Talk of the Ballon d'Or, or Golden Ball, has settled down recently. Almost no one wants to talk about it, presumably due to the farcical way that FIFA re-opened voting.

Football's biggest organisation and it's (supposedly corrupt) leader have not made things any easier on themselves. With voting originally closed on the 15th November, FIFA re-opened the voting on the 20th, until the 29th November.

Sepp Blatter and co stated that it was due to a lack of votes. General consensus was that FIFA wanted Cristiano Ronaldo to win. Especially since voting was re-opened after he fired a hat-trick past Zlatan Ibrahimovic's Sweden in the World Cup qualifying play-offs.

FIFA announced their three man shortlist of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery, which was expected. What was more surprising was that Ronaldo has stayed relatively quiet about the subject, saying that "The Ballon d'Or is just another trophy, not the end of the world."

Ribery, on the other hand, has been hyping himself up and seems to expect a victory. Despite perhaps being Bayern's most consistent performer during the Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup treble win, people will often base this on goal stats, which show Messi and Ronaldo to be far superior. The Real Madrid winger has 69 goals in all competitions for club and country, while his rival at Barcelona has 45 goals over 2013. Ribery's Bundesliga stats show just 12 goals in comparison.

Of course, many have argued that goal stats don't particularly matter - it's about the performance - but surely they will have a massive part in deciding.

Those who favour Ribery point out that the Frenchman was an integral part of Bayern's record breaking season. Unstoppable at times, there were not many who could get the best of the wideman. It was Ribery's pass that enabled Robben to score the winning goal against German rivals Dortmund in the Champions League final.

On the other hand, it is difficult to claim Messi is worthy of the award due to the time he spent on the sideline with injuries. A case can still be made though - the previously mentioned goals, as well as (while being injured) inspiring Barcelona to beat PSG, and contributing heavily to their Liga title win.

Fans of Cristiano Ronaldo will tell you that this is the best year that he has had, on a personal level. He has upped his performances, consistently played well and has genuinely staked a claim to be one of the greatest footballers that has ever played. Ronaldo has been relentless in his efforts to catch up with Messi, and it could be said that he has done so in 2013.

Although Messi shouldn't be ruled out, it is clear that it should be between Ribery and Ronaldo. Both have been tremendous throughout the year, spectacular at times, but while Ribery's case is strengthened by trophies, Ronaldo's is hindered by a lack of silverware. It will be great to see how this pans out, and who takes the illustrious Ballon d'Or home. My money is on Cristiano Ronaldo.