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#3 Cristiano Ronaldo
Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo finished in sixth place in the 2021 rankings, his first finish outside the top five in over a decade. Ronaldo last won the prestigious honor in 2017, losing out on each of the last three editions of the award.
Ronaldo led Serie A in goalscoring as Juventus missed out on the league title for the first time in almost a decade. The influential forward moved to Manchester United in the summer and has hit the ground running, but deserves to finish lower than sixth in the rankings.
Ronaldo finished ahead of Liverpool ace Mohamed Salah and Kylian Mbappe, both of whom have had arguably a better year than he has. Mbappe scored 42 times for PSG in 2020-21 and led the French national team to UEFA Nations League glory. Salah scored 31 times last season and has scored 17 times already this season for Liverpool.
Cristiano Ronaldo remains one of the greatest of all time and recently became the leading goalscorer in men's international football. However, he could probably consider himself lucky to have pipped Salah and Mbappe in the 2021 Ballon d'Or rankings.
#2 Lautaro Martinez
Argentine striker Lautaro Martinez was instrumental for Internazionale as they won their first Scudetto in a decade. The 24-year-old striker scored 19 times and made 11 assists in all competitions for Inter, forming a deadly partnership with Romelu Lukaku.
Martinez also contributed three goals in six appearances in the Copa America for a victorious Argentina side.
The striker finished in 21st place in the Ballon d'Or rankings, ahead of Harry Kane and Gérard Moreno, both of whom outscored him by a fair amount of goals.
By virtue of the numbers he produced, Martinez should have finished lower than 21st in the rankings for this year's Ballon d'Or. It is, after all, an individual award.
#1 Simon Kjaer
Denmark captain Simon Kjaer finished in 18th place in the Ballon d'Or standings, comfortably ahead of several other top class players. The AC Milan man was named on the shortlist for his quick thinking and intervention in Denmark's first group stage game at Euro 2020 against Finland.
The defender was the first on the scene after midfielder Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest in the first half. Kjaer rushed down to where Eriksen lay and promptly prevented him from swallowing his tongue, saving his life in the process.
While this act of nobility and kindness is laudable, it does not warrant Kjaer ranking as high as 18th in the world in the Ballon d'Or rankings. We respect Kjaer and he will always have a special place in all our hearts, but is he seriously the 18th best player in the world right now?
Perhaps a separate one-off award would have been the ideal fix to honor his bravado.
