Ballon d'Or 2017 Power rankings - Top 5 

#1. Lionel Messi

When Lionel Messi takes this into his own hands, nothing else matters

Oh, Messi.Some years, Lionel Andres Messi decides "F*** this, I'm going to do it myself". 2017 is looking like one of those years.

With Barcelona playing the poorest football they have in years, with Luis Suarez firing blanks, with Andres Iniesta injured, he led Barca to the verge of another Liga triumph over Madrid - beating the eventual champions on their home turf, his celebration a mixture of pure, unadulterated passion.

Messi had changed.

He didn't quite succeed, but he's started this domestic season on fire... and he's been unplayably good in the past couple of months - no one has scored more goals in 2017.

And then, he decided "F*** this" whilst wearing the Argentina jersey as well. The one argument that had always been thrown against him was that he had never turned up for Los Albiceleste but this time around he hoisted his team on his back, ignoring just how average everyone around him was, ignoring just how terrible the administration has been... and carried them across the Andes and into Russia.

Ronaldo was without a doubt the most effective player, but pretty much no one has played quite this well, this consistently, all year....

Leo Messi is just having one of those years.

#Messi the impossible pic.twitter.com/iOTJBNCtKe

— ??????? (@MarvElCule) October 11, 2017

(Seriously, how did he score this)