Congratulations are in order.
Last night Cristiano Ronaldo picked up the fifth Ballon d’Or of his career — an astonishing achievement for an incredible player.
However, we thought the full results were a bit of a shambles.
Winning at lifeAFP or licensors
As France Football counted down the top 30 players in the world as voted for by international journalists, coaches and captains, we tutted and scoffed at some of the rankings.
There’s no way there are 18 better players in the world than Eden Hazard for a start.
Here we present to your our very own top 30 that we believe more accurately reflects the state of world football.
Prepare to argue…
You can probably see where this is going…AFP - Getty
Next to each player we’ve stated whether they’ve dropped, risen or stayed the same compared to the actual results.
30 Philippe Coutinho (same)
29 Sadio Mane (down 6)
28 Karim Benzema (down 3)
27 Antoine Griezmann (down 9) — considerably poorer in 2017 compared to 2016
26 Mats Hummels (up 1)
25 Jan Oblak (up 1)
24 Luis Suarez (down 11) — age is catching up to one of the best predators of the modern era
23 Radamel Falcao (up 1)
22 Edin Dzeko (up 6)
21 Paulo Dybala (down 6)
20 Sergio Ramos (down 14) — actual ranking boosted by Real Madrid’s success, not reflective of personal form
19 Leonardo Bonucci (up 3)
18 Marcelo (down 2)
17 Kylian Mbappe (down 10) — an unbelievable breakout year but benefited hugely from his age, easy to get caught up in the hype
16 David De Gea (up 4)
15 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (up 6)
14 Kevin De Bruyne (same) — sure to crack the top ten next year
13 Dries Mertens (up 17) — criminally underrated and overlooked, his numbers speak for themselves and he’s only been a centre-forward for about a year
12 Edinson Cavani (down 1)
11 Gianluigi Buffon (down 7) — actual ranking a result of the romanticism around a much-loved player, perhaps not reflective of quality in 2017 alone
10 Isco (up 2)
9 Harry Kane (up 1)
8 Luka Modric (down 3)
7 N’Golo Kante (up 1)
6 Toni Kroos (up 11) — Real Madrid’s beating heart, probably the best passer in the game
5 Eden Hazard (up 14) — a special talent behind only Neymar and Messi when it comes to dribbling and frightening defenders
4 Robert Lewandowski (up 5)
3 Neymar (same)
2 Cristiano Ronaldo (down 1)
1 Lionel Messi (up 1)
Top three movers up — Mertens (17 places), Hazard (14 places), Kroos (11 places)
Top three movers down — Ramos (14 places), Suarez (11 places), Mbappe (10 places)
Mertens deserves more appreciationGetty Images - Getty
Our general gripe with the original rankings is that they place too much value on team achievements.
The Ballon d’Or is an individual award and is supposed to be awarded to the standalone best player and should only take into account each player’s personal performances rather what their team did or did not win.
Hence why we’ve boosted Mertens up 17 places and relegated Ramos 14 places.
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When it comes to Messi or Ronaldo, we don’t feel too strongly either way — Messi has outperformed Ronaldo in La Liga (the fact Real Madrid won the league should technically be irrelevant) but Ronaldo has starred in Europe.
The Portuguese forward’s efforts in last season’s Champions League knockout stages were like nothing we’ve ever seen and so we won’t argue too strongly against his win.
You’re going to need to make space for another, RonnyAFP - Getty
Also, our opinion is literally meaningless so it’s all irrelevant anyway…
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