Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Luis Suarez - Who actually deserves the Ballon d'Or this year?

Antoine Griezmann

The France and Atletico Madrid forward has had a bittersweet year. Undoubtedly Atletico’s star man, Griezmann narrowly missed out on the La Liga, Champions League and the Euros.

Although he missed out narrowly on all the major trophies, Griezmann captured the imagination of football fans all over the world with his wonderful performances for both Atletico Madrid and France.

Winner of the Golden Boot award in the Euros, Griezmann has been compared with some of France’s best players such as Thierry Henry and Michel Platini. He now has more goals than the legendary Zinedine Zidane and the same number of goals for France as Henry.

Griezmann was also Atletico’s talisman in the La Liga scoring 22 goals and getting 5 assists. He also had the best defensive contribution among Ronaldo, Messi and Suarez having made an astonishing 42 successful tackles 24 more than his closest rival Luis Suarez.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger considers Griezmann to be one of the favourites for the Ballon d’Or:

"Griezmann for me is one of the candidates for the Golden Ball [Ballon d'Or]," Wenger told Konbini "In Spain, he is not far from Ronaldo and Messi.

"Age is on his side and look at the Euros: six goals, three or four assists -- these stats are not nothing.

"This year he went to the Champions League final by scoring in all the big games, not to mention that he scored 22 goals in La Liga. So yes, why not the Ballon d'Or?"

The only thing holding back the Fench star has been his lack of impact in the big games, most notably the Champions League and Euro 2016 finals. Girezmann missed a crucial penalty in the Champions League final and he also spurned some good chances in the Euro final.

Also, a lack of any major trophy this season might see Griezmann lose out on the Ballon d’Or this year.