The Ballon d’Or award has been dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the past decade. The last time that someone other than the duo won the award dates back to 2007, when former AC Milan and Brazil star Kaka managed to pick it up during his heyday at the San Siro.
While Messi and Ronaldo will again be top contenders for this year’s award, there is also a strong possibility that this will finally be the time when the domination of the award by the duo comes to an end. The fact that Luka Modric of Croatia and Real Madrid won the FIFA Best Player award in September could be an indicator of this.
Modric will be a top contender for the Ballon d’Or award after helping Real Madrid to the Champions League and winning the Best Player award during the 2018 World Cup as he led Croatia to the final, where they ultimately fell short against a more gifted France side.
Also on the short list for the award are Raphael Varane and Kylian Mbappe. Both players were part of the French World Cup-winning squad. Interestingly, Varane is the only man to have won both the Champions League as well as the World Cup last season. Many critics of the Ballon d’Or, who feel that the award favours attackers over defensive players, feel that Varane deserves the gong.
Hazard has now given his thoughts on who he feels should win the award. While the Chelsea man does believe that Modric has done enough to win the award, he believes that it should go to Mbappe.
During an interview with RTBF, he said: “I do not deserve it, I would have said Modric, but today I would say Mbappé. “Even if I had a really positive year, we must all be down to earth. I do not deserve the Golden Ball. I think there were players who did better than me.
“The goal for me is not to win the Golden Ball anyway, but it remains as usual to have fun as much as possible on a football field. If one day I will win it, it will be much better, otherwise no problem.”
