(Image taken from here.)
The Ballon d’Or is not only the toughest trophy to win in the game of soccer; but, it is also one of the toughest individual trophies to win in sports. There are three selected players that could potentially win the Ballon d’Or: Lionel Messi of Barcelona, Virgil Van Dijk of Liverpool, and Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus. The Ballon d’Or is the best men’s soccer player in the world.
Messi and Ronaldo have had their fair shares of winning this trophy. However, Virgil has not won a single Ballon d’Or. Ever since 2008, Messi and Ronaldo had been the only players to win the trophy, with five each, until 2018 when Luka Modric on Real Madrid won. Will Messi or Ronaldo receive trophy number six, or will Virgil receive his first Ballon d’Or in his career?
In 1956, the Ballon d’Or, or “golden ball”,, as invented by the French national soccer team. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) have been delivering this award to the best players in the world for 63 years. The first player to ever receive this award was Stanley Matthews on Blackpool F.C.
Starting from 2003, the Portugese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo came to play with Manchester United. He was predicted as the best soccer player in his generation until his greatest rival showed up when, in 2006, Lionel Messi joined Barcelona. Messi was also predicted to be the best soccer player of his generation.
In 2008, Messi and Ronaldo started winning the Ballon d’Or rather easily as there was no other player that could match up to their skill level. They also received other sorts of top hardware, including the FIFA World Player of the Year, the European Golden Shoe, and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Men’s player of the year.
Ronaldo in total has 76 trophies while Messi has 73, which does give Ronaldo the advantage.
The super star of Liverpool, Virgil Van Dijk ,has been playing for seven seasons now and is arguably one of the best players in the world. Ever since he joined Liverpool in 2017, Virgil was an unmovable defensive shield against any all the players before Ronaldo and Messi got involved. In the 2018-19 season, Virgil didn’t allow a single goal.
Because of these reasons, Virgil is the current favorite to win the Ballon d’Or of 2019. He is comparable to Ronaldo and Messi’s skills, but is a defensive player. Most importantly, Virgil and Liverpool won the UEFA champions league of 2019, which is the hardest club competition to win as the best teams around the world participate. In total, Virgil won seven awards in his career but never a Ballon d’Or.
Who deserves the Ballon d’Or of 2019? All three players had incredible statistics last season: Ronaldo had 28 goals, and 10 assists in 48 appearances; Messi had 51 goals, and 19 assists in 50 appearances; and Virgil had 9 goals 0 assists, and gave up 0 goals in 51 appearances. Internationally though, Ronaldo has a huge advantage in this category because he has won the nations league title, meaning that Portugal right now is the best international team in the world.
During the summer of 2019, Ronaldo and Portugal beat Virgil and the Netherlands in the finals. However, all of these three players have never won the world Cup The most recent World Cup was in 2018 but all of them failed to win it. The closest player to winning the world cup was Messi but he lost to Germany in the 2014 finals.
I believe that Vergil should win because of his defensive skills and he won the champions league this year. Nonetheless, all three elite soccer players have a chance of winning the Ballon d’Or this year. Who do you think will win the Ballon d’Or of 2019?