Ballon d’Or 2018: Ranking the 5 favourites

By Deepungsu Pandit

Modified Oct 08, 2018 19:36 GMT

#4 Antoine Griezmann

France v Croatia - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Final

Ballon d’Or 2017 – 18th

The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2018 – 6th

Griezmann won the 2018 FIFA World Cup with France over the summer, scoring 4 goals and was one of their star performers. However, the Frenchman was already on a roll last season, scoring 29 goals in 49 appearances for Atletico Madrid and also registering a further 15 assists. Griezmann ended the season by winning the UEFA Europa League with Atletico Madrid and was adjudged the UEFA Europa League Player of the Season.

He started the new season with a trophy as well, winning the 2018 UEFA Super Cup with Atletico Madrid. This season, Griezmann has already scored 4 goals from 11 games and has recorded 3 assists as well. The Frenchman might be tempted to think that he deserves to win the trophy or at least be in the top 3 again, but unfortunately for him, he is 4th in the list of favourites to win the Ballon d'Or 2018.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by Vikshith R