Ballon d'Or Snub Will Act as Point to Prove for Luis Suarez at Barcelona

Don't you think it's a little strange that the two players who shared the European Golden Shoe award, Luis Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo, will suffer wildly different fates in the Ballon d'Or?

The Barcelona and former Liverpool hitman has not even been put on the shortlist for the prestigious award released by FIFA, whereas nobody will be surprised if the Real Madrid star lifts the accolade for the second successive year come January 12, 2015.

Both scored 31 goals in their respective divisions last season, the Premier League and La Liga.

Now, nobody is saying that Suarez had a better season than Ronaldo, given that the Portugal star helped Real Madrid win the Champions League, finally achieving La Decima.

But there's no doubt that the only reason the quicksilver Uruguayan has been snubbed by FIFA is because he bit Giorgio Chiellini at their showpiece event, the World Cup.

Ricardo Mazalan/Associated Press

That in itself is not necessarily unfair, given the actual rules for winning the Ballon d'Or state, in article three: "The Awards are bestowed according to on-field performance and overall behaviour on and off the pitch."

But for FIFA to ignore a player as good as Suarez, who was on the shortlist the season before, despite biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, is odd.

His talent speaks for itself; Suarez should be on the list. Then the voters can decide for themselves if his "overall behaviour" should count against him.

Suarez was brilliant last season, and it inspired Barcelona to purchase him this summer for €81 million, despite the incident which tarred his summer and rendered him ineligible to play until this weekend.

The Uruguayan is desperate to get back to business on the football pitch and even more so after his debut for Barcelona ended in a crushing defeat.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

He was one of the Blaugrana stars who would have been justified in leaving the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday with his head held high after Barcelona's 3-1 defeat by Real Madrid.

Suarez, despite this being his first competitive game for four months, was lively, creating an assist for Nemyar's goal and playing a brilliant ball into Lionel Messi who should have doubled Barcelona's lead.

He was a threat in the second half and beat his markers on several occasions, opening up space for Barcelona which his team-mates failed to exploit.

Now Suarez will be desperate to get off the mark for his club on Saturday against Celta Vigo at the Camp Nou, what will be his home La Liga debut.

There's a chance he'll feature for Barcelona on Wednesday night, when they take on Espanyol in the Copa Catalunya, but both Enrique and Sergio Gonzalez might put out weakened sides.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

Barcelona still lead Real Madrid in La Liga by one point, and now fearsome attacking trident Suarez, Messi and Neymar will be going hell for leather to ensure they at least maintain that distance.

But Suarez will be driven by a personal quest, too. He will see his punishment for biting and his exclusion from the list of the world's best players as an insult.

While his two attacking partners are strong candidates to be among the final three shortlisted, Suarez will be determined to play so well this season that he cannot possibly be excluded in the 2015 award.