Ronaldo and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, stating that the prestigious individual award was not one of his goals.

However, the Frenchman has now voiced his frustration after all as he believes he should have won the award following his successful 2013 with the Bavarians.

“I won everything I could win with Bayern and individually. Ronaldo on the other hand did not win anything,” Ribery told AZ.

“I am not sad that I missed out, but it does hurt a bit. I deserved to win the Ballon d’Or.

“It was clear that Ronaldo would win it. The voting deadline was extended by two weeks. This had never happened before. It wasn’t about football. It was a political decision.”

Ribery then went on to criticise the FifPro World XI as just three Bayern players made the cut against four Barcelona players.

“There are only three Bayern players in there. That’s madness. [Thomas] Muller deserves to be there, and so do [David] Alaba, [Bastian] Schweinsteiger and [Arjen] Robben. We won five titles and made history.

“And then there’s the absence of Borussia Dortmund players… Where are [Mario] Gotze and [Robert] Lewandowski? This is impossible.”

Incidentally, Gotze left Signal Iduna Park for the Allianz Arena last summer while Lewandowski will join Pep Guardiola’s side at the end of the current season.

-Goal