Why FIFA Had To CHEAT The Ballon D'Or So Ribery Wouldn't Win It — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00So… listen to this… the scenes at the 2013  Ballon D’Or ceremony were some of the most
2. 0:05tense I’ve ever seen… with Pelé himself up there  with the envelope, he pulled out the card with
3. 0:11Ribery suspenseful, smiling in the crowd… and  then… “Cristiano Ronaldo”... Ribery’s smile was
4. 0:17gone in a second… he was 31 at the time… he knew  he’d never get back there… all that he had to say
5. 0:23about it was: “This Ballon D’Or… it was as if it  was stolen from me… It's incomprehensible. I won
6. 0:29every trophy, I couldn't have done more… It was  an injustice… that day became another scar for me,
7. 0:35a deep scar… all the French said Cristiano should  win… Did the Portuguese want it to be Ribery or
8. 0:41Messi? Of course not, not even my country took  my side, they all said I was a problem, even
9. 0:47my own parents”… and that’s the thing a lot of  people who were on the outside looking in didn’t
10. 0:53understand about that day… once deemed by the man  himself to be “the new Zidane”... things didn’t
11. 0:59turn out quite like that… Ribery became France’s  bastard son, their ugly duckling… the French had
12. 1:06turned their backs on him long before that day… Look, first of all, let’s address the obvious,
13. 1:11it was never easy to be Ribery… we all know  the story… at two years old, his family’s
14. 1:17car crashed into a truck, he was sent flying  through the windshield… once they found him,
15. 1:21he had two massive cuts across his face… it took  over a hundred stitches to piece him back together
16. 1:26and he was left disfigured for life… after  that, growing up in a rough neighbourhood,
17. 1:31he was ostracized even amongst the already  marginalized, in his own words: “people would walk
18. 1:36by me and say: “he’s so ugly”... everyone stared  at me, even the adults”... everywhere he went,
19. 1:42he was outcasted… even football which has been  an escape to many ended up turning its back on
20. 1:47him… at 16, after 3 years in Lille’s  football academy, they kicked him out,
21. 1:52not because he wasn’t good enough, his own coach  has claimed that already back then, he .. add to
22. 2:20that mean streak, the fact he was incredibly short  and a disaster in school and… once he got injured,
23. 2:26he was out… a year later, he was playing  for his hometown Boulougne in the 4th tier,
24. 2:31getting paid 150 euros a month and converting to  Islam as the muslim community in his neighbourhood
25. 2:37were the only ones to ever accept him… By the end of that second year, with
26. 2:41Bolougne having been promoted and now going down  again, he somehow managed to convince 3rd tier
27. 2:46Alés to sign him… but if 150 euros weren’t  paying the bills, then with the club about
28. 2:51to declare bankruptcy and missing payment  after payment, he was out of there already,
29. 2:56and so… at 21 years old, while Robben was about  to sign for Chelsea, Ribery was putting on some
30. 3:01overalls and heading down to a construction site  for work… Desperate, he went on trial after trial,
31. 3:08but after almost becoming yet another unicorn  signing for Guingamp who had somehow plucked out
32. 3:13talents like Drogba and Malouda out of thin air…  instead, they sent him away and ended up signing
33. 3:18Farid Talhaoui in his place… if you never heard  of Farid… well… that’s the thing, no one has…
34. 3:26Thankfully, somehow, Brest, at the time,  a third tier club, decided to pick him up,
35. 3:31their manager Phillipe Goursat took him under his  wing, calling him “a lost soul, a gentle clown
36. 3:36with a tough exterior but a soft heart” and magic  happened… after 4 years in the trenches, it took
37. 3:42Ribery 37 appearances to bring them back to the  second tier, topping the assist charts and taking
38. 3:48the jump straight to Ligue 1 with Metz offering  him his first professional contract at 22 years of
39. 3:53age… then, getting there and surprising everyone  by how little effort it took him to adapt, scoring
40. 3:59against Lyon in his third match to secure a draw,  the pulling off two assists against Marseille in
41. 4:04his fourth match to take a win at the Velodrome  and snatch the League’s Player Of The Month award
42. 4:08after only 4 professional appearances… Forget  the comparisons to Robert Pirés, by January, he
43. 4:14had Lille coming back for him, he had Ajax trying  to put him beside Sneijder and Van Der Vaart now
44. 4:19that Ibra was off to Juventus… but instead, as  per usual, he shocked everyone by taking a six
45. 4:25month loan with an option to buy at Galatasaray… Now being managed by the legendary Gheorge Hagi,
46. 4:31it took him 2 months on the bench before  he gave him a proper shot, but then,
47. 4:35in a matter of weeks they were triggering their  option to buy… it’s honestly hard to explain the
48. 4:41impact his 14 starts had on that club… in the  blink of an eye, this guy had the fans chanting
49. 4:46“Ferraribery” as he pulled up to the Turkish cup  final with a goal and assist, taking the trophy
