RIBBERY ROBBED

The World was keen on Monday night awaiting to see who would be crowned the best player in 2013,commonly known as the Balloon D' Or.With three great candidates contesting for the accolade,this was a tough and hard to predict contest.Lionel Messi was once again in the list looking to grab his fifth consecutive title,Cristiano Ronaldo was aiming at his second while Frank Ribbery was the new face,appearing for the first time and expecting to win his first ever ballon d' or.

Judging from the announced winner who was Ronaldo,it proved something of a robbery on the French man,Frank Ribbery who amongst the contenders,deserved it the most.Lionel Messi's argument for not taking the title back home was much clear,his 2013 career was marred with injuries that started back in April.He made few impacts but when he was around for even seconds,you could surely feel his presence on the pitch.Judge from their match against PSG in the UCL quarter-finals second leg where he was brought in as a substitute when not yet fully recovered to see his club cruise to the semi-finals.This narrowed the likely winners to the other two,but who deserved it the most?

Its undisputed that Ronaldo is one of the best players in this generation,but as many people have been quoted saying,he is unlucky to find himself in Messi's error.However,looking at the performances in 2013,his other counterpart,Ribbery had done much job in seeing his team win a treble as Ronaldo ended the year trophy-less.Not to forget that Ronaldo's best performance was only evident on the later stages of the year when he helped his country qualify to the World Cup with an hat-trick and scoring more goals  in laliga to top the score sheet.No player can be judged by these few matches yet 2013 was a whole year with many matches.Many people may argue that Ribbery's Bayern Munich was not dependent on him and it had no outstanding player rather it was a teamwork success.This is not the best way to urgue because no player can carry a whole team without the support of fellow teammates.Ribbery was picked from the team because of certain traits that fellow teammates lacked.His dribbling skills,fast pace,long-range shots and almost accurate free-kicks gave him the cutt-age over his fellow teammates.

The only factor which draws Ribbery back behind Ronaldo is goals.He is not a player who scores more goals as the other contenders but does this mean that this title should only be provided to individuals who score more than 60goals in a year?Earlier before the emergence of Messi and Ronaldo,the winners of this tiltle were not good goalscorers but had qualities that shocked many in their respective years.Fabio canavaro was a defender,Ronaldinho never scored as much goals as Messi and Ronaldo,Kaka,Shevchenko among others name them.These players did not have to score many goals to win the title,so why rob Ribbery his title?

With this trend,this award will be confined to only top scorers but not great performers in football.The World's Football Governing Body,FIFA, should address the current trends to avoid undermining certain personalities that are worth recognition and awarding.