For the first time in years, the Ballon d'Or competition has a tremendous amount of suspense. Lionel Messi has won four straight awards, but has not had a great season by his tremendous standards. This has led many pundits to wonder if someone else might unseat him for the title.
For the next few months, Latinos Post will highlight each individual nominee and talk about their chances of winning the award. The list will be conducted in alphabetical order.
Gareth Bale had a perfect start to 2013 as the heart and soul of Tottenham Hotspur. The team finished fifth in the Premier League mainly because of his clutch performances. He managed to turn a lot of heads, including that of former superstar Zinedane Zidane, and drew comparisons to Messi and rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
Then the summer came and Bale's year turned into a nightmare. He was the center of a transfer saga between Real Madrid and Tottenham and reportedly refused to attend practice and training with his club due to his desire to join Madrid. He suffered an injury that not only affected his training, but made him ineffective for Madrid upon his eventual arrival. He has played only a few matches for Madrid and, with the exception for one goal, has been largely ineffective.
Does Bale have any real chance of winning the award, or even finishing in the top three?
This nomination seems to be a pat on the back for his terrific start and officially announces him as one of the premier players in world soccer. However, his spell of poor form with Madrid will likely make him a passenger in this contest.
How could he change his fortunes? He would need to start scoring for Madrid and soon. Other candidates have been terrific for club and country (Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Messi, Franck Ribery, etc.) while Wales has already been eliminated from the World Cup. His fortunes will rely heavily on his play at Madrid. He has not produced yet but still has a few months to get back to reminding the world why he drew so much interest earlier in the year.
Prediction: Bale will likely finish in the bottom quarter of the list; he could even land at the very bottom in 24th place.