Ballon d'Or 2018: 5 reasons why Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo not winning is great news

#4 Others can hope

More hope for the others

‘Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever die,’ Andy Dufresne said famously to Red in The Shawshank Redemption. In the end, it was the hope that won and I am not going to spoil the movie for you and say how.

For the last 10 years, there was a sense of hopelessness among the other players. And how can you blame them? In 2010, Wesley Sneijder won the treble with Inter and then played an instrumental part in helping the Netherlands to the final of the World Cup that year.

In 2013, Franck Ribery won the treble with Bayern Munich and was literally unstoppable on the left flank while also not neglecting his defensive duties.

And yet, somehow, neither of these two men won the Ballon d’Or as Sneijder lost it to Lionel Messi and Ribery lost it to Ronaldo. It filled the air with despair for the others but with neither of the two winning it this year, that will change and lead to…