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It appears that not many people are happy about Luka Modric’s win of the 2018 Ballon d’Or. Yesterday, the Croatia international was announced as the winner of the award, to the surprise of many football fans.
Perhaps, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise, especially as the result of the votes was leaked hours before the official announcement. Modric became the first player from Croatia to win the Ballon d’Or, crowning a perfect year for country and club.
Remember the Real Madrid star has won a lot of individual awards already this year, including the Golden Ball at the 2018 World Cup and the FIFA Best Player award. He was also voted the European Best Player earlier in the year.
However, the crowning moment definitely was his triumph in the Ballon d’Or race, as he became the first player to finally break the 10-year dominance of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the award. The Portuguese ended up as runner-up, while Messi was not even in the top three.
Rather, the Barcelona star finished in 5th position. More shocking was the fact that Antione Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe also finished ahead of Messi. This is the first time in the last 10 years that neither Ronaldo nor Messi has won the Ballon d’Or. Despite the fact that both players have won the award five times, their fans were not enthused that it went to Modric this time.
For many of these fans, Modric didn’t deserve the award because he didn’t have an overall better year than the superstar duo. Stats-wise, the midfielder was nowhere near Messi and Ronaldo, but his performance in the World Cup seems to have swayed the votes in his favour.
So, although very rare, there was a reason for Ronaldo and Messi fans to team up to air their frustrations at the organisers of the award.
Here are some of the best tweets:
