Superb Ronaldo boosts Ballon d'Or hopes over Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo put his enormous talent on display with a hat trick in World Cup qualifying, and the reward may be the Ballon d'Or after a voting deadline extension today improved his chances of beating out Lionel Messi for the honor.
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 Real Madrid forward has scored 66 goals in 2013, but the last three may be the boost he needs to upstage Messi after FIFA unexpectedly extended the voting period for the Ballon d'Or to Nov. 29.

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.
Ronaldo became the favorite today to beat Messi and Bayern Munich forward Franck Ribery for the world player of the year award, which will be presented on Jan. 13.
Portuguese and Spanish sports dailies splashed Ronaldo's photo across their front pages on Wednesday, when FIFA president Sepp Blatter expressed his congratulations to Ronaldo in a tweet reading "fantastic performance."

Ronaldo has scored 13 goals in six games since Blatter said last month that he preferred Messi, an Argentine who plays for Barcelona. Ronaldo has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season.

"Every year I show what I'm about. I've scored 40 or 50 goals a season and that's not enough for everyone. I'm not obsessed with the (Ballon d'Or)," Ronaldo said Tuesday.
"I did my job as I have been doing all season. I don't have to answer to anybody. I do my talking on the field.