Top 5 Ballon d'Or contenders if Messi and Ronaldo were disqualified

With the end of the Copa America, we have entered the second half of the calendar year, which also means that we are halfway through to knowing who will win the 2015 Ballon D'Or. Experience dictates that it is too premature to be predicting the winner at this stage, with at least five months of football still ahead of us.Only the Brazilian Kaka has managed to break the stronghold the big two have largely maintained over the competition in recent years so it may even be fair to say that only standing on that stage alongside Messi and Ronaldo is a bit of an honour. However, if we added a twist, things would get interesting. What if the supreme duo were not eligible for the honour, Messi disqualified for being too good and Ronaldo banned for scoring too many goals, who would then take over the mantle?Things can change a lot in the period. Nevertheless, the performances that we have seen over the first half of 2015 lead us to pick some players who have set the pace early on. Of course, this is apart from the usual suspects Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who would be shoe-ins to make the final shortlist.Here are the top 5 Ballon D'Or contenders so far (apart from Messi and Ronaldo):

#1 Neymar

Just when everybody thought Neymar had finally solved his temperament problems and was playing the best football of his career, everything fell apart. After starting the Copa America with a brilliant performance against Peru, the Brazil skipper showed his self-destructive side when he lost his cool against Colombia. The four-match ban that followed all but sealed Brazil's fate in the tournament. It also raised an important question: is Neymar ready to rule at the top once Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo hang up their boots? 

The question is pertinent to our discussion because up until that point, Neymar had been having a superb season, the best of his career so far. Not only did he score 39 goals as part of the fiery M-S-N attack in Barcelona's victorious treble campaign but he also made his case for a Ballon D'Or nomination with a sensational 2015, scoring 30 times in the first half of this year and making 4 assists. He capped it all by scoring with the last kick of the game in the Champions League final.

An equally superb Copa would have given him much-needed impetus but seeing the way things turned out, there are those who are tempted to write him off. However, this is the same player who has shown remarkable perseverance in beating the odds and improving consistently, so I wouldn't make such an early call.

If he can pick up the pieces and start all over, trying to make amends wearing a Barcelona jersey, Neymar will definitely be among the contenders for the 2015 Ballon D'Or.