Hmmmm. I wouldn't know about that. 2010 had Sneijder's season in Mourinho's Inter, a team that tried to avoid playing football whenever possible and eventually paid for it, (remember the 2-5 they got from Schalke the following year), and the second half of the year had a resurgent Messi who eventually won a Double again with Barça.
That's not the point.* The point is a lot of people jumped on Sneijder's bandwagon at the time (
here's one out of dozens of examples). The logic was Inter won everything (and Holland did well), so the player who's perceived by the media and fans as being the most flamboyant in the team gets to be paraded as the "token superstar", as Pangur Bán described it, and the treble winning team's nominee for Ballon d'Or. Ignoring the fact the performance of said player might not have been so extraordinary or so much better than that of some of his team mates.
Sneijder's case was lazier, granted, because Diego Milito was much more important and decisive at the time, but was a 30 year old late bloomer the press didn't know much about.
Ribéry is probably Bayern's best (attacking) player at least, though only marginally more important than Robben, Muller, Schweinsteiger (last year). And only rises above Lahm because defenders don't get much love.
And Bayern was of course, and by far, the team of the year. But that doesn't automatically translate into Ribéry being the extraordinary
individual performer of the year. And it's not like this is the first time something like this happens. The history of this award is littered with similar examples.
I'm actually a big fan of Ribéry, ever since he burst into prominence at Marseille in 2005/06 or so, but unfortunately for him and a bunch of others they share a football era with 2 all time greats of monstrous stature, who consistently have incredible individual seasons (unless they're injured). And one of those two, the one who won this year, is himself unfortunate to share his peak years with Messi. Tough luck.
With all the team captains complaining about their votes being changed, I don't know what is true and what isn't. But I do know who was my favourite player of the year. And, of course, we also have the ridiculous situation of Super Zlatan having scored the best goal of 2013 in 2012.
Yeah, and Mourinho and a few team captains/coaches, etc. complained of the same last year, and someone probably complained in previous years. And it's probably not 100% made up. Which leads to me to conclude I can't believe I wrote all these lines to comment on an award, and the shenanigans that come with it, I have little respect for.
* That Inter tried not to play football is a matter of simplistic opinion/prejudice, but maybe you should re-watch a few of their games.
The thrashing by Schalke happened in the next year and season, when Mourinho was long gone (since you mentioned him).
The resurgence of Messi in the latter part of the year applies equally to Ronaldo this year.
And finally, the Liga-CL double happened, of course, in 2011, 6 months after those awards.
If Real Madrid wins a double this May, will it retroactively justify Ronaldo's performances in the 2013 calendar year?