The 2018 Ballon d’Or was held on December 3rd in Paris, France. For the past ten years, the superstars in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the Ballon d’Or stage with both of them winning five each in the last ten years.
This streak of them winning had to come to an end sooner or later and finally, this year it did. The Croatian wizard, Luka Modric won the prestigious award after having a fantastic season at Real Madrid and a stellar performance with Croatia at the 2018 World Cup in Russia where they got to the final but unfortunately lost to France 4-2.
Both the success of Real Madrid and Croatia with Modric played a major role in both teams influenced him to win the Ballon d’Or.
With Real Madrid, he won the champions league beating Liverpool 3-1 in May of this year.
Modric was a real influencer throughout the whole Champions League campaign by using his skills in the midfield along with Toni Kroos and Casemiro.
Modric’s main rise to winning the Ballon d’Or came when Croatia got to the final of the 2018 World Cup in which Luka played a major role in the midfield and the attack.
He also was the captain of the national team and set a great example for his teammates. Throughout their campaign, Modric scored two goals one of those being a stunner against Argentina, which came third in the ‘Top Ten Goals of Russia 2018.’
(PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images)
He also assisted many other goals, and because of this, won the Golden Ball. In addition to this, he also won other personal awards such as the ‘Best Men’s Player Award,’ and he was also selected into the FIFPro World XI.
Luka’s Ballon d’Or win caused disputes from many people as they thought that he was ‘unworthy’ or ‘underserved,’ as they thought Ronaldo or Messi should have won it again because they had better seasons.
Others also thought that because Modric won the award it was unfair to other players such as Xavi, Iniesta or Wesley Sneijder who were ‘robbed’ of the award as they were playing in the Messi and Ronaldo era.
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