Ronaldo - Not Necessarily A Dead-Cert For Ballon d'Or

After being awarded the FIFPro World Footballer of the Year award this week, Cristiano Ronaldo looks odds on to take the coveted Ballon d'Or award in December. However, several influential figures in the game have given their backing to a host of other players who've also enjoyed impressive years for their clubs and countries. With this in mind, is Ronaldo the most deserving candidate, or should it be awarded to someone else?

Winning the Premier League, European Cup and chipping in with 42 goals will result in the Manchester United man making the top three at the very least. However, the European Championships this summer was supposed to provide the ideal platform for the winger to lead Portugal to their first major international trophy. It didn't quite work out that way, and the general consensus assessed he'd wasted the perfect opportunity to dispel any doubts that he was the best player in the world.

Injury at the start of the 2008/09 season has meant that it's been a slow start to the new campaign for Ronaldo - another factor which could work against the 23-year-old in his bid for the Ballon d'Or. But with one month to go to get back to his imperious best, which other players are likely to stand any chance of challenging him?

Winning the European Championships are likely to stand one or two players in good stead of placing in the Ballon d'Or top three. The man who scored the winning goal in the final against Germany, as well as settling into his new club with consummate ease, Fernando Torres became the first striker since Robbie Fowler in 1996 to score 20 goals in a season for Liverpool. And so far this season, the Merseyside club currently lie at the top of the Premier League with the Spaniard scoring five goals in six games.

However, most of the calls for the striker to win the award have come from those inside the club including Albert Riera and his manager, Rafael Benitez. Whilst a supposed rivalry between Iker Casillas over the award has been played down by the Real Madrid goalkeeper, who would become the first keeper since Lev Yashin in 1963 to win the European Footballer of the Year award.

Elsewhere, the man who was named best player at Euro 2008, Xavi, was instrumental in Spain's success, but whether or not he had a bigger influence than his teammates' Marcos Senna and Andres Iniesta could be argued. Also, since the beginning of the new season, Senna has been at the heart of Villarreal's early surge up the table, and likewise Iniesta at Barcelona. But despite Iniesta's superb form for club and country, he was omitted from the shortlist for the award, a decision that baffled managers, players and supporters alike.

But regardless of Iniesta's bizarre exclusion, Torres looks to have the biggest claim for the Ballon d'Or, from the Spanish contingent at least.

The one player who should also receive a placing was last year's third place player, Lionel Messi. A simply tremendous display in both legs of the semi-final of the Champions League wasn't enough to haul Barcelona past Manchester United, but was enough to prompt questions about who was most deserving out of the Argentine and Ronaldo for the title of best player in the world.

Messi then followed this with a series of typically brilliant performances at the end of Barcelona's La Liga campaign, before heading to Beijing to compete for Olympic Gold in August. After a fierce club vs. country row in which Barcelona eventually agreed to releasing the 21-year-old for international duty, Messi spearheaded Argentina's quest for gold, in emphatic fashion.

It seems that Messi may have the second largest claim behind Ronaldo and the support for the Argentine has been championed by the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Kaká, Ronaldinho and Marcello Lippi. Incidentally, Messi himself has given his backing to outsider Sergio Aguero after his astronomic rise to prominence over the past 12 months, with the Guardian's Spanish Football Correspondent Sid Lowe hailing the Atletico man as the best player in Spain last season.

Last year's winner Kaká is unlikely to have any involvement in the top three this time round following a less than successful year with AC Milan, and was the only player from the Italian giants to make the shortlist.

There's no doubt that Ronaldo is the overwhelming favourite to win the award in just over a month's time, but those who think the award has already been wrapped up should cast their minds back to 2006. With Barcelona winning both the La Liga title and the Champions League, Ronaldinho had hit the peak of his career and was simply unplayable. That was until the World Cup finals in Germany, where it had been expected that the Brazilian would lead his nation to their sixth World Cup title, and in the process placing himself inside the top echelon of footballers that ever lived with Diego Maradona and Pele.

Naturally, it didn't go quite to plan and several sub-standard performances in the finals meant Ronaldinho failed to place at all in the 2006 Ballon d'Or. Undeserved perhaps, but this showed that international achievements perhaps hold more worth in the quest for the Ballon d'Or. Instead Fabio Cannavaro took the award after captaining Italy to glory in the World Cup, with Italy's goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon as runner-up.

So, although the Manchester United winger may well be favourite, don't be entirely surprised to see a certain Spaniard or Argentine taking the spoils this winter.