What Cristiano Ronaldo Must Do to Win Ballon d'Or This Season

It has been a long time since anyone besides Lionel Messi won the Ballon d'Or award as the best player in the world. However, Cristiano Ronaldo will do his best to take the crown away from him.

The Real Madrid forward last won the award in 2008 as a member of Manchester United. Since then, Messi has won each year, with Ronaldo finishing second in three of the four years.

While the first part of the year makes it likely that Messi will once again defend his title, Ronaldo certainly has a chance if a few key things happen this fall.

The first and most obvious part of this campaign will be for Ronaldo to put up some eye-popping numbers in the opening couple of months of the season. No matter how well he plays, he needs to put goals on the scoresheet to force people to take notice.

Based on how Real Madrid are built this season, he should be able to increase this output. The team lost a proven finisher in Gonzalo Higuain but gained better passers in Isco and Asier Illarramendi.

This gives the club a lot of players who know how to set up teammates but few with the ability to get the ball into the back of the net. This will leave Ronaldo with plenty of opportunities to score, which should lead to a great scoring rate in league play.

However, it is also important for him to help provide team success. Last season, Barcelona got off to such an excellent start that it was clear who would win the La Liga title. When the calendar turned to 2013, Real were 16 points back in the table.

Both clubs have new managers and a number of new faces to change the outlook of the league. Ronaldo will need his side to get out to an early lead in the table to prove that he is truly the best in the world.

Of course, this award takes into account more than just club activity. Ronaldo also has to lead Portugal to success as the national team looks to qualify for the World Cup.

Amazingly, this is far from guaranteed, with Russia and even Israel challenging for a spot in the same group. The UEFA field will be decided by the end of 2013, and Portugal better be on their way to Brazil.

Otherwise, it will reflect quite poorly on someone trying to show that he is the best in the world.

Finally, it would help if Messi slowed down his own production after an incredible year in 2012. The Argentine player was limited in the second half of last season with a hamstring injury and was unable to continue the same scoring rate he was used to providing.

If lack of fitness, a new manager, the addition of Neymar or any other factor keeps Messi off the scoresheet more than usual, it would leave a chance for someone else to win the Ballon d'Or.

In this case, there would be no one better to win than Cristiano Ronaldo.

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