The judgement day to announce which of the three Ballon d’Or 2014 nominees – Lionel Messi, Manuel Neuer and Cristiano Ronaldo – will be crowned the world’s best player has finally arrived.
If you are the goalkeeper and national team football type, you will go for Manuel Neuer. Last year, he powered Germany to World Cup glory and despite falling 5-0 on aggregate to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, he still achieved great things individually. He made a total of 98 saves throughout 2014 and picked up 24 clean sheets from 44 matches in a Bayern Munich shirt.
Lionel Messi, meanwhile, had an unusual trophyless year. His highlights in 2014 occurred in the middle of the year, when he inspired a defensive Argentina side throughout the World Cup tournament to reach the final. He eventually scooped the tournament’s Golden Ball and built on this achievement by becoming the UEFA Champions League and La Liga’s all-time topscorer, earlier this season.
Cristiano Ronaldo, all the same, stands as the favourite to land the 2014 Ballon d’Or award – possibly his third in his career. Reportedly unfit last summer, the Portuguese forward had a disappointing World Cup. He failed to make an impact in his country’s opening game of the competition which ended in an emphatic 4-0 defeat to Manuel Neuer’s Germany. Ronaldo scored only one goal and made only one assist as Portugal crashed out of the World Cup in the group stages. However, at club level, Ronaldo gunned down everyone by scoring the most amount of goals, breaking the most amount of individual records and lifting numerous trophies with Real Madrid.
So who gets your vote?
2014 FIFA Ballon d’Or Ceremony: Time, Date, Live Streaming links, TV listings
Today is Monday, January 12, 2015 – a date which football fans had circled long ago on their calendar. And here’s is our question at LiveSoccerTV: Why miss world football’s biggest gala of the year when you can watch absolutely every bit of it live on your mobile device, TV screen or computer?
LiveSoccerTV has compiled an exclusive list featuring accurate broadcast data from 145 countries worldwide ahead of the glamorous event.
From A to Z – Algeria to Zimbabwe – whether you’re in Africa, America, Asia, Europe, South America, the Middle East or Oceania, you can watch the 2014 FIFA Ballon d’Or gala live. The gala will be streamed live online on Youtube, FIFA.com, RMTV and Eurosport International among other online channels.***
Ballon d'Or 2014 ceremony kick-off: From 9:30am PST / 12:30pm ET / 17:30 GMT (If you are on another timezone, click here to see the kick-off time in your local time)
Ballon d'Or 2014 ceremony broadcast: All you have to do is to go to the 2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or page for live stream buttons (clickable moments before kick-off). However, please note:
2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or Ceremony: Live streaming geo-restrictions
***Live streaming geo-restrictions apply for the following 25 countries across the globe (if you are located in these countries, the 2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or ceremony will only be accessible on TV):
• USA
• Algeria
• Bahrain
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Egypt
• France
• Iran
• Iraq
• Japan
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Libya
• Mauritania
• Morocco
• Oman
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Somalia
• Sudan
• Syria
• Tunisia
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen
