The Ballon d’Or award will be handed out on December 7th, 2017 and this is no longer associated with FIFA it’s worth noting. The award, given to the best player in the world for the given year is solely presented by France Football. It temporally merged together with the FIFA World Player of the Year award, but that all came to an end last year so it’s back to just being the Ballon d’Or now.
The Nominees
Thirty nominees were put forward and the list includes some of the usual suspects like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. It is Real Madrid and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo who is 1/10 outright favouite at Titanbet.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Borussia Dortmund
Karim Benzema, Real Madrid
Leonardo Bonucci, Juventus
Gianluigi Buffon, Juventus
Sergio Aguero, Manchester city
Philippe Coutinho, Liverpool
Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City
David de Gea, Manchester United
Paulo Dybala, Juventus
Edin Džeko, Roma
Radamel Falcao, Monaco
Antoine Griezmann, Atlético Madrid
Eden Hazard, Chelsea
Mats Hummels, Bayern Munich
Isco, Real Madrid
Harry Kane, Tottenham Hotspur
N’Golo Kanté, Chelsea
Toni Kroos, Real Madrid
Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich
Sadio Mané, Liverpool
Marcelo, Real Madrid
Kylian Mbappé, Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain
Dries Mertens, Napoli
Lionel Messi, Barcelona
Luka Modri?, Real Madrid
Neymar, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain
Jan Oblak, Atlético Madrid
Sergio Ramos, Real Madrid
Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid
Luis Suárez, Barcelona
Premier League nominees
England’s Harry Kane is the top nominee from the Premier League and potentially whenever Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi hanging up their boots, he may actually get a shot at winning this title. But for now, it’s not going to happen until he starts winning major titles and he is a big 66/1 outsider at Titanbet. The same can be said of Chelsea’s Eden Hazard who could realistically be playing for Real Madrid or Barcelona to propel his career to the next level. Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante continues to claim high regard, while Philippe Coutinho and Kevin De Bruyne are realistic future contenders for the award. Manchester United shot-stopper David de Gea would need a move back to his home country to likely get his hands on this in the future. None of the Premier League contenders are lilkey to get in the final three.
2016 Winner
Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo beat Lionel Messi to the punch last year at the awards taking over twice as many votes as Messi had gotten himself. Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann finished third.
Previous Winners
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have split the last nine editions of the Ballon d’Or between them, with Messi having won it five times. He is the most successful player ever in terms of the award and he also has four runners up spots and one third place finish as well (back in 2007). As for Ronaldo, he has the four wins and five runners up spots, all to Messi of course.
Other famous greats to have collected the trophy include Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and fellow Dutch legend Marco van Basten, Brazil’s Ronaldo and Germany’s great Franz Beckenbauer. Pop quiz. Who was the last Englishman to win the award? It was Michael Owen back in 2001 when he beat out Raul and Oliver Kahn to take the title. Kevin Keegan though is England’s successful player in the awards with two wins.
Germany and France are the most successful nations in the history of the Ballon d’Or with five German players having collected seven titles, and three Dutch players having total seven titles as well. France and Portugal are next with six wins each and then you have Italy, Brazil, England and Argentina all with five wins each.
Ballon d’Or 2017 Odds at Titanbet
Cristiano Ronaldo 1/10, Lionel Messi 6/1, Neymar 33/1, Gianluigi Buffon 33/1, Luis Suarez 66/1, Harry Kane 66/1, Roebrt Lewandowski 80/1, Sergio Ramos 80/1, N’Golo Kane 80/1, bar 100/1
Ballon d’Or Prediction
Cristiano Ronaldo is likely going to tie up things with Lionel Messi, despite Messi being the far better of the two since the start of the 2017/18 domestic season. Still, you can’t ignore the fact that Ronaldo won a domestic and continental double with Real Madrid this year as well as helping the European champions Portugal qualify for the World Cup next summer. It’s just because Messi can’t match the titles that Ronaldo has collected this year which tips the balance to the Real Madrid man. He recently picked up the Best FIFA Men’s Player Award for the second year running on the back of his achievement and should double up in this one.