July 5th, 2010 was a quiet day in Johannesburg for journalists covering that summer’s World Cup. The semi-finals were taking place over the following two days in Cape Town and Durban and most of the press corps had departed for one of those cities. Any thoughts of a lazy day were scuppered by an email that morning from Fifa, promising a major announcement.

I was sitting in a conference room at the Sandton Convention Centre that afternoon when Sepp Blatter arrived he scanned the room and spied the legendary French coach, Guy Roux. He made a beeline for Roux, who was probably the senior football man in the room, and engaged in some twinkly-eyed banter and schmoozing.

Blatter was joined on stage by George Weah, the Fifa apparatchik Jerome Valcke and a wealthy-looking Frenchwoman who turned out to be Marie-Odile Amaury, owner of the Amaury Group, the publishers of the magazine France Football.

Fifa and France Football were "joining forces" to unify the Ballon D'Or, presented by France Football since 1956, and the Fifa World Player of the Year award, which Fifa had launched in 1991. We were witnessing history in the making: the birth of the Fifa Ballon D'Or.

Blatter spoke in several languages. He said the players were the “true protagonists” of football and that the game was similar to classical Greek theatre – because you did not know in advance how it was going to end.

Prepared remarks

When the prepared remarks had finished, a journalist asked Blatter whether Fifa intended to suspend France due to interference by the French government in the affairs of their national federation (at the time, an inquest into France’s shambolic performance was underway). Valcke intervened to say that the Fifa president would be speaking only about Ballon D’Or-related issues.

A German journalist responded: “Since we are not in North Korea . . .” and reiterated the question about sanctions against France. Blatter grinned awkwardly and assured the room that Fifa had no problem with the French.

Afterwards Blatter was whisked from the room by aides who formed a phalanx around him and pushed their way through the crowd.

I thought again about what he'd said about football resembling classical Greek theatre. It made no sense whatsoever. Maybe the only interesting thing Blatter has ever said about football came during an interview at the Oxford Union in November 2013, when somebody asked him whether he preferred Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.

“Messi is a good boy, that every father and every mother would like to take home,” Blatter said. “He’s a good man, he’s very fast, and he’s not exuberant, he’s playing well, he’s dancing. He’s a kind man, a good boy. That’s what makes him so popular. The other one is something else. He is like a commander on the field of play.”

Blatter capered stiffly about the stage, saluting. “They don’t have the same attitude and that gives life to football. One has more expenses for the hairdresser than the other but that doesn’t matter . . . I like both of them, but I prefer Messi.”

The comments were not really interesting per se, but for the way in which they highlight Blatter’s gift for being wrong about everything to do with football. With hindsight, his remarks that night may have marked the exact point at which Ronaldo surged ahead of Messi in the affections of the world.

Indomitable belief

Today in Zurich, Ronaldo will likely win his third Ballon D’Or, opening up the possibility that he might match Messi’s total of four. Nobody saw this coming two years ago, as Messi celebrated his fourth in a row. But Ronaldo’s indomitable belief in himself has won everyone over.

Part of his appeal is the way in which he combines prodigious physicality and unconquerable will to win with a curiously childlike vulnerability. On Saturday night, Gareth Bale decided to shoot rather than square the ball to Ronaldo for a tap-in, prompting a display of nostril-flaring recrimination from the superstar. It wasn't the reaction of an icy "commander".

We’ve seen Messi snarling at team-mates in the same situations and there’s nothing vulnerable about it. The “kind man, good boy” cuts a more complicated figure these days, beset by legal problems relating to his taxes, discontented with the hierarchy at Barcelona.

Messi’s game keeps evolving, but not necessarily in a good way. His football is increasingly pared-back and minimalist. Is this the evidence of underlying physical decline? With Ronaldo, there are no such doubts. His perpetual improvement is as plain as it is remorseless.

Messi is acclaimed as the best player in the game by everyone who has played with him, and few would bet against him one day winning a fifth Ballon D’Or. But for now we’re living in the age of Cristiano.