If you had to give the list of the top 10 for the ballon d'or tomorrow what would it be?

(I ask this because I feel like a lot of players have performed well last season and i find it difficult to give an order).

@Marshall Pretty much same as your but I switch Neymar with Kane. So it would be something like this:

Modric
Salah
Ronaldo
Messi
De Bruyne
Varane
Hazard
Mbappe
Griezmann
Kane

Why is it that goals and assists are always mentioned as an indispensable criteria for Ballon d'or... while things like successful tackles and saves are not even mentioned? A goalkeeper needs for example to do just one single mistake to ruin a whole game. That's a lot of responsibility on one player. A forward can afford much more! So if you want to "understand" football then you should know that there is more to it than just who scored the most goals or what name he carries. It's almost solely offensive players that are brought up, and mainly forwards... Not having Kanté is to me blasphemous! The Messi-Ronaldo hype has totally blinded too many... You can't have a team of 11 forwards and think you can win anything.
Kanté, Ramos, Casemiro, De Gea, Buffon, Godín are (non-offensive) players that could arguably be put in a top ten list.

And if I have to make a top-ten list it would be: Modric, Ronaldo, Messi, Salah, Kanté, Varane, Neymar, Godín, Hazard, Mbappé

In that order

Modric
Ronaldo
Messi
Griezmann
Mbappe
Varane
Salah
Hazard
Kante
Neymar

my top 10:

1. Modric
2. Ronaldo
3. Messi
4. Salah
5. Griezmann
6. K de bruyne
7. Varane
8. Kante
9. Hazard
10. Kane

missing in list:

• Neymar, poor wc and dissappointing ucl performance and injury doesn't help.
• Marcelo, poor wc otherwise would have gotten in ahead of kane/hazard
• Kroos, poor wc enough said.
• Suarez, la liga and wc quarterfinal and dropping producitivity.
• Mane, too bad no wc knockout, great contribution to liverpool but others had been better.
• Aguero, a difficult one, if he had topped harry claim (wc and epl scorer) than he would have gotten in.
• pogba, man utd didn't win anything and he had not been the consistent difference, french would agree kante > pogba.
• de gea, the team let the individual down -> utd and espana.
• godin, another difficult choice, still pondering whether to swap with kane.
• matuidi, another difficult choice serie a and wc, influential part of both club and country.

if messi isn't in your top 3, i feel sorry for you, you don't understand football.

check the statistics. - big shaq

I just gave messi the edge because of the fact that that not so good barcelona team can still beat the best real madrid in la liga title race. if salah could have brought egypt out of the group stage in wc, then there is more case to make.
no offence to madridista, during the zidane reign, real madrid could have won the treble back2back if messi is gone.

Indeed, Pelle.

Last year i nominated De Gea at all cost. Thread in thread out :D

Hey folks,

Well, I'm going to explain my ideas. So, Top Ten for ballon dor?. If that mean the best players my criteria is goals. Why my criteria is goals? In simple answer you win a match scoring more goals that ur opponent. I know that its one definition of various according to ur conception of football. But that my criteria its simple and effective u can compare to Legends used play around 1950 1960 or whatever time.

According goals, i separate league and continental competitions and World Cup like this year.
Candidates

Premier League , Champions League
Salah 32 , 10
Kane 30 , 7

Serie A, Champions League
Icardi 29,-
Immobile 29,-

La liga, Champions League
Messi 34,6
Ronaldo 26, 15
Suarez 25, 1

Bundesliga, Champions League
Lewandowski 29,5

League 1, Champions League
Cavani 28, 7

Cool, but isn't fair compare that numbers into leagues, right. I apply one filter that is about percentage, its makes a bit more fair the comparative

Like u see that huge table, is something about goals by matches the percentage about their leagues, percentage about tittles won, doing the sum about league, continental, and World Cup there are two containers Cristianoo Ronaldo and Edison cavani

The list about League+Continental+World Cup by that facts is

1 Cristiano Ronaldo
1 Edinson Cavani
2 Lionel Messi
2 Robert Lewandowski
3 Luis Suárez
3 Harry Kane
3 Mohamed Salah
4 Ciro Immobile
4 Mauro Icardi

There are so many players with the same position because their percentages are so close.

But, i don't like that list because for me is unfair add to players their nations record, so the define list are made only with league and Continental records, here we go.

Well, the result is (League+Continental(Champions League))

1 Cristiano Ronaldo
1 Lionel Messi
2 Edinson Cavani
2 Robert Lewandowski
3 Luis Suárez
4 Harry Kane
4 Mohamed Salah
5 Ciro Immobile
5 Mauro Icardi

With this table u can make a lot arguments an example is that suarez has a super low impact in Continental in the other hand is Cristiano that has the best impact in Continental.

Extra: With the same logic and table here you have my greatness players of history of football

The list is:

1 Pele "The King of Football"
2 Gerd Muller
3 Messi
3 Eusebio
3 Puskas
3 C Ronaldo
4 Sandor Kocsis
4 Ronaldo Fenomeno
5 Just Fontaine
5 Maradona

pd. I'm not fan of anyone on them, i love football. I like more data than subjective comment and fanatic comments.
So, its a complicated explain clearly those tables but has logic and are a fast, reliable, and one effective way to compare players.

We are enjoying now two Greatest players of al history (Cristiano and MEssi), i think that Cristiano is over with their superb seasons that reasonable after 10 goats seasons in league and Champions League (their best stats is there) and him age (33) messi has remain two years at least in goats seasons, actually him has 9 goat seasons in league and Champions League)

Regards ⚽⚽😍😍

lol, determined by goals? fabio cannavaro must be the top scorer for italy in 2006 by that logic.

