Ballon d’Or winners 2018

The Ballon d’Or 2018 has finally come to an end. The gala event witnessed some of the brightest stars of this generation as well as previous generations.

The top 30 footballers were always going to be the ones to look out for, and they did not disappoint. Isco was ranked 29th on the list, with the likes of Marcelo and Edinson Cavani making it in the top 20.

In the 20-11 list, more prominent members joined in with Sergio Ramos coming in at 19th and Gareth Bale (17). Sergio Aguero (16) and Paul Pogba (15) were other eminent names in this category while the standout was perhaps Neymar who finished 12th.

Along with the Ballon d’Or award, the Kopa trophy for the best young player was also to be handed out, and that honour went rather unsurprisingly to Kylian Mbappe for his heroic contributions for France at the World Cup in Russia.

But by far the most compelling story was that of the top 5, and with Lionel Messi missing out on the podium, we knew we had an interesting podium set up.


Luka Modric came up tops and won the Ballon d’Or award for the first time to end the 10-year stranglehold of five-time winners Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Modric helped Real Madrid win a third successive Champions League title in May and captained Croatia to their first World Cup final, being named player of the tournament despite his side losing 4-2 to France. This is what the top 30 looked like:

29 Isco
29 Hugo Lloris
28 Diego Godin
25 Mario Mandzukic
25 Alisson Becker
25 Jan Oblak
22 Edinson Cavani
22 Sadio Mane
22 Marcelo
19 Roberto Firmino
19 Sergio Ramos
19 Ivan Rakitic
17 Gareth Bale
17 Karim Benzema
16 Sergio Aguero
15 Paul Pogba
14 Thibaut Courtois
13 Luis Suarez
12 Neymar Jr.
11 N’Golo Kante
10 Harry Kane
9 Kevin de Bruyne
8 Eden Hazard
7 Raphael Varane
6 Mohamed Salah
5 Lionel Messi
4 Kylian Mbappe
3 Antoine Griezmann
2 Cristiano Ronaldo
1 Luka Modric