Lionel Messi will not win the 2018 Ballon d'Or, nor will he even be on the podium with Real Madrid's Luka Modric, who is expected to be crowned the world's best player this calendar year and Ernesto Valverde is somewhat bemused by his overlooking.
Valverde's Barcelona know more than anyone else just how good Messi is, making his omission hard to figure out.
"I'm as surprised as anyone that he's not on the Ballon d'Or podium," Valverde said at his pre-match press conference.
"It's strange, he was the best player in the Champions League, but we don't decide these things, it's UEFA."
Barcelona take on Villarreal this weekend in need of a win to keep in touch with LaLiga Santander leaders Sevilla.
"They have caused problems for us before and it will be difficult for us to circulate the ball.
"They can perform well in different systems and they work well on the ball."
When asked about Arthur's condition, Valverde wouldn't give too much away.
"If he's on the squad list he's there to play.
"Otherwise, he won't be there."
manieminem10
368
Luka Modric last season + this season including World Cup . 50 + games started. 2 goals + 7 assists. Not in top 50 for creating chances. You can check stats. And Even 5 Madrid players had more assists and create chances more than him. He's a lucky dead man because real madrid won ucl by brilliance of Ronaldo and Varane and Croatia made to final because of Perisic, Mario and Rakatic's performances. Messi just had 3 bad games whole season and top scorer is not there. Then the award does not have any value. I like to give Cristiano instead of dead man Modric.
Uddy_Hunt
261
If you look at individual quality and Play. There's no other player who played better than Messi. But Ballon d'or is about winning major trophy and also Money. So, what can I say, these generation of are very lucky to born in the era of football genius Messi. The world of football will pay the price ignoring Messi. Just a shame, how so called football pundits just neglect the quality player like Messi who make the play, scores goals, give assists. What don't do is goal keeping. But, still people only care about tap-in goals in the penalty box.
nome3737
225
FIFA is just jealous of Messi’s style respect the GOAT
zokbeimno
195
who gets to decide who wins the Ballon do'r if its fifa i really think u made a huge mistake if i had voted it will be MESSI my all time favourite
RealMd13
142
LETs TALK ABOUT IT #Mgk 😂😂 UEFA Champions League MOTM Awards 6 in 8 games (75%) La Liga top scorer (34) Europe top scorer (45) Most Assists (18) Most freekicks Goals (7) Most chance created (97) Most key 🔑 passes (85) Most shots hitting the woodwork (18) Most successful Take_ones (200+) Most MOTM Awards in Europe
Eliudmalosh
130
Messi is a gift from football gods,There is a conspiracy somewhere to deny the diminitive Argentinian forward his 6th Ballon d'or ahead of Ronaldo.This results are skewed, cooked & doctored someplace somewhere in the air to destroy,the best player in the universe not world,.The brilliance of Modric was only in UCL & world cup,I can't even mention ..Varane.Ronaldo's brilliance was only seen in UCL but failed to score in the final.Messi was the best in La Liga,best forward in Europe,top scorer in Europe & awarded Pichichi award,best in Copa del Rey.Messi to me deserves Ballon d'or followed by Ronaldo.This is great injustice a scar in world football.Great INJUSTICE FIFA
aryan-tyagi
96
only cause he took a dead argentina team to quarter finals and got 2 assist but didn't score a goal. never seen him cry for barca and they still say he loves barca more than argentina. haters gonna hate. don't stop and prove them wrong