5 players who could win the Ballon d’Or ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the Ballon d'Or awards for the last 10 years, with each being named the best player in the world five times each - a joint-record.
However, many pundits believe that things may change come this year's awards ceremony, as the gap between the two forwards and the rest of the world's elite players has shrunk considerably this year.
Indeed, although Messi won the LaLiga title last season, scoring 34 goals and registering 12 assists, he was left embarrassed after Barcelona were shockingly knocked out by Roma in the Champions League quarterfinals. He also had a pretty poor World Cup with Argentina.
Furthermore, although Ronaldo did win the Champions League last season with Real Madrid and did relatively well with Portugal at the World Cup, he had a woeful LaLiga season, finishing in third place after winning it the previous season.
The 2018 Ballon d'Or nominees are as follows: Sergio Aguero, Alisson, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Kevin de Bruyne, Edinson Cavani, Thibaut Courtois, Roberto Firmino, Diego Godin, Antoine Griezmann, Eden Hazard, Isco, Harry Kane, N'Golo Kante, Hugo Lloris, Mario Mandzukic, Sadio Mane, Marcelo, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Luka Modric, Neymar, Jan Oblak, Paul Pogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Ramos, Mohamed Salah, Luis Suarez and Raphael Varane.
There are many great players on this list who have arguably had better seasons than either Messi or Ronaldo. This year is perhaps the best chance some of them will ever have to win the Ballon d'Or, as many of them will be coming towards the end of their illustrious careers.
So here are the five players who are the most likely to snub Messi and Ronaldo for the title of the best footballer in the world in 2018...
#5 Neymar
Many reading this will be surprised to see the Brazillian so low on this list, after all, he has arguably been the third best player in the world for quite some time now.
However, you have to consider the fact that Neymar was injured for much of last season following his world record move to Paris Saint-Germain from Barcelona for €222 million.
He also had a disappointing World Cup with Brazil, who went into the tournament as favourites but were eventually knocked out by Belgium.
Nevertheless, the forward scored 19 goals and 13 assists in his 20 games for PSG last season and has 8 goals and 3 assists in 8 games so far this season - insane numbers which prove that he is unquestionably world class.
But there are still players who are more deserving of the Ballon d'Or this year.