5 players who could have won the Ballon d'Or in the absence of Ronaldo and Messi

#4 Xavi Hernández

FC Barcelona's midfield maestro

Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona team will go down in history as the greatest and best playing team ever. They not only dominated the domestic scene, but they reached the summit of European football in a style that defied all logic. In a midfield trio with Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, Xavi was the one who orchestrated Barcelona’s passing play. He was so good that his teammate Dani Alves described playing with him as ‘playing in the future.’

He was always two steps ahead of the opponent, sometimes even his own teammates too. Xavi was the embodiment of tiki-taka for his country and club. Although not the star man, without him, neither of those two teams would have enjoyed such success. The midfield maestro made 133 caps for his country, whilst appearing an unprecedented 505 times for his childhood club.

In 2010, such was the dominance of Barcelona, all three of Messi, Iniesta and Xavi were the Ballon d’Or finalists, a year where many thought he should have won. Because of the immortality of Messi and Ronaldo, Xavi’s genius has never truly been appreciated.