Stat: Franck Ribery - France's man for the big occasion

The hype surrounding the fast-approaching World Cup playoffs has been primarily concerned with the guaranteed absence from the tournament next summer of one of the world’s best players, with Cristiano Ronaldo‘s Portugal and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Sweden playing for a single place in Brazil. Meanwhile, the battle for the Ballon d’Or had until recently been the two-horse race between Ronaldo and Lionel Messi that we have come to expect in recent years. Yet in both cases there is another player who was, at least originally, largely overlooked.

There remains a distinct chance that Franck Ribéry may not be at the World Cup next summer, while the Bayern Munich winger has snuck under the radar in to odds-on favourite to take home the world player of the year award at the Zurich ceremony in January. It has been a year to remember for the Frenchman, and it is rather surprising that his rise to even becoming a genuine contender for the gong has taken so long and an injury to Messi to occur.

It will of course be a huge shame whether it is Ronaldo or Ibrahimovic that misses out on a trip to Brazil, but to add Ribéry to that would be a bigger deal than much of the press is making out. Two games against a Ukraine side that conceded only a solitary goal from the penalty spot over 180 minutes against England – and would, incidentally, with two draws, have knocked England out on away goals had those matches been playoffs – stand in the way of Didier Deschamps’ side making it to next year’s tournament. Ribéry – the man who is likely to be the first name on Deschamps’ team sheet – will be key.

In a qualification group including world and European champions Spain, winger Ribéry top scored with 5 goals in 8 matches, including 3 in the two man of the match performances in the final crunch games when France needed him most. He twice equalised against Belarus before his side went on to win 4-2, and scored the first and set up the third in a 3-0 win over Finland. Two wins were a necessity if they were to pounce on any potential mistake by Spain at the top of the group. No such slip-up occurred, but Ribéry made sure France were hot on the Spaniards’ tails.

A player fully capable of stepping up to the plate at times of real importance, the upcoming playoffs could be the perfect stage for a another perfect performance. His display against the Scandanavians earned him a WhoScored rating of 10 out of 10, a feat he also managed in his most recent outing for Bayern. Few others can boast such good recent form.

The consistency of his performances have been such that his average rating this season (8.45) is the highest of all players to have made at least 10 appearances across the top 5 European leagues, just ahead of his Ballon d’Or rivals Messi (8.34) and Ronaldo (8.23). Having dribbled past an opponent more times (67) this season than any other player in those competitions and created 35 chances, Ribéry’s blistering start to the season has been pivotal in Bayern’s 10 wins and 27 goals from 12 Bundesliga games, on top of early qualification from the Champions League group stages. He has 4 Bundesliga goals from 10 starts and another 3 in 4 Champions League appearances; the rate at which he has scored in the league and European competition this season (0.47 goals per game) is better – so far – than any other campaign he has had since moving to Germany in 2007. It is a quite frightening thought for opponents that he might have finally added prolific goalscoring to his incredible creative talents.

It was those talents that saw him cleverly flick the ball, via a ricochet off Lukasz Piszczek, into the path of Arjen Robben to score the winning goal in the Champions League final at Wembley back in May. He also won the WhoScored man of the match award as his side won 3-0 at Camp Nou in the semi-final a few weeks earlier. At the most important times, Ribéry has that edge of sheer class that can make the difference between a draw and win.

That he has provided exactly that at such key stages of 2013 make a good argument in itself that he is the best candidate for the coveted “Golden Ball”. Messi and Ronaldo have both had remarkable years – though Messi’s was substandard relative to his unbelievable 2012 – but at a stage where Ribéry performed as his team needed him to, Messi and Ronaldo floundered, the former’s injury of course was a considerable factor, though.

The Frenchman has more pressing issues than filling the pockets of the great many that have backed him to beat his rivals in the individual stakes, with a trip to the Ukraine an imminent and up there with the most important games of an already action-packed year. France have underperformed at times of great importance in recent years, failing to live up to expectations at major tournaments and Ribéry has been as guilty as anyone for that. However, this year he has proved that he is the man for the big occasion. His countrymen will be looking to their superstar winger for inspiration and he could be the player to win France their place in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.