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Official: Luka Modric wins the 2018 Ballon d’Or

Pavel I. Meda
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By a large margin of nearly 300 votes over Cristiano Ronaldo, Croatian midfielder Luka Modric win the 2018 Ballon d’Or.

It finally happened, Luka Modric was the player who finally won the France Football Ballon d’Or after 10 years of absolute dominance from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Despite the overwhelming campaign that Atletico Madrid and France made for both Antoine Griezmann and Raphael Varane to win the prestigious award, logic prevailed as Modric truly was the very best player in the world throughout 2018.

For starters, the Croatian midfielder was the midfield leader in Real Madrid’s outstanding year in which they won a third consecutive Champions League trophy at the start of the summer.

After that, Luka was his national team’s leader in the summer as he took them all the way to the World Cup final which they lost against France but reached that historic moment against all odds and by defeating some incredible squads.

Modric’s defining performances came from the very start of the tournament with an absolute screamer against Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

This was during the group stage, Modric also commanded his squad against hosts Russia in the quarterfinals, as well as England in the semifinals.

These performances were more than enough for him to win all the individual awards this year, there was no contest according to the voters.

As far as the other two players who were part of the podium is concerned, Cristiano Ronaldo was voted second and Antoine Griezmann ended in the third position.

The whole ceremony was a celebration for French football, with the National Team winning the World Cup and the very first woman to receive a Ballon d’Or coming from Olympique Lyonnais.

There was a moment during the event in which all the French World Champions were invited to the podium to speak about the experience of winning the competition, with Modric witnessing the moment knowing that he was the Ballon d’Or winner but always desiring the World Cup trophy above anything else.

The Real Madrid midfielder certainly would prefer to have won the final back in July, but he had to make do with what was given to him. Not every day do you get a chance to make history like today, Luka Modric was the first name that received the Ballon d’Or recognition after Messi and Ronaldo.

The last player who got this honor before both legends dominated the award for a full decade, was Brazilian Kaka. Modric will be linked forever to this massive achievement, he must be incredibly proud of this huge honor.

Cristiano Ronaldo decided to not attend the award ceremony, proving once more that he cares very little about honoring his peers in an event of this nature.

The Portuguese player decided to not attend the ceremony regardless if a friend of his was the one being recognized, Cristiano has this type of personality and he certainly must feel like he was robbed of his sixth award.

But if we are talking about the biggest loser, we have to discuss Antoine Griezmann’s situation because the poor man really believed he would be the winner of this award.

Once the decision was made public, it was revealed that the Frenchman didn’t even make it to the second place as both Modric and Ronaldo received more votes than he did.

With this result, it is now clear that the trend of awarding the Ballon d’Or to a World Cup champion is no longer a trend.

The last player who was awarded during the year of the tournament was Fabio Cannavaro back in 2006, winning the biggest trophy in football no longer secures you this award.

Modric is the man who broke the tradition completely, a well-deserved recognition if you ask us.

Do you agree with Luka Modric being the new Ballon d’Or or who should’ve won it in your opinion? Please leave your opinion in the comment section down below.