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.
That A-League Fan
Roar Guru
Griezmann winning the Ballon D'or makes no sense to me, let alone Pogba or Mbappe. Griezmann only scored one goal in open play at the world cup, more of an goalkeeping howler. He was also an underserved MOTM against Australia, where all he did was win a controversial penalty and put it away. He was pretty bad for the rest of the match. Don't know what people were thinking. Anyway, don't really know him that well, but to win Ballon d'or?
Jezza
Guest
How awesome are Real Madrid doing without Ronaldo?
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Modric is a worthy winner If Ramos doesn’t dislocate salah shoulder in the final , I’d say Salah was on his way too winning this award .
Nick
Roar Rookie
Long Pham, I agree with you that Greizmann had a good season and was ok at the World Cup, but he wasn't France's main contributor to winning. Mbappe and Pogba were more influential to their success.
pete4
Guest
When Ronaldo and Messi can pull a country of 4.5m people into a World Cup Final then they would have had as good a season
AGO74
Guest
That plus Modric's club achievements this year are much greater than Griezmann. Also if he deserves an award just for being "consistent" as Long Pham suggests then that's hardly a ringing endorsement.
striker
Guest
Yep Modric deserved this, he was the standout player for Croatia and without him they would not have reached the final, Messi and Ronaldo did not have the same impact with there nations.
Ad-O
Guest
Atleti didn't do anything this year, and Griezman wasn't the best performer in the France team. His case was relatively weak.
Ad-0
Guest
It's fair enough he won it. Ballon d'Or has always required team success in addition to individual performance. More specifically a Champions League title, a World Cup, or a Euros. Messi didn't win either, and Portugal didn't do enough at the World Cup.
Long Pham
Guest
Hi Nick, I completely disagree with your article. It is false and biased. Griezmann deserved the award as he was very consistent in the world cup. I think your article is well structured but the facts and info are incorrect. Please update your article with something less clickbait.