There will soon be a time when Messi and Ronaldo aren't the best players in the world, but 2018 hasn't been it. The victim of boredom in Ballon d'Or voting remains the finest footballer on the planet
Had it not been for Luka Modric steering Croatia to a World Cup final, CR7 would surely have taken his sixth Ballon d'Or title. He turns 34 in February – not that it seems to make a blind bit of difference...
To call him the world's most exciting young player is almost reductive. Mbappe has already influenced the biggest games on the biggest stage of all – and only just left his teenage years behind
There's a sense his Ballon d'Or win may have been a concerted effort to end the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly, but this has been another stunning year from one of football's classiest operators
He was man of the match in Europa League and World Cup finals, and refuses to hide his disappointment at the lack of Ballon d'Or recognition. Better win that Champions League in 2019, then...
