By Tony Mahoney
It's a World Cup year so performance in international matches inevitably matters more than usual in the voting for Fifa's top individual award.
The world governing body has theoretically covered all bases, announcing a three-man shortlist which includes a World Cup winner (Manuel Neuer), the World Cup Golden Ball winner (Lionel Messi) and the Ballon d'Or holder (Cristiano Ronaldo).
But are these really the three footballers who have made the biggest impact on 2014? Or, will history recall other individuals whose contribution to the game was more significant?
Below is an alternative Ballon d'Or shortlist. It is based on transparent criteria emanating from the universal truth that football is a team game.
This is why the performance of individuals is placed in the context of the quality of the opposition and the significance of the competition. Our criteria rewards:
1. The most influential player at the World Cup, the toughest international tournament of 2014.
2. The most influential player in the Champions League, the toughest continental tournament of 2014.
3. The most influential player in the Premier League, the toughest domestic tournament of 2014.
THOMAS MULLER OVER MANUEL NEUER
A Germany international should make the top three. The world champions richly deserved their triumph in the most prestigious tournament of 2014.
Fifa has chosen goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to represent that achievement but this is the wrong call. Neuer had an outstanding year but so did a number of German players and, ultimately, attack was more of a factor to their success than defence.
Portugal were vanquished 4-0, Brazil were humbled 7-1. At no stage did Joachim Low's side even need a penalty shootout – when goalkeepers tend to be heroes – to progress.
Spain conceded fewer goals than Germany en route to winning in 2010 yet Iker Casillas did not win the Ballon d'Or. Why should a goalkeeper with a worse record be more feted?
Neuer had a great club year too, his supporters argue, but it was not as good as 2013. Bayern conceded more goals in one game in 2014 – the 4-0 semi-final defeat to Real Madrid – than in the entire knockout stage the year before.
The German champions let in only 19 Bundesliga goals in the whole of 2013. If ever there were a year to reward a German shot-stopper, it was then, when Franck Ribery was the only Bayern player in the top three.
In 2014, no one represents Germany's endeavour better than Thomas Muller, who consistently offered a genuine threat both as a scorer and a provider.
His four goals in Brazil mean the 25-year-old is on course to become the greatest World Cup scorer of all time. Despite being younger and appearing in fewer tournaments, he has scored more goals in World Cup finals than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
While many of Germany's other 2014 stars either retired or took a backseat after Brazil, Muller continued to fire on all cylinders, scoring crucial goals in his country's Euro 2016 qualifiers.
At club level, he has continued to influence the games that matter most. He had five Champions League goals in the calendar year and played an integral part in Bayern's wins against Arsenal and Manchester United in the knockout stages.
True, he was found wanting in the semi-final loss to Real Madrid but so was Neuer. As Bayern dominated the Bundesliga again, the attacker ended the year with an average of one goal in every two matches for club and country.
He should have won the Golden Ball in Brazil and deserves to be in the hunt for the Ballon d'Or in Zurich. It's as simple as that.
ANGEL DI MARIA OVER CRISTIANO RONALDO
Ronaldo claimed the Ballon d'Or last year and is red-hot favourite to do so again in 2014. His supporters point to the outstanding scoring record in world football and his role in leading Real Madrid to the Decima last May. He was the top scorer in the Champions League of 2013-14, with eight of those goals coming in the knockout stages.
Ronaldo truly is a phenomenon but cast your mind back to April and May, and it should be recalled that the Decima success was far from a one-man masterclass.
Most of Ronaldo's goals came against inferior opposition, especially in the knockout stages. Schalke were easy meat in the last 16 and Borussia Dortmund a pale shadow of the side Jurgen Klopp led to the Champions League final in 2013.
Given the way the Champions League format favours the established elite such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, making the semi-finals should be a minimum requirement for Ronaldo's club, who also boast the most expensive squad ever assembled.
Carlo Ancelotti made a clear decision to prioritise Europe over the domestic title race which was lost to both Atletico and Barcelona. So, where their 2013-14 season should ultimately be judged is how they performed in the two semi-final games against Bayern Munich and the final against Atletico.
A troublesome hamstring injury meant Ronaldo was far from his fluent best in the two Bayern games and he was even substituted in the home leg having squandered a number of chances.
It was instead left to Sergio Ramos to score the crucial goals in the away game but the creative catalyst was undoubtedly Angel Di Maria. Ronaldo added the final two goals after the outcome of the tie had been all but settled.
A dynamic force in the semi-final, Di Maria was man-of-the-match in the final when Ronaldo's goal again arrived after the victory was beyond doubt.
