Ballon d’Or 2018: 4 Players whose inclusion in the shortlist is questionable

#3 Mario Mandzukic

The Croatian had a fruitful 2018 FIFA World Cup, where he scored 3 goals and reached the final with his country, but ended up on the losing side. In the 2017/18 season, Mandzukic won the Serie A title and the Coppa Italia with Juventus, however, he scored only 10 goals from 43 games in all competitions in the whole season. In the Serie A, he found the net just 5 times in 32 appearances.

At the start of the new season, Mandzukic has been in good form and has scored 4 goals from games in all competitions so far. Incidentally, all of his 4 goals have been in the league, where he has almost equalled his goals tally from last season. Even with the advent of Cristiano Ronaldo, Mandzukic has evolved to become Juventus’ main man at present. However, none of that justifies his inclusion in the 30 man shortlist.

Player who missed out: Robert Lewandowski

The Polish striker scored 41 goals last season, won the Bundesliga with Bayern, was the top scorer in the league and has already scored 8 goals from 10 games this season. It is hard to explain why he was ignored!

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Edited by Sripad