Ballon d'Or 2017 - Power Rankings

#1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, Portugal)

Cristiano Ronaldo remains the overwhelming favourite ahead of the big announcement

A few reputed journalists have claimed that indeed, it is the Portuguese, who is set to be crowned as the winner of the Ballon d'Or for the 5th time in his career. Some reports even claim that he will be presented with the award atop the Eiffel Tower.

The 33-year-old played an extremely pivotal part in Real Madrid's historic double last season. Ronaldo was firing on all cylinders towards the business end of the season and it was his goals, plenty of them to be honest, which helped Zinedine Zidane's side script history by becoming the first ever team to win back-to-back UEFA Champions League titles.

The road since, has not been the easiest for the Santiago Bernabeu outfit or Ronaldo, with both struggling, especially in La Liga.

The Portuguese is in the midst of a goal drought of sorts as long as the Spanish league is concerned, having scored a paltry 2 goals in 10 appearances.

While it may have looked at one point of time that it was going to be a cakewalk for Ronaldo to win the Ballon d'Or this year, credit must go to Lionel Messi, who made the race interesting by producing some out-of-the-world performances in this calendar year. Especially, that hat-trick against Ecuador to helo Argentina qualify for the World Cup.

However, having helped his team script history, Ronaldo was always going to be in the driver's seat. Come Thursday night, the Portuguese is expected to tie Messi as the two players to have won the most number of Ballon d'Or awards in history.

Despite being 33, he is showing no signs of ageing and looks up for at least one or two more of these beauties.