RIBERY UNHAPPY WITH AWARD RANKING

zocoss SG

Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery admits he was "disappointed" to finish way down the list in the polling for the 2008 Ballon d'Or award.

Cristiano Ronaldo picked up the accolade in the early hours of Tuesday morning after winning 446 votes, with Ribery ending up 16th with just seven votes to his name.

After finishing seventh in the 2007 edition, the France midfielder has been left bemused by his tumbling down the rankings as he felt he had a superb year in Bayern's colours.

"Frankly, I am disappointed by my ranking. I should have deserved better," he told L'Equipe.

"Last year, I finished seventh having played six months for Marseille and six months at Bayern, without having won any titles.

"Here, I am 16th in the list at the end of a massive season with Bayern. We were champions of Germany, won the national cup and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup.

"I also picked up a number of individual awards, for example the best player in the Bundesliga. I achieved something amazing but you have to accept the verdict."

Ribery conceded Manchester United winger Ronaldo was a worthy winner, though, adding: "Personally, I would have voted for him."

limpper SG

you want to win it? -.-
that is messi, torres, rooney, tevez, aguero, villa and much more even if ronaldo don wins it. which one you think you can defeat?

Rock^Star SG

Yeh ribery is a great and inspirational player. Very impt player for Bayern. He deserves better.

2cansam SG

After messi,torres,rooney,tevez,aguero, eto'o, villa etc, Ribery should at least be ranked in the top 10 with his league exploits with Bayern

fatone SG

france?

dinky1409 SG

lols want to win it? move to either BPL big 4, Real, Barca, Milan lols..

tripsky SG

no doubt he deserves a better ranking.. reason could be he is not playing in the top 3 leagues

youyayu SG

no doubt he deserves a better ranking.. reason could be he is not playing in the top 3 leagues

or not in champion league

zocoss SG

The prestigious award is by France Football magazine, who present the trophy based on a poll of 96 top journalists. Each voter names five players on their final ballot, awarding five points to their first choice and one point to their fifth. Ronaldo's was the only name to appear on each of the 96 ballots, polling 446 points out of a maximum 480.

Ballon d'Or full results

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd), 446 points
2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona), 281 pts
3. Fernando Torres (Liverpool), 179 pts
4. Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), 133 pts
5. Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona), 97 pts
6. Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg), 64 pts
7. David Villa (Valencia), 55 pts
8. Kaka (Milan), 31 pts
9. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Internazionale), 30 pts
10 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), 28 pts
11. Marcos Senna (Villarreal),16 pts
12. Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), 12 pts
13. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), 11 pts
14. Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), 10 pts
15. Frank Lampard (Chelsea), 8 pts
16.Franck Ribery ( Bayern Munich), 7 pts
17. Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona), 6 pts
18. Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), 5 pts
19. Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), 4 pts
21. Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), 3 pts
24. Edwin van der Sar (Man Utd), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), 2 pts
No votes: Karim Benzema (France, Lyon), Pepe (Portugal, Real Madrid), Luca Toni (Italy, Bayern Munich), Rafael van der Vaart (Netherlands, Real Madrid), Yuri Zhirkov (Russia, CSKA Moscow).