Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery has blasted the Ballon d'Or process, saying FIFA's top individual award is "purely political."
Ribery watched his teammate Manuel Neuer finish third in the ceremony earlier this month, the same spot the Frenchman himself finished a year earlier.
In both cases, the Bayern player finished behind winner Cristiano Ronaldo and runner-up Lionel Messi, who have claimed the top two spots in six of the past seven years, the only exception being Andres Iniesta's second-place finish in 2010.
Ribery said in an interview with AZ that if Messi and Ronaldo are both up for the award, there's no point in naming a third nominee.
"While Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are playing, whoever is nominated third might as well accept they have no chance," Ribery said, according to a translation by AS. "It has to be asked whether it's worth bothering to go to the gala. For the photos?"
Neuer won both the World Cup with Germany and the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, and while Cristiano Ronaldo won the Champions League with Real Madrid, both he and Messi (with Barcelona) failed to win La Liga.
"What do you have to do to win it?" Ribery asked. "Neuer won the World Cup, the Bundesliga and he has been the best goalkeeper in the world for the past two or three years and even so none of it matters.
"I don't understand it. For me the prize is purely political."