Ballon D'or Odds: Ranking the Top 5 Candidates to Take Home the Award
Ballon D'or Odds: Ranking the Top 5 Candidates to Take Home the Award
If you're unfamiliar with global soccer, the Ballon d'Or award is given to the best soccer player in the world every year. "Ballon d'Or", translates to "Golden Ball". It is an annual award that is presented by France Football Magazine to the male soccer player who is regarded to be the very best in the world. The last time the Ballon D'or was given was 2019, as France Football canceled the 2020 honors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2019 award went to Lionel Messi, while the runner-up was Liverpool defender, Virgil Van Dijk. In 2018, the award was given to Luka Modric of Real Madrid, with Cristiano Ronaldo finishing second. Lionel Messi has won the "Ballon d'Or" award six times and Cristiano Ronaldo five times. Prior to 2018, the last time that somebody not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo won was in 2007, when Kaka of AC Milan took home the award.
The Ballon d'Or is by far the highest honor any soccer player can achieve. Last week the finalist for the award was announced. A panel of 180 journalists from around the world determine the top 30 candidates for the award. On November 29 in Paris, the winner will be announced after a selection of national team coaches, team captains, and journalists from around the world cast their votes.
So with a little over a month until the ceremony we take a look at the top five candidates to win the award.
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Ballon D'or Rankings
1. Lionel Messi (-278)
Messi, who left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain this summer, has a record six career Ballon d'Or trophies and is the most recent winner in 2019. He is the favorite once again in 2021 after winning the first major international trophy of his professional career with Argentina, leading the national team to a Copa America title. A huge monkey has been lifted off his shoulders from winning Copa America now. He also scored 30 goals and had nine assists in La Liga during the 2020-21 season. His start to his career at PSG has been a bit pedestrian by Messi standards. He's played three Ligue 1 matches and has zero goals and zero assists. His only goal so far with PSG came in one of the two Champions League matches they have had. Messi left Barcelona for a multitude of reasons but one was surely because of the lack of winning. His club was eliminated from the Champions League in embarrassing fashion by his new club PSG, and he continuously found himself having to bail out Barcelona
2. Robert Lewandowski (+500)
The Polish striker, Robert Lewandowski is also a top contender after arguably being robbed of the award in 2020. Lewandowski led German giants, Bayern Munich to a dominating run in 2019-20, winning the Champions League, Bundesliga trophy, and DFB-Pokal. He continued to show his amazing quality in front of the net in 2020-21 scoring 41 goals in 29 league matches. The 41 goals is a domestic record set by Lewandowski. So far in the Bundesliga he has played 7 games and scored 7 goals this season. He truly was robbed in 2020 of winning the Ballon D'Or and is deserving of all considerations in 2021.
3. Jorginho (+650)
Jorginho is third in the latest odds to win the award. The Italian star midfielder was named the UEFA Men's Player of the Year in August. He was a key cog in Italy lifting the Euro 2020 trophy this past summer. He was also a key part of his Premier League club Chelsea, winning the Champions League and will continue to be key to Chelsea's success as they look to retain their Champions League crown and challenge for the Premier League title. Although he's not known as a goal scorer more as a facilitator and feisty defender, he still led his club in goals last season. Jorginho determined how his team played whether it was for Chelsea or his country, Italy. His passes and leadership in the middle were on full display every time he was on the field, something that stats cannot measure.
4. N'Golo Kante (+1000)
Another Chelsea midfielder, N'Golo Kante finds himself among the top five rankings for the Ballon d'Or in 2021. A defensive midfielder has never won the award but Kante makes a strong case to be the first. Before this summer Kante was the favorite to win the award. The Frenchman receives only high praise from every teammate he has. He has changed the way we watch soccer as his dominance all over the field is something to watch. He makes the award not just about goal scoring and strikers but how he makes the entire team better around him. Just as the aforementioned Jorghino, Kante has played a major role in Chelsea's success. He has recently battled with hamstring injuries since late summer and that has had an impact on his odds to win the award.
5. Cristiano Ronaldo (+1400)
Coming in fifth on our list is superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo. He is trying to add to his prestigious collection as he seeks his sixth Ballon d'Or trophy. He scored 29 goals in Serie A with Juventus last season and is off to an amazing start with Manchester United this season, scoring five goals in six matches across all competitions. He failed to lift the Serie A trophy last season and also failed to defend Portugal's Euro title this past summer. He finished third in 2019 for the Ballon d'Or. He returned to Manchester United after twelve years and has impressed immediately upon his arrival.