Ronaldo ahead of Messi amid FIFA Ballon d’Or voting `extension` controversy

Johannesburg – Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo may have improved his chances of winning the Ballon d’Or after a voting deadline was extended by FIFA for the award to November 29.

According to Sport24, this means that Ronaldo now may beat Lionel Messi for the honour.

Ronaldo produced a spectacular individual performance on Tuesday, scoring all three goals and guiding Portugal into the next year’s World Cup in Brazil with a 3-2 victory in Sweden, the report said.

The Real Madrid forward has scored 66 goals in 2013, but the last three may be the boost he needs to upstage Messi, the report added.

FIFA said it was reopening the deadline due to the low number of responses received by last Friday’s original deadline, and invited voters to switch their preference, according to the report.

Ronaldo became the favourite on Wednesday to beat Messi and Bayern Munich forward Franck Ribery for the world player of the year award, which will be presented on Jan. 13, the report mentioned.