Sometimes a spark is enough to turn on old embers. The release of Cristiano Ronaldo, erecting victory in the Champions League as a sine qua no condition for obtaining the Ballon d'Or, was this spark. Franck Ribéry's response, scathing from Irony, was the conflagration. Beyond the anecdote and the clash on social networks, this pass of weapons poses a legitimate question: is the spike of the former Bavarian is only a simple personal resentment or the recall of a deeper truth on the inconsistencies of this trophy?
Ronaldo vs Ribéry, selective memory of legends
Basically, difficult to prove Franck Ribéry wrong. His tackle is a mirror stretched in Cristiano Ronaldo. In 2013, the French precisely embodied the criterion that the Portuguese defends today: he had won everything, including this famous Champions League, but had seen the trophy escape him in favor of this same Ronaldo. Ribéry's replica underlines the variable geometry of arguments with cruel relevance. It highlights the fact that the legends of the game, once far from the race, sometimes tend to rewrite the rules of a game which they have long benefited, without ever questioning its “value” when they were the winners.
On the form, however, the reaction of the former French international transpires the bitterness of a wound never closed. The release of Ronaldo, as questionable as it is, concerned the candidates of 2025 and was not a personal attack. By bringing it back to his own case, Ribéry brings the debate to a personal prism, that of an “injustice” which he never digested. His answer, as fair as it is in fact, is also that of an injured man who takes an opportunity in gold to settle an old account, transforming a general debate into a personal affair.
Golden ball: the eternal vague that Ribéry highlights
Ballon d'Or, a trophy with moving rules
Finally, this clash is above all the magnifying mirror of what has become of the Ballon d'Or: a trophy with queen subjectivity, where the criteria fluctuate according to seasons, extraordinary individual performances and media narratives. There is no rule engraved in marble, and it is precisely this vagueness that nourishes controversies, frustrations and feelings of injustice. The Ribéry-Ronaldo episode is only the crystallization of decades of insoluble debates: should we reward pure talent or the record? The individual or his contribution to the collective?
So, was Ribéry right? Yes, in the sense that his spike is a necessary recall of the inconstancy of judgments and the selective memory of some. More than just a tackle, his reaction is a testimony. The testimony that behind the statistics and ceremonial smiles, the Ballon d'Or also leaves unfinished scars and stories. And that in the opinion court, the verdicts of the past can always be questioned.
