Ballon d'or 2018: The best XI to miss out

Right-wing: Philippe Coutinho (Brazil/Barcelona)

Coutinho impressed in his first spell with Barcelona

It was a year of transition for Coutinho, who swapped Liverpool for Barcelona in January and spent the rest of the season trying to acclimatise to new surroundings. Yet, finished the season with 10 goals and 6 assists in 22 appearances. Not to forget he had already registered another 12 goals and 8 assists with the Reds in the first-half of the term.

So when you add it all up, the Brazilian ace actually had a fine year and starred for the Seleccao in Russia too. He was their best player in the campaign, scoring and assisting twice each to completely eclipse Neymar. Still, he is conspicuous by his absence from the shortlist.

Left wing: Paulo Dybala (Argentina/Juventus)

Dybala was the second-best scorer in Serie A last term

Dybala continued to have a great run with Juventus, netting 21 times in the league to help clinch a seventh consecutive Serie A trophy. Whilst he was off the form in Europe, Dybala nevertheless scored the winner against Tottenham in a close-knit contest to send them through to the last 8. He was also selected in Argentina's 23-man squad for the World Cup but used sparingly by the naive Jorge Sampaoli.

He didn't have a headline-grabbing season, but certainly did more, much more than Benzema to warrant a place in the list.

Striker: Robert Lewandowski (Poland/Bayern Munich)

Lewandowski fired at all cylinders with Bayern last season

The Bayern hitman picked up his third Torjagerkannon after finishing as the top scorer of the Bundesliga once again, with 29 goals to his name (41 in all competitions). He was as prolific as ever and also netted five times in the Champions League as Bayern made another top-four finish. However, he was terribly out of form in the World Cup as he failed to find the net even once, but admittedly, he was completely devoid of service too.