Ballon d'Or: Ranking the top 5 midfielders to have won the award

#4 Ronaldinho (2005)

Ronaldinho won the Ballon d'Or at Barcelona

Ronaldinho was the inaugural player to achieve mainstream prominence in the social media era and was the first person in the world to cross the one million views mark on the video-sharing site YouTube in 2004.

Having had his breakthrough with PSG, Ronaldinho was signed by Barcelona in the summer of 2003 and he helped lay the foundation for what has become the most successful era in the club's history.

Before he arrived at Camp Nou, Barcelona were in a mess and had not won a major trophy for six years, but his signing helped put the Blaugrana on the global map once again.

During his time with the Catalans, Ronaldinho was unarguably the best player in the world and helped his side to consecutive league titles, as well as the Champions League in 2006.

While he might not have had the most exemplary record in terms of discipline and training regime, when it comes to natural talent and pure footballing ability, only a handful through history can claim to be as gifted as the Brazilian.

Ronaldinho was a pristine freekick taker, while he also perfected the rabona and flip-flop dribbling technique.

His happy-go attitude and ever-smiling nature made him a universally loved figure and he is one of only three Barcelona players to have received a standing ovation from Real Madrid fans at the Bernabeu, with the other two being Andres Iniesta and Diego Maradona.

In what was a highly distinguished playing career, Ronaldinho represented some of the biggest clubs in the world and won a host of trophies on the club scene, while also winning the World Cup and Copa America with Brazil.

In 2005, Ronaldinho became only the fourth Brazilian to be named the Ballon d'Or winner and added a third-place finish a year later.