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Gareth Bale has shown throughout his spells at Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League, and Real Madrid in the Spanish Liga, just how brilliant he can be.
The Welsh international has scored decisive goals in the final of the Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup. In brief, he has won it all at club level.
However, despite all the qualities he brings on the pitch, he has never really had a serious claim to the throne of the best player in the world. Here are 5 essential reasons why Bale will never win the Ballon d'Or.
#5 - Injuries
Gareth Bale has often been the victim of injuries, but in the past two seasons, this problem has reached its limits with the Welsh international only taking part in a total of 24 La Liga games and 16 Champions League ones, out of 76 and 26, respectively.
A player who is barely involved in half of his team's matches, and missing many decisive ones, can hardly have a claim for being the best in the world. History has shown us that if anything, at this age, injuries are likelier to increase rather than decrease.
#4 - Stats
Gareth Bale is a versatile goalscorer who can score from different positions. However, with a total of 28 goals scored and 13 assists in La Liga and the Champions League over the past two seasons, the Welsh's record is considered average, in comparison with other footballing greats in activity.
For example, Cristiano Ronaldo has reached higher stats last season alone (37 goals and 13 assists) than Bale has done over the past two. Stats are henceforth an essential factor in the Ballon d'Or race in modern-day football, and if the flying winger does not improve his record, he will never be in real contention for the award given to the world's best football player.
#3 - Playing in Cristiano Ronaldo's shadow
This is absolutely no dig against Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese star has demonstrated on numerous occasions that he is a team-player by all means, and has never hesitated to allow Gareth Bale taking free kicks on his preferred right-hand side, which suggests that Ronaldo is not trying to minimize his teammate's importance.
However, Cristiano will always remain Real Madrid's face and number one star, as long as he is still at the peak of his footballing abilities, running the show and deciding games on the big occasions. In other words, he is the main man at the champions of Europe.
The spotlight will still be on him, in the foreseeable future. If Bale has the priority of winning individual awards over trophies, then he would be better-off leaving the club. But this would essentially depend on the player's will, and everything hints that at the moment, he is happy with his current status at Madrid.
#2 - Footballing abilities
While it is completely true that Gareth Bale has been one of the world's finest players in the past few years, he has never really been in contention to be the best in the world. The Welsh is very good, but just not good enough. His game has many flaws, as he struggles to deal with close marking and tight spaces.
Bale typically needs lots of spaces to exploit, and ideally a counter-attacking system to show his best football. He excels with his burst of pace, long shots, heading abilities inside the penalty box, and of course free kicks.
But he is neither as good at dribbling as Lionel Messi, Neymar and Eden Hazard, nor as clinical of a finisher as Cristiano Ronaldo or Luis Suarez.
#1 - Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been the two best players in the world for around 10 years now, having dominated the last 9 Ballon d'Or awards. These two all-time greats have set the standards so high, that no matter how well players like Gareth Bale have performed, they do not stand a chance in dethroning the current emperors of world football.
With the 2017 World Player of the Year award on the cusp, it is widely expected that Ronaldo and Messi will end up on the podium yet again.
Bale is lucky to have been able to witness the era of these two greats, but at the same time unfortunate because their heights are simply impossible for someone of his caliber to scale.
