Christiano Ronaldo and Edison Arantes do Nascimento, aka Pelé, supplied about the most poignant moments of the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or gala held January 13, 2013 at the Kongresshaus of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) in Zurich, Switzerland. Their emotional acceptance of the Player of the Year and Player of the 20th Century awards highlighted the relationship between player recognition and the establishment’s inclination.
More known for dominant displays on the football pitch, the pair’s quivering monologues in Zurich struck a wistful chord. Did the tears come from joy or relief? And were the individuals not the ones that harassed defenders, confused goalkeepers and mesmerised fans across the world?
Both typify the football prodigy, the kind that influences team tactics and the exit of neutral coaches. Despite official retirement from football in 1977 after a stint with New York Cosmos in a nascent North American Soccer League, Pele is as revered today as Ronaldo is feted.
In his pomp, Pelé or ‘O Rei’, meaning ‘The King’, was untouchable. A World Cup winner with the Selecao in 1958, he earned two more winners medals, the last at Mexico 1970. Declared a national treasure by a Brazil president, he notched 77 goals in 92 outings for Brazil and over 1, 000 goals throughout his career.
Ronaldo is unplayable. Last year’s feat of 69 goals in 60 matches for club and country recommends the winger’s supreme athleticism and mental fortitude. Despite resistance from defenders sharpened by improved diet and scientific grooming, the Portugal skipper continues to strike with cutting edge precision. His goals, of recent, sent Portugal through to the Brazil 2014 World Cup finals from a difficult play-off with a Sweden team parading the gifted Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Still, the idea that Ronaldo and Pelé sobbed out of relief seems plausible, considering their records and consuming rivalries with exceptional players. Largely at Ronaldo’s expense, Lionel Messi of Barcelona claimed FIFA’s top honour from 2009 to 2012. And some, particularly the 80s and 90s generation of football followers, hold that the exploits of Argentina legend Diego Maradona supersede Pelé’s.
An internet vote in 2000 for FIFA’s Footballer of the Century supports their position. The difference in playing era may account for the discrepancy, but Franz Beckenbauer and other icons of the game tip the scales in the Brazilian’s favour on account of greater discipline.
Maradona struck gold in Mexico too. His extraordinary efforts landed Argentina the 1986 World Cup trophy, the second major silverware after his coming out ball at the Under-20 World Youth Championship in Japan, 1979.
Ronaldo, on the other hand, suffers the fate of playing in the same period as Messi, thus allowing better comparison. And none but the superficial would argue that the Portuguese is the more talented player. On his day, ‘Messidona’ compares to none, as his sublime body feints and exquisite finishing validate. His performances draw comparison with Maradona, but he looks set to surpass his hero after his record 91 goals for club and country in 2012.
Following his annex of the now-defunct 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year award, Ronaldo reined in a series of awards for club and country – enough to start a museum in his native Madeira to which the latest accolade heads for display, by his admission. But his second place finish in voting for the 2009 award – the last of the World Player of the Year prize before FIFA and France Football merged their awards – as well as the 2011 and 2012 prizes apparently haunted him.
For footballers in the business of ego-fuelled performance, the need to be elevated by peers and managers is often a life-long pursuit. Ronaldo’s demeanour in Zurich vindicated the view as much as his words underlined the notion. “I am very happy; it is very difficult to win this award.”
Franck Ribery, who finished third in the voting with 1, 127 votes behind Messi’s 1,205 and Ronaldo’s 1,365 couldn’t resist a dig at his triumphant adversary. “I’m not a selfish player and the FIFA Ballon d’Or was not an objective of mine. I would rather win it all again with Bayern Munich and win the world title. That is what really matters,” he said to German paper Bild afterwards.
That is not exactly the truth. In the run-up to the ceremony, Ribery thought that winning the accolade was “now or never”.
Messi, whose injury-blighted 2013 campaign obviously splintered his chances, conceded defeat with grace. In justifying Ronaldo’s accomplishment, he discounted his own form. “I started the season injured. I was a long time out but that has nothing to do with it. Cristiano had a great year and he won on merit.”
Pele’s words at the occasion betrayed the anticipation of possessing the one award that eluded him partly because he never played in Europe; a feeling apparently bested by the privilege of accepting the award in person as opposed to, perhaps, posthumous honour. He said: “I got so many trophies and prizes but I was jealous because all of those guys who got the Ballon d’Or, which I couldn’t get because I didn’t play in Europe. Now I thank God that I can complete my trophies at home.”
Watching Ronaldo and Pele mingle with others on the stage, it was hard to tell who the night belonged to more: the brash, talented youngster not exactly enamoured of the establishment or the old magician who held it spell-bound. FIFA President Joseph Blatter said the first ever FIFA Ballon d’Or Prix d’Honneur went to “the greatest footballer to grace the pitch”.
Maradona will have a thing or two to say about that. The Argentine has lost none of his old spark as constant run-ins with authorities from his homeland to Italy and Qatar indicate. And Messi will be back. Never shy of braces and hat-tricks, he terrorises opponents across Spain and beyond once the bandages come off.
Beside the superiority debate, which remains ever subjective, FIFA President Joseph Blatter’s pre-award put-down of Ronaldo and FIFA’s extension of voting for the Ballon d’Or following a backlash from fans were significant. Official influence apparently counts as much as the voting process. That undercuts Messi’s unprecedented quadruple, and to some extent, Ribery’s third place finish.
If the award goes out to the player ‘considered to have performed best in the previous season by national team coaches and captains as well as journalists’, midfield dynamos Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta may have been as worthy of the 2009 and 2010 prizes. They pulled the strings as Spain conquered Europe and the world between 2008 and 2010. And for registering greater effect with his national team and Real Madrid, Ronaldo may as well claim the 2011 and 2012 rewards.
With the exception of Yaya Toure whose dominant and consistent displays for Manchester City and Ivory Coast fetched a