50. 4:51as they demolished Fenerbahce 5 to 1, it was the  biggest win over their rivals since the 1960s… he
51. 4:58had that fanbase in such a chokehold that when, a  month later, he seemingly showed up on their TVs
52. 5:02signing with Marseille for free without even  as much as a warning, it was absolute chaos…
53. 5:08Ribery was on TV claiming that his contract was  void since they were pretty much yet to pay him
54. 5:12a single wage, but wait, that was not the crazy  part… that was when his old agent and two of
55. 5:19Galatasaray’s board members showed up to his house  in France with baseball bats, threatening to beat
56. 5:24him up and destroy his car… Ribery had to call  the military police… Galatasaray was like a toxic
57. 5:31ex on a restraining order… they went to FIFA, to  the International Court Of Arbitration for Sport,
58. 5:36they were demanding 10 million from Marseille,  badmouthing Ribery on the news, even the coach
59. 5:41was there insisting that somehow they weren’t  the problem because “you gotta question why
60. 5:46a player has to move clubs 5 times in the space  of 18 months” though… that wasn’t even factually
61. 5:51correct… it was only 4… okay, maybe that’s  not a good argument but back to the subject…
62. 5:58At Marseille, unsurprisingly, they handed Ribery  the number 7 shirt and almost instantly he became
63. 6:03“the new Zidane”, not just because of his skills,  but because in proper Zidane fashion he opened his
64. 6:09season by scoring 4 minutes into the final of the  Intertoto Cup and headsbutting a player 8 minutes
65. 6:15later, getting sent back to the locker room before  the game even got going… Regardless, soon he was
66. 6:20blasting in strikes from 35 yards out, breaking  ankles left and right, taking the league’s Young
67. 6:25Player Of The Year award and dragging Marsille  to the final of the Coupe De France for the first
68. 6:30time in 15 years… Lyon was right in the middle  of 7 consecutive league titles, at the time,
69. 6:36the all time record in the top 5 leagues… and,  still, he was seen as such a danger to their
70. 6:41monopoly that, when Ribery was called up the 2006  World cup, they sneaked into the national team’s
71. 6:46camp to try to sign him… There, with Zidane  parading him like he was his little brother,
72. 6:52calling him “the jewel of French football”,  he instantly made it into every single match
73. 6:57even though, remember, just 2 years earlier he was  a construction worker… the guy even went as far
74. 7:03as popping off against Spain, playing a one two  with Viera, leaving their defense in the dust and
75. 7:07dribbling past Casillas to tie the match… a week  later, he was on his way to the final, in shorts
76. 7:12only, dancing in the lockerroom with France’s  president Jacques Chirac… and though, ironically,
77. 7:17the second of Zidane’s famous heabutts would  stop him from winning it all… well… this was,
78. 7:23maybe, where all the problems started… because,  when it comes to Ribery and the French national
79. 7:27team, it would be all downhill from here… No matter what, after a tournament like that,
80. 7:33Ribery had Arsenal and Real Madrid in a bidding  war for his signing, but not even a 30 million
81. 7:38euro offer that even today would be one of their  all time biggest sales was enough to convince
82. 7:42them… Marseille fully believed this guy could take  them to the league title and indeed, despite a
83. 7:48groin injury and a broken foot leaving him out  for months, he still led them to second place,
84. 7:52their best finish in 8 seasons, going as far as  snatching the French Player Of The Year award from
85. 7:57Henry after he took it 4 consecutive times… by the  final day of the season, Ribery was waving goodbye
86. 8:03to the fans as he drove around the pitch in a  tractor because Bayern… had just matched Real’s
87. 8:08bid and broken their transfer record to secure  his signing… 30 million euros and all Beckenbauer
88. 8:14had to say was … “we just won the lottery”... Listen, coming in, Ribery had only broken into
89. 8:21the double digits once in his whole career,  nobody was expecting big numbers from him,
90. 8:25he he was there for the dribbling and playmaking  only… but immediately, somehow, he averaged almost
91. 8:31a goal contribution per 90 over the whole season…  he put down 11 goals and 8 assists to win the
92. 8:36Bundesliga, being named the league’s player of  the year even with injuries repeatedly keeping
93. 8:40him out… and those… were his worst numbers…  Bayern also took both German cups with Ribery
94. 8:46scoring or assisting in every single match in both  competitions… even in the UEFA Cup he finished as
95. 8:52the top assist provider while also scoring in  every knockout round, going as far as clutching
96. 8:57their quarter final with an 89 minute goal not to  mention that he was the only one to score in their
97. 9:02semi final against Zenit as Bayern got humiliated  5 to 1… as the year ended, even if Ribery, who by
98. 9:09now had already gone over a year without scoring  for France, would fail monumentally in his attempt
