The France and Bayern Munich forward outlined his reasons in an interview with French newspaper 'Le Monde', pointing out that he won more trophies for his club last season than the Real Madrid forward, and declaring that his contribution to club and country has been as decisive as that of his Portuguese counterpart.
"It's true that Cristiano Ronaldo has scored many goals, but so have I," he said.
"He may have scored more than me, but we are different players. I may not score as often as him, but I make life hell for defenders."
While Ronaldo may have scored all four of Portugal's goals against Sweden in their two World Cup play-off ties, Ribéry argued that he was decisive in France producing a historic turnaround to beat Ukraine 3-2 on aggregate and also qualify for next summer's tournament in Brazil.
"I forced three players to be sent off in the two games (two directly and one through suspension in the second leg) and I was involved in two of France's three goals in the Stade de France (scored by Sakho and Benzema)," said Ribéry, although admitting that "things like that don't grab people's attention as much".
Nonetheless, he insisted he "trusted" in his chances of winning the award.
"I have no fear, I have done what I had to do and now all I can do is wait for the result," he said.
And he said he had no problem with FIFA extending the deadline for votes to be cast, as he did not believe it gave the advantage to Cristiano, who has produced his best form of the year in the last three months.
"The most important thing for me, in terms of winning the Ballon d'Or, was to keep my form up and help France qualify for the World Cup. Until now I've not slipped up once."
Ribéry added that he thought he had performed at the highest standard all year for club and country, which lead to him being named the best player in Europe by UEFA in August, and reminded readers of his role in Bayern Munich winning a treble of Bundesliga, German Cup and the Champions League last season.
"What we achieved last season with Bayern is historic," he said.
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