Neymar won't get anywhere near the top 5 again in 2013. There is a small group of players who just seem immovable from those top places right now. They're so dominating that they'll easily finish ahead of Neymar even if their teams don't win much in 2013. We saw that in 2012. Plus no Copa Libertadores for Neymar this year. He has the Confederations Cup but that's not enough, even if he outperforms everybody which is unlikely.
LOL wanna bet they finish higher than mexico and Neymar scores more goals than any mexican player. []__[]
Who will win the Ballon D'or this season? My gut tells me the vote will go to a player on the team that wins the Champions League. Messi hasn't really has that *it factor* that favored him over previous CL winners. Just a hunch
No one on Dortmund is WPOTY quality (plus they finished 25 points back of Bayern). Ribery and Robben will split votes.
You're kidding right? Carried Barca to league win like no other, carried Barcelona one week in hamstring injury to CL-semifinal, scored 21 league games straight, and will win his record braking 3rd golden boot. Again nobody is individually close. What I think is that top 3 possibly will have somebody from CL-winning team, but that's probably it. Cronaldo has worse chance than last year, same for Iniesta. So I can see some new blood in top3, but can't really see anyone topping Messi.
My bad. I didn't realize Robben hasn't even played that many games this season Anyway, I don't think Ribery has had that 'it' factor either. His stats certainly don't jump off the page, even though that isn't the be-all, end-all.
It is just a gut feeling. Sure on paper Messi is the best, yet again. For some reason i'm thinking voters psychology will be, he already has the record number of Ballon D'ors, lets give someone else a chance? I'm probably dead wrong though since no player comes close when I think about it.
Robert Lewandowski! If Dortmund win the final and he is the hero (he would need to be for them to win it IMO, since Goetze wont play apparently), then he is definitely in contention for the Ballon D'or 2013.
This is a weird year because Messi is still probably the best player, but Ronaldo outshone him in all those mid season matchups. Bayern, who appears to be far and away the best team does not have one stand out player.
Messi far and away outshone CR7 over the course of the entire La Liga season. The La Liga Clasico's were more or less a wash between the two. They both scored twice in the 2-2 game in Barcelona while Messi scored once in the 1-2 game in Madrid.
If Spain wins Confederation Cup I think this is the year they give it to Iniesta if he has a good tournament. They been wanting to give it to him for a long time and his hype is always off the roof. Since this year no player has dominated the trophies nor the goal scoring above any others the votes will be split all over and he can win it with a small margin. []__[]
But he was nowhere in the Copa and in the CL as well. Ronaldo scored more goals than him in the Cl and there were even moments when Burak ( ) scored more goals than him this CL season. I think the Confederations Cup will decide who the 3rd candidate (Ronaldo and Messi are the first 2) will be.