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The Ballon d'Or ceremony is not far away now and the excitement for this year's winner is only increasing with time. There is no clear-cut winner in this race as the nominees have done really well to deserve a name on the shortlist.
It comes as no surprise that the Ballon d'Or nominees have high market values. While some have consistently had a good market value, others have seen a rise in recent times
Ballon d'Or winners have had varied transfer values over time
It is also true that over the years, the value of a footballer has been inflated due to the huge amount of finances involved. Especially in the last decade, there has been too much of a rise in the market value of a player.
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The Ballon d'Or has been won by some of the greatest players in football history. It has so happened that their market values haven't been that high when they have won it. On that note' let's take a look at five Ballon d'Or winners since 2004 with the lowest market value at the time of winning the award.
Note: All values are as per Transfermarkt
#5 Ronaldinho (£54 million)
It was magical when Ronaldinho had the ball at his feet. He did things with a football that one can only dream of. The Brazilian played for a number of top European clubs and one of them was Barcelona.
With the Catalan club, Ronaldinho had a memorable spell of five years. Due to his mind-bogglinding dribbling and amazing creativity, the former Paris Saint-Germain midfielder was very difficult to stop.
In the 2004-05 season, he played an instrumental role in helping Barcelona win La Liga, the UEFA Champions League and the Spanish Super Cup.
His amazing performances in the 2004-05 season combined with the FIFA Confederations Cup victory with Brazil helped Ronaldinho win the 2005 Ballon d'Or award. At that moment, his market value was £54 million.
. #4 Cristiano Ronaldo (£54 million - 2008)
Cristiano Ronaldo joined Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon in 2003. The Portuguese superstar was then a young footballer with a lot of talent at his disposal but not quite developed.
Under the management and guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson, Ronaldo developed into one of the best players in the world while at Manchester United. In the 2007-08 season, the Portuguese played a massive role in helping the Red Devils win both the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League.
That helped Cristiano Ronaldo win the Ballon d'Or in 2008. At that moment, his market value was £54 million, his lowest amongst all his Ballon d'Or wins in his career. Notably, he has added four more Ballon d'Or awards to his overall tally since then.
#3 Andriy Shevchenko (£25.2 million)
The Ballon d'Or is won by six AC Milan players in the history of the award and Andriy Shevchenko is one of them. He came through the ranks at Dynamo Kyiv in Ukraine.
The right-footed forward earned a move to AC Milan in 1999 where he spent seven seasons. The move turned out to be a successful one as Shevchenko earned a lot of accolades with the Italian giants. In the 2003-04 season, he helped them win Serie A, with the Ukrainian finishing as the league's top-scorer after scoring 24 goals.
Milan also won the Supercoppa Italia that season and 2004 was the year where Shevchenko won the Ballon d'Or, beating Barcelona's Deco. His market value then was just £25.2 million.
#2 Luka Modric (£22.5 million)
Luka Modric is one of the most underrated players in the history of the game. Real Madrid have earned a lot of success in the last decade and while many top players are getting the appreciation, Modric deserves as much acknowledgement.
The Croatian midfielder signed for Real Madrid in 2012 and has been with them ever since. Irrespective of age, Modric has been nothing short of world-class with his high work-rate, beautiful passing and effective positional play. He won the UEFA Champions League in the 2017-18 season with Madrid.
In 2018, the former Spurs midfielder did phenomenally well to help Croatia reach the finals of the FIFA World Cup. He had a massive role to play in that, which was eventually instrumental in helping him win the 2018 Ballon d'Or. Luka Modric's market value at the time was £22.5 million.
#1 Fabio Cannavaro (£13 million)
Regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation, Fabio Cannavaro was a stunning player. After joining Juventus in 2004, the Italian put in some amazing performances.
Cannavaro was technically sound, had the composure and pace at the back to become a very mindful defender. He was sharp with his positioning and very effective with his tackling.
Despite not being the tallest, he was quite good aerially. He won Serie A with Juventus in 2006 and also the FIFA World Cup with Italy that year.
His dominating performance for both club and country helped him win the 2006 Ballon d'Or. This made him the only defender in the 21st century to win the award and the third defender in the history of the prestigious award. Cannavaro's market value back then was only £13 million.
