First of all I think it was a very tough Ballon D’or to make a call on. Some years it seems pretty obvious who deserves it and who will win. Other years there’s 2 (or maybe 3) players that you can point out and say “it’s either going to be him or him” (this year it was Messi and Haaland). But in 2018, I just don’t think that was the case at all. There weren’t 2 or 3 players that stood out from the rest.
Obviously 2018 being a World Cup year complicated things. A lot of the Ballon D’or candidates who performed fantastically at club level didn’t have a particularly impressive World Cup. I’m going to focus on Messi, Ronaldo, Greizmann and Modric, however I’m sure many other people would add Mbappe and Salah to the mix of main candidates.
Messi, as he so often does, finished the year with the most goals and assists in European club football winning La Liga and Copa del Rey (1 goal and 2 assists in the final). However his World Cup was underwhelming, only scoring one goal, missing a penalty against Iceland and being eliminated in the Last 16 by France.
Ronaldo scored an incredible 15 UCL goals in the 2017/18 season winning the UCL and UCL forward of the season. His goal scoring stats were impressive in every club competition that year. However, like Haaland this season, many people argued that his game was too goal-scoring orientated. He didn’t contribute as much to playmaking and creating goals as he had in the past. Ronaldo had a fantastic start to the 2018 World Cup scoring a hattrick against Spain, but after that match, he missed a penalty against Iran and was only able to score 1 goal in his 3 other matches.
Greizmann won the Europa League in the 2017/18 season scoring 2 goals in the final and winning player of the tournament. He had an incredible World Cup campaign scoring 4 goals and getting 2 assists. He also had a good La Liga campaign, Atletico finished second only to Barcelona, however his league stats that season were still completely dwarfed by Messi’s phenomal numbers. To be honest Barcelona and Messi completely ran the show in Spanish football in 2018.
Modric. Obviously between Messi, Ronaldo, Greizmann I don’t think it’s unreasonable to compare their stats in terms of goals and assists. They are all forward players who are expected to assist and score as many goals as possible. Modric obviously played deeper, as a central midfielder. It’s not realistic to compare his stats to that of the other 3.
Alongside Ronaldo, Modric won the Champions League with Real Madrid and won UCL Midfielder of the season that year. In the World Cup he scored twice and got an assist. With Croatia reaching the World Cup final he was awarded player of the tournament. Admittedly Croatia didn’t have the toughest run of matches to get there, France had it much harder. However Croatia still thrashed Argentina (Modric goal), knocked-out the tournament holders Russia (Modric assist) and beat England in the semis. Not bad going at all.
Overall, I think this was a really difficult Ballon D’or to judge. And with different players being successful in different competitions, a lot of it comes down to people’s opinions on the importance of each tournament. Most people would classify the World Cup being the most important tournament, followed by the Champions League, but then how do you rank La Liga against the Europa League for example. Is Greizmann’s Europa League success more valuable than Messi’s La Liga and Copa del Rey success? Modric may have not won the World Cup, but to come second place with Croatia seems atleast equally as impressive as France winning the tournament itself, if not more impressive.
Personally I really dont think Modric winning the Ballon D’or was that bad, given his success in the UCL and amazing run in the World Cup. To be honest though, I think any of those 4 (Messi, Ronaldo, Greizmann and Modric) could have won the Ballon D’or and I wouldn’t have objected to it, it was a really tough vote.
Who do you think deserved the 2018 Ballon D’or?
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Depends on what your criteria for ballon dor is. It’s like the NBA MVP at this point. Whoever has the best narrative.
I think anyone who delivers in clutch moments that lead to silverware is fair game for the award.
It’s when stat padders start getting it under the guise of “consistency” it becomes an issue.
If we are using 2023 standards, Griezman because he won the World Cup.
In reality, Madrid deserved it. We have to stop using goals or assists as the metric otherwise only forwards will ever be able to win the award. Modric won the EUFA player of the Year which actually uses coaches votes so a bit less bias.
Internationally- he won the Golden ball of the World Cup and took his team to the finals.
At club level- Won the minor trophies of Supercopa, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Championship. Of course won the third consecutive Champions League Trophy.
I think so too.
Stl., 51 & 49 goals individually. That is still a mad amount
Wasn’t even close to their best either for stats.
Messi was literally at his peak in 2018.
2018 Messi is the best version of the best player of all time.
Modric
Lmao are u tripping?
Literally no one thought this at the time. Except the journalists who voted.
Ronaldo
They couldn’t have Messi be passed by Ronaldo. He clearly deserved it.
griezmann
Not Messi the goblin
1: Messi 2: Ronaldo 3: Greizmann 4: Modric 5: Salah
🤯
Modric got it but I don’t think he had a particularly good season. Varane might have been a shout tbh
Cristiano, but pls everyday there are always posts about Ronaldo/Messi ffs, its boring
In all honesty I think Messi is the far better player and Modric had a great year but Ronaldo definitely deserved to win it that year.
I feel that the WC was the ultimate tiebreaker between Messi, Ronaldo and Modric. Salah had a great season in terms of G/A but ultimately, Messi had more. Griezmann and Mbappe were great for both club and country but then the UCL factor put them behind Ronaldo and Modric.
Now, before the World Cup began, you could argue that Modric was behind Messi and Ronaldo in terms of who wins the Ballon d’Or. Fast forward to the RO16, Argentina and Portugal are both knocked out, with Messi having a disappointing goal tally and Ronaldo having a slightly better one. I’ll make a bold claim that Ronaldo would have won the BdOr had Croatia too been knocked out at this point. But what happens? They reach the final and ultimately, Modric wins the Golden Ball, and I believe that was the X factor for him. Do I think he deserved it? Absolutely.
I love Luka and all, but for the ballon dor parameters, which have constantly favoured attackers, Cristiano should’ve won. If he stayed at Madrid, Perez would’ve gone all out for him and I think Ronaldo would’ve won 2 more after.
The thing that sucks is that it’s focused on strikers and playmakers. I’d love to see separate stats such as clearances, saves, blocks and so on be considered as highly as goals