Ballon d'Or 2017: 5 players who deserved to be ranked higher

#1 Toni Kroos (Rank 17)

Athletic Club v Real Madrid - La Liga — Toni Kroos is arguably the best midfielder in world football at the moment

Probably Real Madrid’ s most consistent player, Toni Kroos has taken his game to new heights ever since he made the switch to Madrid from Bayern Munich. Calm, composed and always assured on the ball, Kroos is the conductor in the midfield who pulls the strings for the Spanish giants.

It is almost criminal that the German midfielder was ranked as low as 17 in the Ballon d'Or rankings. Capable of picking out passes and spraying the ball across the field, Kroos had an incredible 12 assists in the League alone last season. The Madrid man is also an excellent proponent of the dead ball and it was often his classy set-piece deliveries which helped Real Madrid break down organised defences.

A complete midfield player capable of scoring spectacular goals and doing the dirty work, Kroos certainly deserved to be in the top 10, if not the top 5 for his wonderful performances this year.

Also read: Ballon d'Or 2017: Rankings 30-1

About the author

A Bengaluru lad through and through, Ashwin Hanagudu is a huge fan of Liverpool and unsurprisingly pledges his sworn allegiance to RCB in the IPL. With over 8+ years of experience in this field, Ashwin manages multiple verticals at Sportskeeda and as of July 2024 is the most-read author in the football section.

Apart from his duties at Sportskeeda, Ashwin Hanagudu is also an active table tennis player and has played multiple state ranking and national tournaments representing Karnataka.

A huge sports fan, some of the athletes and sportspersons he admires in no particular order are Virat Kohli, Steven Gerrard, Mohamed Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Neeraj Chopra and PV Sindhu

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Edited by Ashwin Hanagudu