Ballon d'Or 2016: Predictions: Why Cristiano Ronaldo Will Not Win Ballon d'Or
Cristiano Ronaldo will not win the Ballon d'Or this coming January and he knows it.
And while Ronaldo has had solid numbers thus far in 2015 -- he has put up 53 goals the entire year, this is lining up to be the worst year of his career since 2010 when he scored "only" 48 goals in all competitions for club and country.
The superstar had a poor start to the year and by all accounts is slumping to the finish line, a far cry from his endings during the last two years when he won the award.
Back in 2013, he was scoring goals across all competitions with great consistency and even put up a heroic stance for his country in the World Cup playoffs. He scored 17 goals in La Liga through 15 games that year and also put in nine Champions League goals in the group stage.
A year later, Ronaldo had 26 goals in La Liga and over 30 goals across all competitions by year's end to cement himself as the best goalscorer in the world.
This year?
He has 21 goals in 21 games and none have come against top teams. He has six goals against Malmo, five against Espanyol, five against Shakhtar Donetsk and one in each game against minnows such as Celta Vigo, Las Palmas, Levante, Eibar and Getafe. He has not registered goals against Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla or Paris Saint-Germain -- the top teams he has faced so far.
This bodes badly for a player who was once the one his team could turn to lead the way in tough games. These days, Ronaldo seems to score in meaningless ones, with few, if any, of his goals having any major consequence. Of his 21 goals, how many are either the first goal of a game (which usually gives his team a leg up) or the winner?
He has fit that bill three times in 15 games in La Liga and only twice in six tries in the Champions League. A total of five goals out of 21 that have actually been meaningful to the team in tight spots. He has had multiple goal game aplenty, but in 21 matches he has produced at least one goal on 10 occasions. That means that Ronaldo has been left scoreless on 11 occasions this season. That is not the mark of a consistent goalscorer and certainly not the best player in the world.
He may be the runaway Golden Boot contender in the Champions League this season, but Ronaldo is steadily falling behind in the Pichichi race, currently sitting sixth overall in the standings for that competition.
More importantly? His team is losing and he is doing little to help.