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#3 Virgil van Dijk
It would be safe to say that Virgil van Dijk would have been hoping for a better month with respect to his Ballon d'Or hopes. This human roadblock of a defender was not at his very best in the past month.
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Van Dijk featured 5 times for Liverpool and twice for the Netherlands international team in October but did not keep even one clean sheet. To his merit, he hasn't lost one either but when the stakes are as high as they are when it comes to the Ballon d'Or, these finer numbers end up mattering a lot.
Van Dijk continues to be the best centre-back in the world right now but this might not be the year when he walks away with the most coveted individual prize in football. However, we are not going to shut ourselves down to the idea and wouldn't be too surprised if the Dutchman breaks the trend and wins the Ballon d'Or over the rest of the competition.
After all, he won the UEFA Champions League and was the runners-up in the UEFA Nations League.
