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Franck Ribery on Cristiano Ronaldo Not Deserving the FIFA Ballon d’Or
While it was pretty quiet on the Lionel Messi front after missing out on the Ballon d’Or for the first time in four years, Franck Ribery was a bit more disappointed that Cristiano Ronaldo, and not him, got to be awarded with the honor, and that Bayern Munich didn’t have as many players as he would like in the FIFA team of the year.
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Cristiano Ronaldo – Human After All
Whether Cristiano Ronaldo deserved to win the Ballon d’Or for 2013 or not is besides the point. He has and that’s over. The issue now is that in a world with so many bigger, more important achievements to be had, this golden football he has been waiting so long for has made him cry and look more human than ever before.
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Cristiano Ronaldo, Ballon d’Or Winner, Not Messi or Ribery
As expected, Cristiano Ronaldo is the 2013 Ballon d’Or winner, finishing ahead of Franck Ribery and Lionel Messi in the voting for FIFA’s most prestigious individual award, given to him for a fantastic individual season with Real Madrid and Portugal, even though he didn’t win a single team title.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Back With a Bang
It’s been quite a while since Lionel Messi last played for Barcelona, two months to be exact. All that time out, and it took him less than half an hour to bag himself a brace on his return, showing he’s quite ready for his team’s biggest match of the season this weekend.
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Ballon d’Or – Cristiano Ronaldo Going Because He Knows He’ll Win
It turns out Cristiano Ronaldo is bigger than the actual game of football, because he’s actually agreed to attend the FIFA annual gala, where the Ballon d’Or award will be presented, probably to him.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic Loving the Attention
In a time when most leagues or no vacation and only the Premier League carrying on like players shouldn’t rest, it doesn’t take much to generate news. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is always interesting, but his remarks on both Lionel Messi being a teammate of his at PSG and his possible future with Celtic in Scotland managed to draw plenty of attention.
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Cristiano Ronaldo Really Wants the Ballon d’Or, So Give It To Him
There will be no rest and peace of mind for Cristiano Ronaldo until he knows he’s finally outdone Lionel Messi in an awards ceremony. For all that he’s done this past year, he might finally have the edge over his “rival”, and his most recent goal scoring spree for Real Madrid will be the clincher in his campaign to win the Ballon d’Or.
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Cristiano Ronaldo – His Campaigning Seems to be Working in Spain
We might hear from Cristiano Ronaldo time and time again that he doesn’t care about awards, only about success with Real Madrid. However, he usually contradicts himself by talking about himself, about Sepp Blatter, about FIFA and the Ballon d’Or. It seems that all the words he’s been using have sunk in with La Liga officials, inventing an award especially for him, separate from the rest, that were given to players who were voted to it.
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FC Barcelona – Gerardo Martino Knows Records Mean Nothing, Titles Do
Does Gerardo Martino care that he’s only one match away from equaling the mark set by Guardiola’s side during the 2011-12 campaign, when Barcelona began the season by avoiding defeat in their first 21 games? Not really. He focuses on wins, sure, but eventually, what matters are the titles he ends up with.