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Over the years, the conversation surrounding the prestigious Ballon d'Or has raised some familiar arguments about its influential recipients and the validity of their nominations. A perennial furore has historically followed football's most coveted individual prize. Multiple players have been grossly overlooked for the Ballon d'Or in the past despite spectacular performances for club and country.
The Ballon d'Or award has been dominated by the talismanic duo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for more than a decade. And it's often difficult to find an argument against their duopoly when they have changed the landscape of football so radically.
Having said that, there remain varied questions over the nature of the Ballon d'Or award, its tendency to nominate certain players irrespective of actual performance, and its perceived favouritism towards attackers over defenders.
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With all that in mind, we take a look at five players who did not deserve the Ballon d'Or in the years that they won.
#5 Luis Figo (2000)
Luis Figo was awarded the first Ballon d'Or of the new millennium a few months after he left Barcelona for Real Madrid in one of the most controversial transfers in football history. His £37.2 million move across the Catalan-Castillan divide was so contentious that enraged supporters even claimed that he had won the award primarily because of the transfer.
The former Portugal international won the accolade with 197 points, narrowly beating second-placed Zinedine Zidane, who earned 181 points. He became the first Portuguese player to win the award since Eusebio in 1965. And while he lifted the Ballon d'Or as a Los Blancos player, his victory was largely down to the reputation he built when playing for Barcelona.
His transfer to the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer of 2000 signalled the beginning of Florentino Pérez's Galáctico era. But many believed Figo did not have much to make his case for the Ballon d'Or win that year.
The Almada-born man individually excelled in the Blaugrana midfield. But his exploits were not enough to help them retain the La Liga title as they lost it to Deportivo la Coruna at the end of the 1999-2000 season.
While he was pivotal to the Catalans' run to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, he struggled to inspire a comeback similar to their quarter-final retort against Chelsea. And his side ultimately lost to Valencia, who finished the competition as runner-ups. He did manage to help Portugal reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Euro that summer but they faced defeat in the fixture to eventual winners, France.
The consensus at the time was that Fernando Redondo, who captained Real Madrid to the Champions League title, was more deserving of the Ballon d'Or. This argument came after taking into consideration Redondo's scintillating performances for his club. His exploits earned him the Champions League's Most Valuable Player and the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year awards.
However, Pérez controversially engineered the Argentine's sale to AC Milan that summer after the player sided with Lorenzo Sanz in the seismic presidential race within the club. Unfortunately, the midfield sensation later suffered an injury that saw him sidelined for more than two years. And the Ballon d'Or was subsequently awarded to the more glamorous candidate, Figo.
#4 Pavel Nedved (2003)
Pavel Nedved was presented the 2003 Ballon d'Or in recognition of his pivotal contributions to Juventus. That particular season saw the Old Lady retain the Serie A title, lift the Supercoppa Italiana, and reach the UEFA Champions League final.
The former Czech Republic international won the coveted award with 190 points and was followed by second-placed Thierry Henry with 128 points. Paolo Maldini followed in the third spot with 123 points.
The Cheb-born midfielder enjoyed an incredible campaign that year but his Ballon d'Or win was widely considered an injustice to Henry. The Frenchman had registered 42 goals and 26 assists for Arsenal in the whole calendar year, which was a statistic that was remarkable before the arrival of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Henry also won both the PFA Players' Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards after helping the Gunners to an FA Cup win and a second-place finish in the Premier League. Additionally, he scored the winning goal for France in the Confederations Cup final in the same year and finished as the runner-up for the 2003 FIFA World Player of the Year award.
Many believe Henry's case for the Ballon d'Or award would have been stronger had Arsenal held on to their early-season lead over Manchester United and won the Premier League title at the end of the 2002-03 season.
#3 Lionel Messi (2010)
Lionel Messi took home his second consecutive Ballon d'Or in 2010, which was the first year that FIFA's World Player of the Year award was combined with France Football's European Player of the Year prize.
The diminutive Argentine's extraordinary year- during which he scored a staggering 60 goals for Barcelona and Argentina- was not disputed at the time. But there was a consensus that there were other players who deserved the Ballon d'Or more.
