Ballon d'Or Power Ranking: January 2019

#5 Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane

Ronaldo's getting a lot of love from the Juve faithful

Cristiano Ronaldo has kept himself in the reckoning with a few masterful performances for Juve. Playing either as a centre-forward or a left-sided striker, Ronaldo has come to the Old Lady's aid several times, chipping in with timely goals and by just about reinvigorating the troops with his sheer presence.

Ronaldo has silenced all detractors who said his time at the top is up. He has taken to life in Italy like a fish to water and already has 14 goals for Il Bianconeri from 19 appearances, 4 of them coming in the month of December. He has also set up a further 5 goals.

Juventus will hope that he will hit top gear in the UEFA Champions League as well as they walk on into the knockout stages. If his past record in the competition is anything to go by, we expect him to start firing on all cylinders pretty soon.

Harry Kane is one of the finest strikers in the world

With 6 goals and 4 assists in the month of December, Harry Kane has got back to form and is growing in reputation as one of the best strikers in the world right now. Kane was exceptional in the past month for Tottenham Hotspur, excelling in his new semi-number 10 role where he's starting to build a deadly partnership with Son Heung-Min.

Kane is being eyed by top clubs across Europe. A striker who has hardly been sidelined over the past few years, Harry Kane has rarely suffered from a dip in form, delivery goals in abundance for Spurs. He continues to be a menacing presence in and around the final third and is a strong contender going into 2019.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad