Golden Ball 2018: Will it be the end of Messi and Ronaldo?

The Latin American Post Staff October 9, 2018

341 2 minutes read

The magazine France Football published the list of the 30 players that will compete for the Golden Ball. Find out who could win it

The award ceremony will take place next December 3, where the captains and coaches of the national teams that are part of FIFA will be in charge of voting.

This year Real Madrid is the club with the most nominations, eight in total. They are followed by Liverpool and FC Barcelona with four and three nominations, respectively. In addition, the list has several figures that shone in Russia 2018.

Leer en español: Balón de oro 2018: ¿Será el fin de la hegemonía de Messi y Ronaldo?

This will be the first time a woman's golden ball will be awarded. The nominated women are the Brazilian Marta Vieira da Silva, the Norwegian Ada Hegerberg, the Danish Pernille Harder and other 12 professional players, who will compete for this award, only been given to men.

"If the logic of recent years is fulfilled, for me the winner should be Luka Modric. He has already won the UEFA award, the best player in the Champions League, the best of FIFA and those awards usually mark you. It does not necessarily mean that he will win, but in recent years, it has been like that, for example with Ronaldo. I think the trend is not going to change and since Messi has nothing to look for this year, Luka Modric, Antoine Griezmann, and Ronaldo would be the three finalists", says Onofre Zambrano, sports journalist.

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"I think Modric will end once and for all with what was the hegemony of Cristiano and Messi," concluded Zambrano.

What about the Latinos?

According to the list, besides Messi and Neymar, Uruguayans Diego Godín (Atlético), Luis Suárez (Fc Barcelona), Edinson Cavani (Paris SG), the Argentine Sergio Agüero (Manchester City), and the Brazilians Alisson Becker, Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) and Marcelo (Real Madrid) are in the list..