The scene felt familiar. FIFA's laughably overproduced Ballon d'Or ceremony, which was nevertheless rife with screw-ups. The grand-standing, the hubris and the tin-eared narcissism by the world's ever-embattled governing body. And, of course, the nomination of Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona's Lionel Messi for the big prize as the world's best player of the past year – the former in a classical tuxedo and the latter in whatever suit made him the likeliest to be the most outlandishly-dressed kid at the prom.

It was a shiny, burgundy suit this year, for the record. (Last year Messi wore a shiny, red suit. The year before that, it was a polka-dotted number.)

The endless pageantry was predictable, making for a night on which the world's depraved game was polished and buffed up to a high shine, until it was free of its many blights – the corruption, the shoddy governance, the human rights abuses perpetrated in its name.

[Slideshow: Cristiano Ronaldo's 2014 in review]

What was also fairly predictable was Ronaldo winning the thing for a second year in a row, beating out Messi and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Still, he feigned surprise when his name was called, closing his eyes and leaning forward in mock shock. Then he slowly walked to the stage, took a few too many beats, thanked a few people, pumped both fists and hollered something that sounded like "Siiii!" which maxed out his microphone's levels. His young son then came strolling up the stage, in another plainly orchestrated part of the act.

Ronaldo deserved this prize, though. For strong-arming – well, strong-footing – Real Madrid to its record 10th UEFA Champions League title with a record 17 goals in that competition alone. For scoring 31 times in La Liga, which, while his lowest league output in four years, led that competition, too.

He'd also won it for 2013, and took both the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2008, before the prizes were unified in 2010. Messi had won both awards in 2009 and the combined prize in 2010, 2011 and 2012. As such, the two men have now won the thing seven years consecutively.

[FC Yahoo: Cristiano Ronaldo wins second straight Ballon d'Or award]

Ronaldo winning it felt sort of inevitable and was rather telling for the way this price has evolved – or devolved, perhaps. The voting process – one media member, the national team captain and the head coach of every FIFA member state get a vote – has become highly politicized. Like any other election in FIFA, lobbying is rampant. The votes are now public and demonstrate how partisan they are. Neither Ronaldo or Messi – who are both the captain of their respective national teams – voted for one another, instead going with club or country teammates. Among players especially, that's a fairly common trend.

This whole song and dance also underscores the game's unfettered commercialization. Messi and Ronaldo are the game's best players, to be sure, and both belong in the conversation for the greatest of all time. But they are also the game's biggest brands, titans of the sports industry. The process is tainted by this hucksterism. Messi and Ronaldo are everywhere – billboards, commercials and other assorted advertisements. Their name recognition far transcends the sport because of their commercial appeal. It makes this award just another battleground in the sport's ongoing popularity contest between Ronaldo and Messi, which in turn is a proxy war for Team Nike versus Team adidas.

Through its voters, the Ballon d'Or has been distancing itself from the importance of team performance. This squares entirely with the individualization of soccer. There was a time you could win the previous incarnations of this prize for being the central cog of a great team, even if you yourself weren't the world's best player. But sentiments have shifted towards the superstar who transcends a quicker, more technical and more self-centered game.

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It's no surprise that in each of the past four years, the runner-up to Ronaldo and Messi has been selected largely on the merits of his team, and that each time, that player didn't win. Xavi and Andres Iniestia were recognized for Barca's unprecedented dominance in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, Franck Ribery got his moment in the sun after Bayern Munich won the German double and the Champions League, all in the same year. This year, Neuer was the outstanding goalkeeper for World Cup winners Germany. But none of those men won – or even came second.

This isn't a team award anymore. So long as you win something respectable, rather than the biggest prize of all, you qualify. The formula for winning this prize is now more or less as follows:

Strong individual year + Major prize won with club + Worldwide brand = Ballon d'Or.

The other big shift underpinned on Monday was in the perceptions of Ronaldo and Messi themselves. For a long while, Messi could do no wrong. He was the choir boy to Ronaldo's image as a braggart. If you held no preference in the vitriolic rivalry between Barca and Real, your alliance would be decided by which player you most readily recognized yourself in: the quiet, humble technician who always won in the end; or the bombastic, manicured show pony who would often fall just inches short. Messi tended to win that debate.

Lately, however, that narrative has collapsed. Messi appears to be embroiled in something of a standoff with his club, which he has represented since he left Argentina at 13. He is upset about its handling of his recent tax scandal and its reluctance to give him a new contract last May – before it conceded. He has openly hinted at a departure – and he hinted some more during the pre-Ballon d'Or press conference – now that a coach is in charge who won't baby him, like all the others. Meanwhile, Barca has fallen off some and Messi has been great only for spells.

Ronaldo, who is winning things more regularly, now looks far less preening and petulant by comparison. At present, he is the one functioning as the lynchpin of a well-oiled team, the paradigm of consistency amid a team beating all comers.

So for that, he has justifiable been named soccer's best player of 2014, even if the game's market mechanisms would probably have seen to it that he'd have gotten it anyway.