Des Norris

A domestic title? Meh. A Champions League medal? Yawn. The FIFA World Cup trophy itself? *Sarcastic applause*.

Collective prizes are passé; nowadays it’s all about individual glory. And any self-respecting player plying his trade in the modern era knows there is only one piece of silverware worth caring about: the Ballon d’Or.

And where once there was a sense that the red carpet pageantry was just a prelude to either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo being handed the globular trophy, now there is newfound hope among the others that the Teutonic duo’s decade-long duopoly on winning the world’s most prestigious individual award has finally come to an end. 

The 2018 Ballon d’Or Playing Field

This hope has been fueled largely because of Luka Modric who, having scooped the Golden Ball after a stellar World Cup, pinched the UEFA Men's Player of the Year award and the Best FIFA’s Men’s Player of the Year award from right under Messi and Ronaldo’s noses.

The Croat needed to win back-to-back-to-back Champions League medals and lead a country of four million people to within two more Hugo Lloris howlers of World Cup glory to pip Messi and Ronaldo to those gongs, but having done so the Real Madrid midfielder has sparked a real debate about whether the Ballon d’Or jig is finally up for the era-defining pair.

So why this sudden leveling of the playing field in 2018? 

Sure, Messi and Ronaldo have long relinquished their spring chicken statuses - between them they have 64 years of life experience - but performance-wise they continue to set the standard at the highest echelons of the game: each of them has already been directly involved in 15 goals in league play this season – Ronaldo impressively doing so while adapting to life in Serie A. 

And it is not as if either suffered a drastic dip in form last season: Ronaldo racking up 44 goals in 44 games, including an internet-shattering bicycle kick against Juve; Messi claiming a fifth Pichichi Trophy as Barcelona romped to a domestic double. 

Nonetheless, the World Cup factor hangs heavy over the 2018 edition of the Ballon d’Or ceremony - more than it did in 2010 or 2014 anyway – and, aside from a hat-trick against Spain and a moment of magic against Nigeria, neither Messi or Ronaldo enjoyed a particularly wonderful time in Russia.

No Messi or Ronaldo? Who Else Can We Eliminate?

So with all that being said, which players are in with a realistic shot of winning the hearts of voters and toppling the talented twosome from the Ballon d’Or podium come Monday?

Taking a look at the 30-man shortlist devised by the soccer-loving chin-strokers at France Football, we can quickly separate the wheat from the chaff by eliminating all the players who failed to win a trophy with their teams in 2018.

So long, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah. Better luck next year, Harry Kane, Alisson Becker and Thibaut Courtois. Don’t call us, we’ll call you, Eden Hazard.

Next to go: those who didn’t make it to the World Cup. That means you, Jan Oblak, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema. Go on, scram!

As outlined in France Football’s voting criteria, “player class (talent and fair play)” is a requirement, so that immediately precludes Neymar - the man that launched a thousand flopping memes - and Sergio Ramos, who is now blacklisted from ever stepping foot on Egyptian soil.

Here’s where the cull gets subjective. Right off the bat, Hugo Lloris is out for that gaffe. So too are Ivan Rakitic, Mario Mandzukic and Diego Godin, who despite all being world-class, are not considered the best players on either their club or national sides. The same could be said for Marcelo who, for all his otherworldly talent, had to live under Ronaldo and Neymar’s shadows. 

Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne have proven paradoxically brilliant but expendable at Manchester City, so they don’t make the cut either. 

Paul Pogba scored in the World Cup final, but have you seen him for Manchester United lately? Inconsistency plagued Luis Suarez’s 2017/18 LaLiga season, while injuries and the stench of two miserable Champions League campaigns for PSG mean his Charrúa teammate, Edinson Cavani, is out of the running, too.

So that’s all the no-hopers out of the way; let’s take a look at the in-with-a-chancers.

The Voting Results Could Favor These Guys

Luka Modric

Word on the street has it that Modric is this year’s frontrunner. Since helping to make checkered water polo caps cool again this summer, the Croatia captain has claimed every available individual honor.

If there were a Ballon d’Or for endurance, Modric would be a deserving recipient, having played a grueling 6,286 minutes at the World Cup after an already-grueling season with perennial Champions League winners Real Madrid. 

Raphael Varane

He may not be everyone’s favorite player. He may not even be everyone’s favorite defender. Hell, he may not even be everyone’s favorite French defender. Saying that, it would be remise not to consider 25-year-old center back if only for the fact he is the only player to have won the two biggest tournaments of the year.

The newly dubbed ‘Mr. Champions’ would be a curious choice for the Ballon d’Or, no doubt, but according to the voting for the Best FIFA’s Men’s Player at least, Modric, Ronaldo and Lloris think he would be a worthy recipient.

N’Golo Kante

If likability alone were the measure of greatness, then here’s your winner. But Chelsea’s diminutive midfield destroyer has more in his locker than a heartwarming smile and a knack for trampling every blade of grass put before him. 

Kante had proven his chops before this summer – winning two Premier League titles in three years – but his reading of games and Duracell Bunny-like energy in Russia ensured his name will forever be enshrined in French footballing folklore.  

Admittedly defensive midfielders don’t usually get recognized for individual awards, however, it was Kante, and not one of his more social media savvy French teammates, who was serenaded in song during the World Cup-winners’ Stade de France homecoming.

Kylian Mbappe

Given everything he has already achieved, it’s hard to believe Mbappe is still a teenager. 

Since bursting onto the scene with Monaco two years ago, Mbappe has proven himself a ‘big stage’ performer and further established this reputation at the World Cup, where he scored four goals, including one in the final.

At club level he has muscled his way to the top of the PSG pecking order, amazingly knocking world-recording signing Neymar off his pedestal as the Ligue 1 side’s most cherished player.

Antoine Griezmann

Griezmann kicked up a fuss when the three-man shortlist for The Best awards didn’t feature a single Frenchman, and since then he has barely shut up about his desire to be considered the world’s greatest practitioner of the beautiful game.

“When I finished third in 2016, I had lost two finals. Now, I've won three. The Ballon d'Or is a prestigious award and for a player it's the summit," Griezzy pleaded in September.

Yes, the Atletico Madrid’s shameless politicking for the Ballon d’Or award has been nothing short of embarrassing at times, but he does make a few compelling points. Three to be precise.