Time heals (almost) all wounds.
The Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, Champions League and even the DFL-Supercup; there is literally not a trophy that remained unclaimed by Bayern Munich and Franck Ribéry in the 2012-13 season.
A tremendously successful team performance was backed up by an extremely impressive individual performance by the mercurial Frenchman, scoring 11 goals and assisting 23 more across all competitions.
It therefore, came as a surprise to many footballing fans when Ribéry was snubbed the 2013 Ballon d’Or in favour of Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, even losing out to Barcelona’s Lionel Messi who came in second, one place ahead of the Frenchman.
Bayern Munich are no strangers to controversial Ballon d’Or decisions – Robert Lewandowski’s 2020 snubbing comes to mind – but Franck Ribéry’s loss in 2013 remains one of football’s greatest individual injustices.
“Injustice” were amongst the words the Bayern legend used to describe after being denied the award.
“It was the perfect year. I couldn’t have done better. That Ballon d’Or will forever remain an injustice. I’m still looking for the explanation. I’ll never understand why the closing date for the vote was extended by more than two weeks. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo always showed me respect. They knew I was at their table. With all humility, they weren’t better than me in 2013,” Ribéry explained to French sporting newspaper, L’Équipe (via @iMiaSanMia).
The 41-year-old clearly still remains sour from the snubbing 12 years ago and rightfully so.
Ribéry did everything a player could possibly have done to win the award, yet lost out to Cristiano Ronaldo who, in all fairness, had an exemplary individual season but failed to win a single piece of silverware.
Franck Ribéry’s 2013 Ballon d’Or snubbing will forever remain an example of how the Ballon d’Or’s flimsy voting criteria chops and changes to suit a narrative that always seems to punish, rather than reward, the efforts of Bayern Munich players.
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