Ballon d'Or Power Ranking: November 2018

Modified Apr 02, 2020 05:58 GMT

#2 Lionel Messi (+1)

Lionel Messi has reported back to training after sustaining an injury

The 31-year-old legend picked up an injury on the 20th of October against Sevilla but not before he had already done enough to bury them. Messi played only 3 games in October but he was arguably the best player on the pitch on all 3 occasions.

A brace against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League was followed up with a 90th-minute equalizer against Villareal. He could have gone on to outperform Cristiano Ronaldo if not for the injury but he has done just enough to take the race to the wire.

Messi has climbed from 3rd to 2nd on our rankings and if he starts to score goals at the rate he was right before his injury, we may be in for an exciting finish to the race of the elite.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad