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The Ballon d'Or is the most prestigious individual prize in football and winning it is a dream for almost every footballer. Only the very best in the business have been able to take home the coveted trophy.
In football, it doesn't take a lot of time for a club or a player's fortunes to change. A player could go from a talented understudy to a world-class performer in the span of a season. Take Vinicius Jr. for example. He was viewed as a mercurial winger with immense potential up until the start of last season.
Over the course of the 2021-22 campaign, Vinicius Jr. established himself as one of the most lethal attackers on the planet. Rise and fall are two sides of the same coin as far as footballers are concerned. A top player can also fall off quickly and someone who was relevant three years ago might be a non-entity now.
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Without further ado, let's take a look at five players who were on the 2018 Ballon d'Or shortlist but have fallen off.
#5 Roberto Firmino
Roberto Firmino thrived as a false nine under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool. His superior ball retention skills combined with his vision and passing range made him the perfect foil for the likes of Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
Firmino possessed an incredible amount of flair and it was a joy to watch him operate at the peak of is powers. In the 2017-18 season, Firmino scored 27 goals and provided 17 assists for the Merseysiders. Liverpool's front three were firing on all cylinders as they made it to the Champions League final that term.
However, Firmino has faded considerably over the past couple of seasons. He is no longer a sure-shot starter for Liverpool. The Brazilian's levels have dropped massively since and in the 2021-22 season, he scored just 11 goals and provided five assists in 35 appearances across all competitions.
The 30-year-old started just 10 Premier League games this past term.
#4 Paul Pogba
Paul Pogba is set to join Juventus on a free transfer for the second time in his career. The Frenchman will leave Manchester United at the end of this month. The fact that the Old Trafford faithful are happy to see his back is a good indication of how much he has fallen from grace.
Pogba won the World Cup with France in 2018. He was one of their standout performers in the tournament and even scored a goal in the final against Croatia. Pogba has struggled with multiple injury issues since and he just doesn't seem to have the legs to cut it in the Premier League anymore.
The French midfielder's lack of positional discipline is starting to adversely affect his teams a lot more now that he is no longer at the peak of his physical powers. Pogba made just 27 appearances for Manchester United in the 2021-22 season.
He scored one goal and provided nine assists. But it's worth noting that six of those assists came in two Premier League games early on in the season, namely against Leeds United and Newcastle United. He was frustratingly quiet for the majority of the season and it'll be interesting to see if he will improve upon it at Juventus.
#3 Isco
Isco will leave Real Madrid at the end of this month. Don't let recency bias fool you into thinking he failed at the club. Isco served Los Blancos commendably during his prime years but he is simply not the player he used to be.
The Spaniard scored nine goals and provided 10 assists in 49 appearances across all competitions for Real Madrid in the 2017-18 season. He was particularly impressive in La Liga but it was still not his best season at the Santiago Bernabeu.
But nobody could have predicted just how much Isco would regress over the next few seasons. He was nothing more than a peripheral figure at Real Madrid in the 2021-22 season.
The 30-year-old made just 17 appearances across all competitions for Real Madrid last term, scoring just two goals. It's been quite a fall from grace for Isco, who was considered to be one of the best central midfielders in the world just a few years ago.
#2 Antoine Griezmann
Antoine Griezmann was one of the stars of the 2017-18 season. He scored 29 goals and provided 15 assists in 49 appearances across all competitions for the Rojiblancos that term. The Frenchman also played a starring role in France's 2018 FIFA World Cup triumph.
A year later, he would move to Barcelona as one of their most expensive signings (€120 million) of all time. Griezmann would struggle to settle down at the Camp Nou in his debut season but definitely showed signs of improvement in the 2020-21 season.
However, the Catalans had to take him off their books due to their financial problems. As a result, Griezmann was sent back to Atletico Madrid on a two-year loan deal with an obligation to buy. But the Frenchman's return to the Wanda Metropolitano has been quite underwhelming.
It didn't help that Diego Simeone's side also underperformed massively in the 2021-22 season. However, Griezmann scored just eight goals and provided seven assists in 39 appearances across all competitions for Atletico Madrid last term.
He is definitely not one of the top forwards on the planet anymore, but just four years ago, he was one of the top contenders for the Ballon d'Or.
#1 Eden Hazard
When Eden Hazard finally secured his dream move to Real Madrid in 2019, little did we know that the Belgian would soon be written off as their most expensive flop. Hazard had been tearing it up for Chelsea until he moved to Real Madrid.
In the 2017-18 season, the Belgium international scored 17 goals and provided 13 assists across all competitions for the Blues. He also played a starring role in Belgium's run to the semi-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
But Hazard has had a disastrous stint at Real Madrid so far and he has now been displaced from the starting XI by the young Vinicius Jr. In 23 appearances across all competitions for Real Madrid in the 2021-22 season, Hazard scored just one goal and provided two assists.
That speaks volumes about how far Hazard has fallen, and it's been a fall that's been too hard for his fans from his time in the Premier League.
