At his peak, there were very few midfielders as talented as Bastian Schweinsteiger, who is a Bayern Munich and Germany legend of the highest order – and the engine room operator revealed two players that deserved to win the Ballon d’Or.
For the last 15 years or so, the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo duopoly has dominated football’s headlines – and, at the end of each year, the aforementioned duo typically went head-to-head as a means of being crowned the beautiful game’s best player.
Luka Modric, in 2017, and Karim Benzema, in 2022, may have broken the curse, but over a 15-year period from 2018 to 2023, it was either Messi or Ronaldo, two of the greatest footballers of all time, that picked up the biggest individual prize in world football.
Schweinsteiger Names Two ‘Deserving’ Ballon d’Or Winners
The midfielder played with both at club level
Throughout the 2000s, the Kolbermoor-born ace – who won the World Cup with Germany in 2014 – was key to Bayern Munich’s success, both domestically and on the European stage. Between 2010 and 2013, he reached three Champions League finals.
They lost twice throughout that time but, in 2013, the Bavarian outfit got their hands on the trophy following a 2-1 victory over arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund – and Schweinsteiger believes that members of that side deserved to receive more flowers.
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Schweinsteiger had no shortage of stars to pick from.
Waxing lyrical about the players he had featured alongside during his professional playing career, the German spoke to SPORTbible, as part of Heineken’s Cheers to the Superstitous Fans campaign, ahead of the 2024/25 Champions League final. He said:
“I am German so we actually had a very good national team between 2005 and 2016 during my period, reaching every year the semi-final at least.”
Going one step further, Schweinsteiger – widely regarded as one of the best European players in Major League Soccer (MLS) history – named two players that he lined up alongside that deserved to be crowned football’s best player with a Ballon d’Or.
Franck Ribery and Manuel Neuer were his two names. The former dazzled on the wing and the latter (for club and country, alongside Schweinsteiger) was an imposing figure between the sticks but, of course, goalkeepers seldom win the Ballon d’Or, do they?
“With Bayern Munich we played three times in four years the final so especially I think in 2013, Franck Ribery deserved to win the Ballon d’Or or even – at the end of the day I know it goes to players who score the goals – Manuel Neuer.”
Lev Yashin – who picked up the award in 1963 – is the only goalkeeper in football history to pick to add the gong to their trophy cabinet. The closest Neuer ever got was in 2014, when he finished behind Messi and Ronaldo, who picked up the honour in that year.
France hero Ribery, widely regarded as one of the greatest wingers in Champions League history, also came third a year before Neuer managed to achieve his personal-best finish – but, similarly to the legendary goalkeeper, the tricky winger lost out to Messi and Ronaldo.
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