Ballon d’Or 2013: When Franck Ribery felt 'robbed' as Cristiano Ronaldo won award after vote controversy

The 2013 Ballon d’Or will go down as one of the most controversial years in the award’s history as Franck Ribery was “robbed”. Cristiano Ronaldo won his second Ballon d’Or, five years on from his first title, with Lionel Messi finishing as the runner-up and Ribery in third. Ad Ronaldo won 27.99 per cent of the vote, Messi 24.72 and Ribery 23.36.

Ballon d'OrBallon d’Or betting odds: Who is the favourite to win the award?3 HOURS AGO At the time, Ribery was widely tipped to win the award after he led Bayern Munich to a historic treble, winning the Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB-Pokal. He provided the assist to Arjen Robben, who scored the match-winning goal in the Champions League final as well as scoring 34 goals in all competitions. The winger won the UEFA Best Player in Europe award, before scoring in the Super Cup as Bayern Munich beat Chelsea.

In comparison, Ronaldo won no silverware with Real Madrid that season, although he did score a remarkable 66 goals from 56 games. However, Ribery was a different player to Ronaldo back then as the Portuguese international’s job was to score goals. On the other hand, Ribery was a creative player and tested the world’s best full-backs down the flanks.

Ballon d’Or 2013 voting controversy The deadline for the vote in 2013 was originally November 15, but it was extended for the first time in the competition’s history by two weeks due to a lack of “eligible voters”. UEFA president Michel Platini joked that FIFA did it “to please” Ronaldo. In this period, Ronaldo scored a spectacular hat-trick which secured qualification for Portugal to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.