5 best young players according to the Ballon d'Or rankings

Cristiano Ronaldo once again claimed the Ballon d’Or last week, yet there is increasingly a sense that the period of dominance that he and Lionel Messi have enjoyed over the course of the last decade must soon end.

Both players are on the wrong side of 30, and while they maintain an impeccable standard of football, they cannot possibly keep defying logic by continuing at this standard for an indefinite period of time.

Naturally, football supporters the world over are looking to those who may step into their shoes and become the superstars of tomorrow.

Several have already made inroads into the footballing world, earning the recognition of being highly placed in the Ballon d’Or rankings.

Here are the best players aged 25 or under, who should be seen as some of the leading lights to take over the mantle from the all-time great duo when they eventually choose to hang up their boots.

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#5 Paulo Dybala

Age: 24

Rank: 15th

It is fitting that a player tipped to be ‘the next Messi’ should make the cut for this list. Paulo Dybala offers many of the same attributes as the Barcelona star, including a formidable strike rate at club level since moving to Serie A from Instituto in 2012.

Palermo were the side to bring the diminutive attacker to Europe that summer, and since then he has enjoyed incredible success. After two seasons maturing in Sicily, he broke out as a 19-year-old when he scored 13 times in 34 league outings, attracting the interest of Juventus.

In Turin, he has continued to grow as a player, netting 42 times in the league, including 11 already this season – putting him well on course to beat his personal best of 19.

It is not just his goalscoring contribution that should be lauded, though. He is a player who is a joy to watch thanks to his technical and dribbling skills, not to mention the creativity that he displays on the ball. He is an elusive runner and someone the fans love to see play.

Curiously, like Messi, he has failed to find his best form with Argentina and has yet to score a goal for the national team in 12 appearances – something that must surely change in the coming months.

#4 Isco

Age: 25

Rank: 12th

It takes a quality player to break into the ranks of Real Madrid, and yet there is a strange sense that Isco is a player still somehow undervalued in the game today. Nevertheless, the finished 12th in the Ballon d’Or rankings after helping Los Blancos to a handful of titles, including La Liga and the Champions League.

Indeed, only three of his team-mates – Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric and Ronaldo himself – enjoyed a better placing in the 2017 award.

The 25-year-old joined Madrid in 2013 from Malaga but has featured regularly for the Bernabeu side under a variety of different head coaches since, amassing over 200 performances already and scoring 37 times.

There is little doubt that 2017 was his most successful year to date, though.

While his side, on the whole, have struggled, he has adapted to a variety of different positions across the attacking midfield line and has been largely successful, hitting his stride since the beginning of October by scoring four times in La Liga and adding a couple more assists to boot.

Should Real Madrid recover after a disappointing start to the season, there is a sense that the Andalusian attacker will have a big role to play. He should certainly be seen as a building block to the long-term future of the club.

#3 Harry Kane

Age: 24

Rank: 10th

Tottenham ace Harry Kane breached the top 10 of the Ballon d’Or ranking this year after another incredibly prolific campaign with the north London side. When he broke into Spurs’ first team, he did so amidst an injury crisis and there was not a great deal expected of him. However, when given the chance for the Lilywhites, he scored goals and has not stopped finding the net since.

Indeed, since establishing himself as a regular member of the squad in 2014-15, when he notched 21 goals in 34 Premier League appearances, he has only gotten stronger. A tally of 25 followed the following year – after his first campaign had been branded a flash in the pan – while the last term he scored 29, despite being beset by injury problems.

He finished last season as the league’s top scorer with the best goals-per-game ratio of any player to finish on top of the pile since the beginning of the Premier League era in 1992-93.

Although he suffered his quirk of failing to score in August once again at the beginning of this campaign, he has already notched 12 times in the top flight and is in the running to win the Golden Boot award for the third year running.

His contribution to Spurs is priceless and it is little wonder that the likes of Real Madrid have been associated with potentially making a move for a player capable of scoring all kinds of different goals.

#2 Kylian Mbappe

Age: 18

Rank: 7th

Kylian Mbappe was not just the youngest player to make the final 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d’Or over the course of the last year – he was the youngest by a long, long way. No-one else in the top 30 was even under the age of 24.

The Paris Saint-Germain attacker made his splash primarily with Monaco at the start of a year in which he broke through in the most spectacular fashion possible. He muscled his way into the starting XI of the principality side, became prolific both in Ligue 1 and the Champions League and helped his club to an unexpected domestic title.

So enthralled were PSG by the young attacker, they signed him on loan at the end of the summer transfer window, with a promise to pay the Stade Louis II side a whopping €160 million before bonuses at the end of the campaign.

Mbappe’s statistics since moving to Parc des Princes might not be quite as spectacular as they were back in Monaco, but he has been asked to play a different role, offering more support to Edinson Cavani and Neymar.

However, when given the chance to take the spotlight, when Neymar has been missing, for example, he has not let head coach Unai Emery down.

Quite simply, he is the most exciting young player in the world today.

#1 Neymar

Age: 25

Rank: 3rd

Neymar will turn 26 in February, meaning he is the oldest player to make this top five, yet he is also the most established and easily the most reputable. He has been scoring goals at the top level in Europe for nearly four and a half years when he moved from Santos to join Barcelona.

Initially, expectations upon the young Brazil striker were sky high and it took him some months to settle, yet he has done so spectacularly, earning himself the reputation as being the game’s outstanding player behind both Messi and Ronaldo.

PSG recognised that when they signed him in the summer for a world record 222 million euros from Barcelona, which was, a deal of seismic proportions.

One of the reasons he moved to France was to get away from the shadow of Lionel Messi in an attempt to win the Ballon d’Or, and if he can help the capital side to Champions League glory over the course of the next six months, he will surely be one of the leading candidates for the individual prize.

He is already installed as PSG’s key player, having built a formidable understanding with Edinson Cavani, despite reports in the media that they do not see eye to eye, and especially Mbappe.

Neymar has continued his prolific scoring form in France but has also been a vital creator of goals for PSG, too. And at just 25, he can get even better…