Ballon d’Or 2018: Luka Modric is the world’s best soccer player

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The Croat Luka Modric receives the Ballon d’or 2018 and ends the legacy of previous winners Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The vice world champion was honoured for the third time with a trophy for his performance in 2018 after being named “European Footballer of the Year” and “FIFA World Player of the Year”. For thefirst time since 2007, the traditional Ballon d’Or was not awarded to Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.

173 sports journalists have voted: The midfielder from Real Madrid won the race with a clear advantage (753 points). He was voted over Cristiano Ronaldo (476 points) and French World Champion Antoine Griezmann (414 points).

The Ballon d’Or was awarded by a jury made up of one sports journalist from each of the 53 countries that are members of the UEFA and 53 jurors from countries of non-European associations that took part in at least one World Cup.

The player was selected according to the following criteria:

  • Individual and collective performance (track record) during the year
  • Individual class of the player (talent and fair play)
  • Career of the player

Listed below are the top 30 players:

1. Luka Modric

2. Cristiano Ronaldo

3. Antoine Griezmann

4. Kylian Mbappe

5. Lionel Messi

6. Mohamd Salah

7. Raphael Varane

8. Eden Hazard

9. Kevin De Bruyne

10. Harry Kane

11. N’Golo Kante

12. Neymar

13. Luis Suarez

14. Thibaut Courtois

15. Paul Pogba

16. Sergio Argüero

17. Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema

19. Roberto Firmino, Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Ramos

22. Sadio Mané, Edison Cavani, Marcelo

25. Jan Oblak, Mario Mandžukić and Alisson Becker

28. Diego Godin

29. Hugo Lloris and Isco

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Published by rkumin

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4 thoughts on “Ballon d’Or 2018: Luka Modric is the world’s best soccer player”

  1. Finally !!!! someone not CR or LM there are soo many good players – the last years the two rivals dominated – but now the younger generation awaits like salah, mbappe, hazard, varane 💪🏼

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    1. I see what you mean @soccer_football_101 and I think Modric deserved to win it this year because he had an amazing year both individually and as a collective (Real Madrid & Croatian national team). However, I think Varane should have been included in the top 3 since he won the Champions League and the World Cup: It can’t be a coincidence that he was in both teams that won this year’s major competitions. But I guess it is difficult for a defender to compete against strikers or midfielders who are in the spotlight due to their high number of goals and assists. I guess we will have to wait a little longer until a defender wins the Ballon d’Or again (Fabio Cannavaro did it in 2006).
      Have a nice day @soccer_football_101

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      1. Oh, wow! I didn’t know that Cannavaro had won it. Thanks for the #footballfact, @rkumin.

        Yeah, @soccer_football_101, you’re right – there are excellent players who sometimes get too little recognition from the media as well as the fans.

        I personally think that we should not only look at the superstars in a team but focus on the whole team and their achievements, like France or Croatia this year.

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      2. Absolutely! Soccer is a team sport and that is why individual awards should not be as important as trophies such as the World Cup the Champions League

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