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The Real Madrid and Croatian superstar, Luka Modric marked an end to the decade-long dominance of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to win the Ballon d'Or 2018. With this, he becomes the first-ever Croat to win the most prestigious award in football.
The 33-year-old helped Real Madrid to win their third consecutive Champions League trophy and also surprisingly led Croatia to the final of the FIFA World Cup 2018. The midfielder also won the FIFA World Cup 2018 Golden Ball along with FIFA Best Men's Player 2018 award earlier this year.
However, there are a number of players who performed better than Luka Modric in 2018 and deserved to win Ballon d'Or instead of the former Tottenham midfielder.
Right on this note, here is the list of three players who deserved to win the Ballon d'Or more than the Croatian midfielder.
#1 Cristiano Ronaldo
Ballon d'Or 2017 winner, Cristiano Ronaldo enjoyed a brilliant 2017-18 season but is unlucky to finish as the runner-up to Luka Modric in this year's Ballon d'Or award.
The 33-year-old finished as the top goalscorer in the Champions League 2017-18 and helped Real Madrid win their third consecutive Champions League title. Ronaldo was voted as the best forward of the tournament and was also the part of UEFA Champions League Team of the Season.
Although Real Madrid finished third in the LaLiga last season, Ronaldo managed to score 26 goals and was only behind Lionel Messi as the LaLiga's top goalscorer. The Portuguese international was also the part of FIFA World Cup 2018 Dream Team.
The former Manchester United player moved to Juventus in the summer transfer window of 2018 but the switch didn't affect his form and he is currently the joint-top goalscorer in the Serie A with 10 goals.
#2 Lionel Messi
Five-time Ballon d'Or award winner, Lionel Messi enjoyed a brilliant 2018 and helped Barcelona win the LaLiga, Copa del Rey, and Supercopa de España.
The Argentine scored 34 LaLiga goals during the 2017-18 season and won the European Golden Shoe 2018. He also registered the most number of assists (12) in LaLiga last season, which reflects the creative side of his game.
Although Barcelona were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by AS Roma in the quarter-finals in a surprising way, Messi was in a good form prior to the elimination and finished the UCL season with six goals.
The 31-year-old is also in a good form this season, having scored 15 goals in 16 games. Messi was included in the FIFA FIFPro World XI 2018 and was also awarded the LaLiga Best Player 2017-18 accolade.
#3 Kylian Mbappe
Kylian Mbappe is just a 19-year-old, but the French international has already showed a tremendous level of greatness at this young age and is certainly one of the most talented footballers in the world.
Mbappe was among the best performers in the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia and his four goals helped France win the most coveted trophy in international football for the second time in their history. He won the FIFA World Cup 2018 Best Young Player Award.
The PSG star won the Golden Boy award of 2017 with a record number of votes. In his first season with PSG, he scored 21 goals in all competitions and assisted 16 goals for his teammates. PSG was able to have a successful year domestically, however, they failed to advance to the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League.
Mbappe is getting better and better and last year he won the UNFP Young Players of the Season 2017-18 award and was also the part of UNFP Team of the Year 2017-2018.
This season, the Frenchman has 14 goals and 7 assists in 15 matches for PSG.
