COMMENT: The Portuguese superstar may have won the last two Ballon d’Or trophies but he should be nowhere the podium when the 2015 prize is handed out on Monday.Lionel Messi will make a triumphant return to the stage at the Fifa Ballon d’Or ceremony in Zurich on Monday. He will probably take home the Puskas Award for best goal too.

There is no doubt that the Barcelona No. 10 deserves to be crowned as the best player in the world following the two-year reign of Cristiano Ronaldo. Barcelona have been the best team since last January; Messi has been the best player. Of that there is little dispute.

Neymar and Ronaldo will be present at the gala and will settle for their place in Messi’s slipstream as the second and third placed entrants. Neymar is well deserving of his recognition after completing a treble with Barcelona and going some way towards fulfilling his potential as the world’s best player in the making.

Cristiano Ronaldo though? Can anybody say with conviction that he belongs on the stage with Messi and Neymar this year? Surely only the most devoted of CR7 supporters. In truth, 2015 was neither a good year for Ronaldo – despite earning some awards for his goalscoring milestones – nor Real Madrid as a whole. They dropped their status as the best team in the world and Ronaldo has dropped in esteem, again, to his great rival Messi. He should not only slip to second place; he should slip off the podium altogether.

This is not intended as an attack on Ronaldo. It is merely putting forward the case that his name only appears on the ballot because of the reputation he earned over the years. He did not have an extraordinary 2015, he did not lead his team to any titles, he was simply not one of the three best performers over the course of the year.

Who was? Try these. Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic and Arturo Vidal all deserve to be on the podium before Ronaldo. Let’s start with Suarez. The Uruguayan made a slow start to his Barcelona career due to a period of inactivity caused by a suspension for a bite on Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup. He hit his stride at the turn of the year, however, and has barely looked back since.

From scoring winning goals in Clasicos to deciding Champions League finals, he has become more important to Barcelona than anyone else other than Messi.

Team-mate Rakitic is also worthy of acclaim. Xavi is quite rightly lauded as one of the most important midfield players in the history of Barcelona but the way that the Swiss-born playmaker has taken to life at Camp Nou, you would be forgiven for thinking that Xavi is not missed by many.

Barcelona are a quicker, more direct team these days and there is a frenetic energy about them in an attacking sense that was, perhaps, absent when Xavi was pulling the strings. Rakitic is the man who blends together that solidity in midfield with awesome attacking power. Barca would not be the same team without him.

He does not dictate the play in the same way Xavi did but he is no less influential. He covers enough ground to make sure the Three Kings up front can conserve their energy for attacking, gives the team natural balance and puts fires out in a defensive sense. It is only because he is not a forward that Rakitic fails to get more credit.

Likewise, another midfielder who enjoyed his most productive 12 months to date was Arturo Vidal. He joined Bayern Munich from Juventus over the summer and, as well as excelling for his two club sides in 2015, he also led his nation Chile to continental glory at the summer’s Copa America.

Vidal was named in the best squad of the tournament and was, more often than not, la Roja‘s most important figure during their fixtures in Santiago.

He may have had to settle occasionally for a supporting role at Juventus as niggling injuries curtailed his impact but he was still a key component in Masimilliano Allegri’s double-winning team which also reached the Champions League final.

Despite not being the Pep Guardiola prototype, he has also found his way at Bayern where he has ranked among their most impressive men of the season.

It is not all about goals or all-star legacy. In the case of Suarez, Rakitic and Vidal, it is about hard work, humility and action.

Those three could be said to be support players in one sense or another but stars like Messi or Ronaldo only have the platform they enjoy because of people like them.

Goal.com

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