The most coveted individual prize in football, the Ballon d’Or race is heating up. So far it was a two-horse race between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but this time it is complicated as we had some stellar performances in the World cup, which will also decisive in opting the winner. So here is the top three out contenders who unleashed this year.

 

3. Luka Modric

      

     Well, this man would be the winner if Croatia lifted the World cup, but that didn’t happen though. He was at his supreme best in the World cup, where he bagged two goals and one assist. The golden ball winner of the tournament was leading an average team of Croatia towards finals, the best performance in the history of Croatia. An overall of 87.2% success passes including 18 key passes indicates his brilliance. Counting the trophies, Modric has won two prestigious titles, the Uefa Champions League and World cup runners-up trophy, where he wasn’t that much impressive in the former one, only managed to bag one goal and assist each. However, his World cup performance was superlative and enough to cement him in the third position.

 

2. Cristiano Ronaldo

    This won’t make many surprises, as this man has established himself as a top contender for this award since 2007. A third consecutive champions league victory of Real Madrid was the outcome of yet another sensational performance from the so-called “The man for high occasions”. His 14 goals tally in the champions league including the goal of the tournament gives him an extra edge over Modric, even though his World Cup performance was not quite good. Though he was able to secure a champions league record of scoring in all group matches, Ronaldo lagged in the first half of season, failing to achieve goals despite firing several shots on target, but from January onwards he was rejuvenated and showcased some stunning goal ratio both in the domestic league and the champions league. Whenever Real Madrid needed a breakthrough, he delivered that, champions league knock-out stages against PSG and Juventus are the best examples. So Ronaldo can be placed above Modric considering the overall performance and the impact on the game.

 

1. Lionel Messi

     

    You may ask “seriously?” yes, this man is the perfect nominee for Ballon d’Or 2018 as long as it is based on the individual performance. For the past few years, the scenario is such that champions league winner bags Ballon d’Or and it is either Messi or Ronaldo. Modric has won the champions league and lead an unfancy Croatia into World Cup finals, while Ronaldo outclassed everyone in the champions league setting new records and bringing the trophy to Bernabeu for the third time, so what Messi has done to be the top of the list. A consistent performance throughout the season with the fifth European golden boot and most joint assists, an unbeaten league (Messi didn’t play against Levante, the only match Barcelona lost) with astonishing match facts like most successful dribbles, most goals outside the box, most no. of freekick goals and ultimately winning the league and the league cup. Despite all these facts, he was single-handedly carrying Barcelona in the first half of season, an injured Iniesta, misfiring Suarez and the large void created by the exit of Neymar, all these miseries were dragging Barcelona backwards except the brilliant Lionel Messi. Though the shock exit in the champions league and poor performance in the World Cup pulls him downwards from the ‘great Messi standards’ no other player was close to his performance levels.