Ribéry recounts the scar of a 2013 hat‑trick without a Ballon d’Or

While the 2012‑2013 season gave Franck Ribéry a historic treble with Bayern Munich – Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup – the same player today recalls a still painful scar, that of a Ballon d’Or that slipped from his trophy cabinet.

The historic treble and the expected recognition

Franck Ribéry was the author of an exceptional season, marked by Bayern Munich’s treble in the Champions League, the Bundesliga and the German Cup. This performance would undoubtedly have deserved the 2013 Ballon d’Or, according to his own words.

Against all expectations, it was ultimately Cristiano Ronaldo who received the supreme award, overtaking his eternal rival Lionel Messi, while Ribéry settled for third place. “Is that Ballon d’Or missing? No longer. But when you win everything and you deliver a season like that, when you take home the trophy for Europe’s best player…”, the Frenchman recalled during an interview at the Festival dello Sport in Trento, Italy.

The voting delay and Ronaldo’s momentum

The voting deadline, initially set for 15 November 2013, was pushed back to 29 November by FIFA under Sepp Blatter’s presidency. This postponement occurred at the time of the second‑leg qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup.

That same window coincided with Cristiano Ronaldo’s masterful performance, in which he scored a resounding hat‑trick against Sweden (3‑2) to single‑handedly qualify Portugal. This display sparked a massive wave of enthusiasm for the Portuguese.

The vote postponement prompted many coaches, captains and journalists to rethink their stance or to use the extra time to vote en masse for Ronaldo, thereby strengthening his decisive lead.

“It hurts,” Ribéry said, highlighting the difficulty of accepting the situation. “When that happened, it was inevitably a huge disappointment. But it’s football, you have to keep moving forward, always go ahead.”

This contrast between an unforgettable collective triumph and a missed individual recognition reveals the lingering pain the Frenchman still carries, while also reminding of his ability to look beyond the disappointment.