If being the most influential player in the world's strongest continental club competition was not enough to warrant a place on the shortlist, Di Maria also underlined his credentials at international level. Ronaldo and Messi were the year's outstanding goalscorers. There was only one player in 2014 who was a supply line to both of them.
Unlike Ronaldo, Di Maria left his mark on the World Cup. He was instrumental – along with Messi – in Argentina's progress and his absence from the final through injury was cited as a key factor in their defeat to Germany.
With Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain lost in Messi's shadow, Di Maria emerged as torch-bearer, even scoring the winner against Switzerland prior to his injury. In the World Cup final rematch against Germany in September, he set up three goals before scoring as Argentina won 4-2.
That Di Maria left Madrid for Manchester United for €75 million last summer was more a business decision than any reflection of his ability. His early performances in the Premier League – prior to injury – suggest that Florentino Perez may live to regret that move.
LUIS SUAREZ OVER LIONEL MESSI
Messi has enjoyed many fantastic years in a Barcelona shirt, but was 2014 up there with his most memorable?
He landed the Golden Ball at the World Cup, broke Raul's record to become the all-time top Champions League goalscorer and claimed a hat-trick in the Clasico. But, ultimately, it was a disappointing campaign considering the incredibly high standards of the four-time Ballon d'Or winner, who ended 2014 without a winners' medal.
As an individual, his overall scoring record was outstanding again but not so much in the games that really mattered. Diego Godin equalised Alexis Sanchez's strike – not Messi's - in La Liga's title decider. Diego Simeone's defensive tactics also saw him nullified in both legs of the Champions League quarter-final defeat against Atletico.
Messi scored four times in the early stages of the World Cup in Brazil but was strangely subdued in the semi-final and final - when Argentina met stronger opposition. His embarrassment at collecting the Golden Ball in the aftermath of Germany's triumph was testament to his sadness at failing to make a mark on the biggest game of his life.
For all these reasons and the inevitable comparison with his previous exploits, it is inconceivable that Messi will win the Ballon d'Or for 2014. So why is he even on the top-three shortlist?
There are at least two more deserving contenders. The extraordinary tale of Atletico holding off the Clasico clubs to win La Liga is personified by Diego Costa, who emerged last year as the leading No.9 in world football.
The cutting edge Costa offered to Simeone's side has been transferred to Chelsea and, at the time the Ballon d'Or voting ended in November, he was viewed as a strong contender for the Premier League's Player of the Season.
But Costa can't be on the shortlist because of his abject failure with Spain at the World Cup. The Brazilian-born forward had a stinker's stinker, scoring no goals and fluffing a host of chances as the world champions crashed out in the group stage.
Which leaves us to consider Europe's other over-performing club side in 2014. That Liverpool finished ahead of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal in the Premier League almost ranks on a par with Atletico's achievement in Spain.
Liverpool were not a one-man team but it is impossible to believe they could have come within a Steven Gerrard slip of winning a first title since 1990 without talismanic forward Luis Suarez. Just look at how Brendan Rodgers' team have fallen apart since he was sold to Barcelona last summer.
Suarez won all the major individual awards in the most competitive domestic competition in the world. Due to the collective distribution of television rights, there are simply more EPL clubs with strength in depth, which elevates achievement in that league above all others.
Liverpool did not play in the Champions League in 2014 but Barcelona did and Suarez has already scored two goals from three appearances for his new employers. The elephant in the room is the biting incident at the World Cup. That is why he was not even included in Fifa's long list of 23 for the Ballon d'Or.
But how damaging was it? Suarez scored two goals from two World Cup appearances as he inspired a mediocre Uruguay side to qualification from the group ahead of England and Italy. They won both matches in which he played and lost both that he missed. He was sent off for biting Giorgio Chiellini in a game that his team won.
Uruguay would have had a greater chance of beating Colombia in the last 16 had he not been suspended but victory was hardly guaranteed. Even with Suarez leading the line, it is difficult to envisage them progressing past hosts Brazil in the quarter-final. The cost to his country of Suarez's biting ban was possibly one more round.
The biting was shameful but even Chiellini described the subsequent suspension as "excessive". Should high-profile indiscipline be a barrier to success in an individual Fifa award? Well, Zinedine Zidane picked up Fifa's Golden Ball at the 2006 World Cup despite his red card for a headbutt in the final.
Suarez scored 22 times for Liverpool in the Ballon d'Or playing period which is considered for voting, and he played his part in many others as his attack-minded team finished the season with 101 goals.
Liverpool and Uruguay were both inspired by Suarez to surpass expectations in 2014. The same cannot be said of Messi's Barcelona or Argentina.
