Messi nailed on for fourth straight Ballon d’Or victory

It looks like being yet another disappointing awards season for Cristiano Ronaldo with his arch rival Lionel Messi installed as the massive 1/8 favourite to win the award for a fourth consecutive year.

Ronaldo has enjoyed yet another brilliant season for Real Madrid, guiding them to the La Liga title thanks to his ridiculous 46 goals in 38 games.

However, those amazing individual and collective achievements don’t look to be enough to have convinced the footballing world to vote for him to claim the Ballon d’Or.

The Portuguese forward – who drew criticism for failing to take a penalty in his country’s Euro 2012 semi final defeat to Spain – is out at 6/1 to win the award thanks to the form of Messi.

While supporters of Ronaldo (you’re only allowed to like one or the other) may find it galling that a player who has won little of consequence in the past 12 months should be such a big favourite, there can be no doubting his individual achievements.

The Barcelona striker has hit 84 goals in 2012 to move within one of Gerd Mueller’s goalscoring record of 85 in 1972.

It’s an absolutely massive achievement and means that backing Messi at 1/8, while not exactly destined to give you a wedge to retire on, is akin to simply buying money.

Meanwhile, the other player in the shortlist is Messi’s Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta.

The Spaniard may not have the number of goals to his name that Ronaldo or Messi does (nobody does) but he was voted the best player at Euro 2012 as he guided his nation to the title.

It’s extremely hard to see him adding the Ballon d”Or title to his 2012 achievements though and he is the big outsider at 14/1 to win the award.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date