For starters, the Rosario-born sensation's single La Liga trophy and his underwhelming performances for Argentina in the FIFA World Cup strengthened the case for the teammates who shared the podium with him - Andres Iniesta in second place and Xavi Hernandez in third place. Furthermore, the decision to exclude Wesley Sneijder from the top three of the Ballon d'Or caused widespread outrage and was intensely criticised by the football community.
Iniesta and Xavi won the same amount of trophies as Messi with Barcelona but did a much better job in South Africa, where they inspired Spain to their first-ever FIFA World Cup title. The duo predictably dominated the midfield for their national team and boasted insane statistics to back their performances. This was the reason as to why many critics understandably considered their snub for the Ballon d'Or to be an absolute travesty, especially as 2010 was dubbed as La Roja's year.
Meanwhile, Sneijder was the creative spark of Inter Milan's famous treble-winning season under Jose Mourinho. He was also the top assist provider in the UEFA Champions League. His performances in the FIFA World Cup, during which he scored five goals, fired the Netherlands to the final of the competition.
Sneijder also claimed the Silver Ball and the Bronze Boot in the World Cup. The Dutchman's impact for both club and country in 2010 was massive and it is certainly absurd that he never even made it to the Ballon d'Or podium.
#2 Cristiano Ronaldo (2013)
Cristiano Ronaldo broke Lionel Messi's streak to win the 2013 Ballon d'Or for the first time since joining Real Madrid. The Portuguese talisman had won no trophies that year but he had registered 69 goals and 17 assists for club and country to make an immensely strong case for himself.
There was really only one player, besides Lionel Messi, who was a genuine contender for the award that year. And that was Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery, who finished third on the Ballon d'Or podium behind the second-placed Argentine.
While the Barcelona ace netted 42 goals for club and country despite injury issues, Ribery's role in the Bavarians' unprecedented treble-winning campaign led many to believe that he deserved to win the individual honour in 2013. Ribery's claims were further strengthened by the fact that he had won the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award for that season,
Most critics pointed out that while Ronaldo did show up in some important games, he often went missing when Los Blancos really needed him. This was proven by his dismissal in the Copa del Rey final that summer and his lacklustre performances in both legs of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Ribery's figures - 22 goals and 18 assists in all competitions - did not come close to Ronaldo's. But his contributions positively impacted the team far more significantly than the former Sporting man's. As a result, Ribery helped Bayern Munich win the Bundesliga, the Champions League, the German Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Ribery, who currently plies his trade for Fiorentina, remains disheartened by the Ballon d'Or snub to this day and has vocalised his disappointment on multiple occasions. In an interview with L'Equipe, he said:
"More than a disappointment. It's the biggest injustice of my career. Not only for me, for many people. I was on top and I finished 3rd. I had nothing to envy Ronaldo or Messi that year. I say it in all humility because it is the truth."
#1 Luka Modric (2018)
When Luka Modric won the Ballon d'Or in 2018, he became the first player outside of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to have been presented with the accolade since Kaka in 2007.
The Real Madrid midfielder received the Ballon d'Or trophy for his role in the Spanish giants' third consecutive UEFA Champions League victory and his contributions to Croatia's incredible run to the FIFA World Cup final.
The 34-year-old star took home the coveted prize with 753 points, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo with 476 points and Antoine Griezmann with 414 points. Lionel Messi, who has been a constant presence in the top three of the Ballon d'Or since 2006, was noticeably absent from the podium as he finished fifth with 280 points. Kylian Mbappe finished in the fourth spot above Messi and earned 347 points.
The football community predictably erupted in unison to criticise not only the rankings but the winner of the Ballon d'Or himself, who tallied only three goals and 11 assists for club and country in the calendar year. While the midfielder's performances certainly transcended numbers, many believed it may have been too much of an overstatement to declare him the best player in the world when players like Messi had registered staggering figures in the same year.
The Barcelona ace scored 51 goals and provided 26 assists in 54 appearances for club and country and dominated most of the attacking statistics in La Liga. He won the Spanish top-flight title and the Copa del Rey that year. But his poor FIFA World Cup showing and his failure to inspire the Blaugrana in the Champions League are believed to be the barriers that stopped him from winning the Ballon d'Or over Modric that year.