99. 9:13to fill Zidane’s shoes at the Euros, getting  shipped back home in the group stages… back
100. 9:18in Munich, he was posing in front of a church as  Nike unveiled a massive billboard with the words:
101. 9:24“Bavaria has a king again”... though, even  there, he was in for a rude awakening…
102. 9:30That next season, no matter if at this  point he was still keeping up his numbers,
103. 9:34not only did Ribery shamelessly flirt with Real  Madrid all summer, to the point that newspaper
104. 9:39Bild nicknamed him “Mr.Bullshit”... but then  allowed Grafite and Dzeko to lead Wolfsburg to
105. 9:44the league title while he was repeatedly sidelined  for the most random of injuries, from blisters
106. 9:49to swollen toes… even Beckenbauer himself was  now admitting that “Though I rate him alongside
107. 9:54Messi and Ronaldo as the best in the world, he  doesn’t give a damn about Bayern, if he wants to
108. 9:59leave… let him”... and in fact, they almost did… With Chelsea, United, Inter Milan and Barcelona
109. 10:07all joining Real in their chase for Ribery,  Beckenbauer tried to cash in on this mess by
110. 10:11setting his price at a world record 100 million  euros and, when he saw no one would cave in and
111. 10:17give them that much, he noticed Real trying to  offload this dutch winger who had been pushed
112. 10:22out of the squad now that they had brought  in Kaká, Ronaldo and Benzema… and got them to
113. 10:26sell him for just 25 million, in the words of some  newspapers: “as a downpayment for Ribery”.... That
114. 10:34guy was Arjen Robben… which mean that, while, by  October, Ribery was already on his 4th injury of
115. 10:40the season and had already ruined his relationship  with new manager Van Gaal right out the gate,
116. 10:45getting to February with only a goal and 3 assists  to his name, Robben had completely outshined him,
117. 10:51going on a run of 24 goal contributions in 22  matches right up to the Champions League final…
118. 10:57while the only reasons Ribery was making headlines  were that a) he had gotten himself sent off in
119. 11:02the semis and would not be there for the  big day, b) even if it weren’t for that,
120. 11:06he was injured again… and c) he was facing 3 years  in prison after he and Benzema were not only found
121. 11:13to be frequent clients of brothel that had just  been cracked down by the Parisian police… but they
122. 11:17were being accused of “acquiring the services” of  an underaged escort… which he was quickly forced
123. 11:23to admit to, only defending himself by claiming  he had no idea she was a minor… let’s not even
124. 11:29mention that he was married with kids… now, not  even the fact Bayern had lost the Champions League
125. 11:34final was his biggest worry… once the season  ended, the rumour was Peréz had now passed on the
126. 11:39chance to sign him for only 65 million, way bellow  previous offers, because he felt that signing a
127. 11:45guy like him after letting Robben go for cheap…  was… “an embarrassment”... a feeling that most in
128. 11:51France seemed to reflect, with many protesting  against his call up to the World Cup… and,
129. 11:56honestly, the federation may as well have caved  in because Ribery was a ghost at that tournament,
130. 12:02even Just Fontaine himself said: “One day, we made  the mistake of saying that he was the brains of
131. 12:08the team, and since then, he believes it. He’s the  kind of guy who dribbles six players, only to let
132. 12:13the seventh take the ball from him”… even worse,  then, the whole French camp went into a meltdown,
133. 12:19with Anelka and Ribery being accused of refusing  to pass the ball to Yoann Gourcouff, leading to
134. 12:23a locker room fight, Anelka’s expulsion from the  team and… all the players going on strike right in
135. 12:29the middle of a World Cup, causing federation  officials to resign and call it “the most
136. 12:35embarrassing moment in French football history”...  and, again, guess who was one of the players
137. 12:40behind it? Franck Ribery… as you may imagine, it  would take them a while to forgive him for that…
138. 12:47On the same note, 2 more months on the sidelines  didn’t help either, it almost felt like 2010 came
139. 12:52and went without a single positive moment  for Ribery, the man himself admitted that
140. 12:56he had “lost himself”, that he had only “hurt the  people who were the closest to him” and… even with
141. 13:02a hot streak of 5 goals and 11 assists in the  final 12 league matches of the season, Ribery
142. 13:07was already closing in on his 30s and going into  his fifth season at Bayern without ever matching
143. 13:12the heights of his first, there was a sense that  the end of the road may have been close for him…
144. 13:17but we were all wrong… this would be the first  injury-free season of his life… and what followed
145. 13:24were 109 goal contributions in just 3 years… Surely it also helped that his court case was
146. 13:31dropped early into the season with the escort  herself testifying that Ribery was always made
