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#3 Fellow competitors have shone
You could say that the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly is set to reach its end. But that may not exactly be good news for Mohamed Salah. Kaka was the last player to win the Ballon d'Or before Ronaldo and Messi eviscerated the rest of the competition and made it a two-horse race.
This season, however, there are other players, in addition to Messi and Ronaldo, who can really stake a claim on the greatest individual prize in football.
Robert Lewandowski has had a spectacular season and his achievements in 2017-18 are at par with that of Messi's. Bayern and Barcelona have both won the Bundesliga and La Liga and did so with considerable ease.
Meanwhile, Liverpool's best shot at a silverware was winning the Champions League and with that having crashed and burnt, Salah's chances have diminished.
