Franck Ribery is still having trouble digesting this episode!
Few players have come close to rivaling the Martian duo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. But he is one of them. As the two footballing giants marched across Europe, Franck Ribery came to sit at their table. In 2013, the French international, at the height of his career, was one of three finalists for the Ballon d’Or. The favorite, he was ultimately overtaken by the Portuguese, even though voting was ultimately extended by two weeks.
“I was leading the journalists.”
“CR7” ultimately topped the ranking with 27.99% of the vote, Lionel Messi second with 24.72%, and Ribery with 23.36%. More than 10 years later, the former Bayern Munich player still doesn’t understand this, as he explained in a long interview with the newspaper L’Équipe this Saturday. “I had everything except that that year (he points to a shelf in his trophy room at home): the Champions League, the Bundesliga-German Cup double, the Club World Cup, the title of best European player… It was the perfect year. I couldn’t have done better,” recalls the French international, still touched by what he considers an injustice: “That Ballon d’Or will forever remain an injustice. I’m still looking for an explanation, even if some have given me one. I’ll never understand why the closing of the ballot was pushed back more than two weeks… I was leading the journalists. If the vote had been the same as today, I would have won. But Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo always showed me respect. They knew I was at their table. In all humility, in 2013, I had nothing to envy them for.” Legitimate regrets.
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