Ballon d'Or 2013: Why Lionel Messi has done enough to win his 5th

Lately, a certain Portuguese attacker's name comes to everyone's lips—with his rampant displays for club and country. Cristiano Ronaldo, that is. His perfectly executed hat-trick against the Blågult in Sweden on November 19, which followed his match winner in the first leg of this World Cup Qualifying Playoff tie, has got people touting Cristiano Ronaldo again for the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or to be awarded in January.

But what about Lionel Messi, the reigning holder of this prize? Last season wasn’t his best by his lofty standards, with some as far as calling it a disappointment. Indeed, his individual achievements in 2011-2012 were outrageous and therefore hard to equal for any player, including Messi himself.

That season, La Pulga set a new record for the most goals scored in a calendar year. He did not only bag the most goals in all competitions (73) but impressively, the most assists (28) above any other La Liga-based player. So while Barcelona were unable to win the league title that year, the Argentine went on to net a record-breaking 91 goals in all appearances for club and country and set a new Spanish football benchmark with his 50 league strikes.

Expectations were high, then, for the Rosario native to somehow top that during the 2012/13 season. Barcelona again failed to win the Champions League but were able to wrest the league title away from Real Madrid. They eventually matched Los Blancos' 100-point record while Messi retained his Pichichi title thanks to his 46 goals.

And if the Catalan titans were eliminated in the Copa del Rey semis by Cristiano Ronaldo's side, Blaugrana supporters certainly took comfort in the fact that Real Madrid in turn lost in the final to city rivals Atletico. This meant that the only trophy Ronaldo and Real Madrid won last season was the Supercopa de España, in which the away-goals rule favoured the capital club.

Champions League fiasco? 

Last season, Barcelona succumbed to their worst ever Champions League defeat when they were mauled 7-0 on aggregate in the Last 4 by eventual winners Bayern Munich. This sent shock waves through the football world. However, one thing to remark is that Lionel Messi was not fully fit in the 4-0 first leg loss in Munich and was absent in the second leg due to a hamstring injury suffered in Barca's quarter-final match against PSG.

While not taking anything away from die Roten who became the first Bundesliga side to win the treble, many could argue that they may not have been able to make mincemeat of the Blaugrana had they had their talismanic no. 10 fit and ready to do what he does best. In fact, in his 11 appearances in Europe last term, Messi was involved in exactly the same number of goals, which represented all but seven of his team’s total 18 in their international campaign.

Such was his influence on his side that there was only one match in which he scored that the Blaugrana failed to win (against Scottish outfit Celtic in the group stages). If Messi went unseen in a surprise 2-0 defeat at the San Siro to AC Milan in February 2013, he more than made up for that in the second leg of this Champions League Last 16 tie.

His two strikes in the first half against the Rossoneri at the Camp Nou were enough to erase the deficit before David Villa and Jordi Alba sealed victory for the hosts. Barcelona eventually became the first side in Champions League history to successfully overturn a 2-0 deficit in the knockout stages.

So, while ultimately they weren’t successful in European continental football’s premier competition, neither was Real Madrid, who were also undone by German opposition. And, as Messi supporters love to gleefully—and accurately—point out, Los Blancos weren’t missing their best player when Robert Lewandowski stunned Real Madrid with his four-goal feat for Borussia Dortmund.

In fact, Cristiano Ronaldo played each minute of both semi-final legs and was only able to score once against die Schwarzgelben—his solitary goal giving the capital club a glimmer of hope during the second leg played at home, but not enough to undo the damage done by the Polish striker.

Important to take into account all work done, not just recent success

Numbers don’t lie (Messi stats in yellow; Ronaldo stats in blue):

Messi vs. his perpetual rival CR7 in the 2012-2013 season, showing his higher goal output despite fewer appearances (courtesy of messivsronaldo.net):