Ronaldo Confirms His Presence For The Ballon d’Or Ceremony

January 13th would kick off this year’s most important of dates with respect to football as the  Ballon d’Or  winner for the year 2013 will be announced. With the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribery battling it out for the award, it sure is  an event to watchout for.

And what’s more fascinating is that, it will be the first time in recent years that Ronaldo will have an upper hand over Messi to win the coveted prize. Although it is clear that Sepp Blatter favours Lionel Messi over the Real Madrid star, injuries have taken a toll on the Argentine International last year.

Ronaldo’s relationship with FIFA had not been smooth at all times, especially after Sepp Blatter’s comment on Messi being a good boy and it was speculated that Ronaldo may not attend the event this year as a mark of protest.

However, latest reports from Marca has reaffirmed that Ronaldo will attend the gala which to be held next Monday. Quoted by Marca, Ronaldo said:

“I am going to the gala; I don’t know if I should win, if I do, great, if not, life goes on”, he told the press after the match on Monday with Celta.

It was in 2008 that Ronaldo last won the award during his golden days with Manchester United, but ever since moving to Madrid, the Portuguese star had to see his competitor Lionel Messi taking it for four consecutive times.

All eyes will now be on Zurich on the 13th of this month to witness the gala event and see whether the Portuguese star finally edges past the other two contenders in the race.

Meanwhile Franck Ribery having helped Bayern Munich to a treble last year has also a good chance of snatching the award.