Wait a moment Fabio Canavaro according a Wikipedia has 0 goals in 15 matches in 2006 with their national team. In fact is an center back and all him senior career in a club have only 16 goals, the players that i said in my list make that in half season aprox. And in National team has 2 goals in 136 matches. So i don't found ur point.

yet he won the ballon d' or with zero goals

1. Ronaldo
2. Modric
3. Messi

Salah should be 4th, IMO.

Well, In 2005 -06 season my list is

League+Continental
1 Henry
1 Etto

If u consider world Cup (League+Continental+World Cup)

1 Henry
2 Klose
3 Villa
4 Tonni
4 Etto

That's my list applying the same idea.

Your list is heavily flawed since it excludes any player that does not score a high volume of goals. Moreover, poachers like Klose are given the same value for their goals than players like Ronaldinho. It's a heavily, heavily flawed system.

Well, That can be true. But for me its difficult analysis players that aren't forwards. By example an midfielder can be good at attacking but bad at defending, similar situation to defenders. And i don't find parameters to compare players and that is so hard find stats like passes key created in players around 1950, u cant find that. Actually three are a lot stats around football, and u can find easily how many key passes any players created.

In goalkeeper i think that a good parameter is goals per shots faced, if that is each time more lower is better the goalkeeper.

And respect to poachers, u need a lot things to to that. Wikipedia Style play of Klose "A prolific goalscorer, Klose was a large and powerful striker who was known in particular for his ability in the air as a centre-forward, due to his strength, timing, elevation and heading accuracy, as well as his finishing ability." "In his prime, he was also a quick player who was known for his turn of pace and positional sense in the penalty area"

And yeah. klose and Ronaldhino according to my analysis has barely the same value. If i found some other parameter like key passes created if i elaborate other systems with that, Ronaldinho can bring up easily. But that table is complex to elaborate. So i left that. :D

And the ideas is more complex that U can imagine. Because its a Team Sport. I keep thinking that the player with more value in a teams is generally the forwards, following by midfielders, defenders and Goalkeeper in those sorting. That is supported by the value of Players, generally a Forward is more expensive than a Midfielder, a midfielder is more expensive that an defender, and a defender is more expensive that a Goalkeeper.

U can have reason, extraordinary midfielders (or few extraordinary defenders or rarely goalkeepers) maybe have more value that some extraordinary forwards.

My thinking is not close to anything so maybe in a future i can find some way to compare different positions in a field.

:)

Here a more detailed comparation, more accurate comparation.

Klose and Ronaldinho comparations (just principal highlights)
Defensive
Klose 0.4 clearances per game while Ronaldinho 0.0

Offensive
Ronaldinho 50% more shots per game than Klose
Ronaldinho 200% more Key passes per game than Klose
Ronaldinho 100% more dribbles per game than Klose
Klose 200% less dispossessed per game than Ronaldinho
Ronaldinho 50% less bad control per game.

Passing
Ronaldinho 700% more crosses per game than Klose
Ronaldinho 300% more longs balls per game than Klose
Ronaldinho 700% more through balls per game than Klose.

So, after all u have reason, my system looks so flawed. With more detailed and accurate comparation is clearly than Ronaldhino has more value than Klose and a lot more.

Maybe i can make another system more elaborated considering to midfielders , defenders and goalkeepers. One system more elaborated, more complex, but more accurate in which say Ronaldhino is much more impact in a team than Klose.

If someone want check stats

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/1792/History/Ronaldinho
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/374/History/Miroslav-Klose

Sport isn't something that can be measured by only numbers. There is a value to the eye-test that every diehard fan knows. Someone like Xavi can dominate an entire game without making a since cross, taking a single shot, completing a single dribble, or completing a pass beyond a distance of 15 yards. Yet that would never show up in a statistical analysis.

Even in a statistics-heavy game like basketball, there is a distinct difference between players whose value doesn't show up statistically but form invaluable parts of championship teams (Rodman, Horace Grant, Horry, Draymond) compared to players who get absurd statistics but struggle to form a championship level cohesiveness with their team (Westbrook, McGrady). So you can imagine how much more misleading statistics can be in football, which is a sport that doesn't measure statistics much outside of goals, assists, and perhaps saves (which is a stat that is singular to a position).

Why don't I pose a simple question for you... who would you rather build a team around right now? Modric or Lewandowski? Kroos or Aguero?

Don't forget that football is a game that is mostly won and lost in midfield. Teams with extraordinary midfields tend to dominate consistently (Madrid & Barca in recent years), whereas forwards like Klose or Lewandowski can't score unless they are consistently fed the ball. Teams with great midfielders can often punch heavier than their weight (Liverpool with Gerrard, Croatia with Modric) than teams with great forwards (Argentina with Messi, Portugal with Ronaldo), and it's not a coincidence.

It's a simple reason as to why Messi is a better player than Ronaldo right now, despite them both registering similar statistics. It's because Ronaldo has gotten too old to play as a winger anymore, and his influence is strictly in the penalty box as a poacher right now. His influence on the game has significantly waned now because he is choosing to extend his career by specializing as a poacher and be more distanced from the build-up play. Whereas Messi hasn't gotten to that age yet where he has to resort to being more marginalized from the game in order to preserve his body and energy.

So when you compare Messi's 40 goals in 2018 with Ronaldo's 40 goals, there's a distinct difference. Whereas comparing their goals from 2007-2014 wouldn't have much of a difference because they were both heavily involved in build-up play back then. Do you understand my logic? I don't think many people will disagree with my take.