147. 13:36to believe that she was of age… but, even with him  still holding some kind of grudge against Robben
148. 13:41for taking the spotlight from him, infamously  punching him in the locker room midway through
149. 13:45a Champions League semi final, well… they won  it, with a goal from each, they knocked out
150. 13:51Real to seal a place in the final… in fact, that  had been the story of almost every other round…
151. 13:57but if Robben’s 29 goal contributions looked  good, now he was the one always getting injured,
152. 14:02the one who’d miss the penalty that lost them the  Champions League final while Ribery… he was on 17
153. 14:07goals and, pay attention, 27 assists for the  season… this was his prime and the next year,
154. 14:15there would be no half measures… not even another  miserable euros performance would drag him down…
155. 14:20Look, only 7 matches into that season, Bayern  lost 3 to 1 to BATE Borisov and that already
156. 14:26seemed to trigger something inside Ribery with  10 goal contributions over the next 8 games, but
157. 14:31if it already impressed everyone how, then, they  remained undefeated in all competitions up till
158. 14:36December… The second click came when Ribery was  handed a red card and a 2 match suspension in the
159. 14:42last match of the year… I don’t know if it was the  fact he was left off the Ballon D’Or nominations
160. 14:46for the third year in a row or if it was some  new year’s resolution, but once he came back, he
161. 14:52seemed to have one goal only… to make sure Bayern  would simply never lose again… and they did not…
162. 14:59with 24 wins in a row across all competitions,  not only were they already Champions by March even
163. 15:05though no one had ever won the Bundesliga with 6  matches to spare… but that wasn’t their target,
164. 15:11they had their eyes on that treble… and after  offering Barcelona the greatest humiliation in
165. 15:16their history, beating them 7 nil on aggregate…  they found themselves in the Champions League
166. 15:21final tied at 1 goal each against their rivals  Dortmund… with only seconds left on the clock
167. 15:26and, of course… Ribery plucked a ball from the  sky and played Robben in with his backheel,
168. 15:32finally becoming an European Champion… and 6  days later, a treble winner… admitting in the
169. 15:38post match interviews that the Ballon D’Or was  “a dream”... one that become much more real,
170. 15:44once he took 36 votes at UEFA Player Of The Year  award, more than Ronaldo and Messi put together…
171. 15:50not to mentioned that, then, he’d score in the  European Supercup to make that 4 trophies in a
172. 15:55year… and would take the tournament’s Golden Ball  at the Club World Cup… to make that 5… after that,
173. 16:01he was pretty much convinced he was the  rightful owner of the greatest award in
174. 16:05the sport… but destiny was just not on his side… On the 15th of November, due to several countries
175. 16:11being unable to submit their votes in time,  FIFA were forced to extend the deadline of
176. 16:15the Ballon D’Or voting for two weeks… and if,  already then, Cristiano Ronaldo, his biggest
177. 16:21threat, had scored 69 goals in that calendar year,  having more by himself in 59 matches, than Ribery
178. 16:27and Messi in their collective 103 games… not to  mention he also outdid the duo all by himself in
179. 16:33Champions League goal contributions and Man Of The  Match awards… well… then, that extension opened up
180. 16:39just enough time for him to go out and score a hat  trick in a battle against Ibrahimovic’s Sweden for
181. 16:44the final ticket to the World Cup and man… that  became one of the most iconic performances in the
182. 16:50whole of sports history, let alone just football…  the hype was out of this world and we all know
183. 16:56that “hype” is what truly sways the voters… when  the results came, it was as if a lot of people
184. 17:02had moved on to the next bandwagon and forgotten  about Ribery… he didn’t even come second… in one
185. 17:08of the tightest races ever, he finished third,  with 1% off of Messi and 4% off of Ronaldo…
186. 17:15and now looking at his stats, as sad as it may  be, you can see that day was exactly where the
187. 17:21drop off started… by summer, after missing out on  the World Cup through injury, he even announced
188. 17:26his international retirement, citing only “purely  personal motives”... Ribery… had given up… just in
189. 17:33time to miss out on the resurrection of the French  national team and, ironically, after 5 more injury
190. 17:38riddled seasons at Bayern, being sidelined  for almost the entirety of the 2015 calendar
191. 17:44year… he also left them just one season short of  their historic sextuple… more demoralizing years
192. 17:50followed at Fiorentina… and he ended up retiring  at the tiny Salernitana in Italy… even then,
193. 17:56being forced to do so… when a knee surgery  brought on a flesh eating infection that,
194. 18:01in his own words, left him “with holes in my  leg… they almost had to amputate it”...