Luka Modric has beaten off competition from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi to be named the winner of 2018's Ballon d'Or.
The Real Madrid midfielder played a pivotal role for his club as they stormed to a third consecutive Champions League title, as well as captaining Croatia to second place at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
With France having won the World Cup, Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and even Modric's fellow Madrid team-mate Raphael Varane had been amongst the favourites alongside the evergreen duo of Ronaldo and Messi.
However, the Croatian's exploits across the year - which included being awarded the Golden Ball at the World Cup - have seen him emerge ahead of the rest of the pack.
Indeed, Modric has become the first player to break Messi and Ronaldo's duopoly of the award since 2007, with Brazil icon Kaka being the last to lift the trophy before the Argentine and Portuguese stars collected five each across the following years.
Modric finished ahead of his former Madrid team-mate Ronaldo in the vote, making the Portuguese icon settle for second place for the first time in three years.
France star Griezmann took third place in the poll, with fellow World Cup winner Mbappe was close behind. Messi, meanwhile, dropped outside the top two for the first time in 11 years and came in fifth this time.
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joacly
935
Puskas: am the worst award giving in 2018 Ballon d'or: hold my beer🍾😂
Honbeknsy
598
Its Official Karim Benzema in 17th position is the biggest joke of the year beating Modric winning the ballon d'or and Salah winning the Puskas Award. 😂😂
17mulla
551
I think i will be finding another sport to watch may be rugby 😂😂 the end is near #messi5
boost
542
2010 this Man won 🏆won Champions league 🏅Gave most Assist 🏆Won italian league 🏅Second runner up at the world cup 🏅Came 2nd highest goal scorer in world cup 🏅Best Uefa Midfielder And was denied the BallonDor title But today Modric won the award . why?
tropicalda
427
Congrats to Luka Modric for winning the Ballon d'Or , well deserved. History will remember him as the player who ended the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly. Luka Modric deserves BallonDor because, He took a tiny nation without star studded players to world cup finals! He is the visionary in Madrid’s ucl campaign! More importantly for his vintage style football 🙏🏻❤ Proud of youu lukita 😍
taxatione
399
Congratulations Luka Modric on becoming the first ever Croatian to win the BallonDor
Baldwins
341
🇭🇷 Luka Modric is the winner of the Ballon d'Or 2018 🏆 It's been a sensational year for the Real Madrid superstar... World Cup finalist 👏 World Cup Golden Ball winner 👌 The Best FIFA Men's Player 🔥 UEFA Men’s Player of the Year 🙌 Champions League winner 🏆
VuyoQalinge
328
So winning a the world cup plus a the UCL makes you come 7th but winning the UCL and reaching the finals and losing it makes you come first #Varane deserves it
Maano7
307
perez right now😉😂😂
didistoneyorker
287
Messi/Ronaldo duo play should have rightly ended in 2010 or 2013 but finally it happened in 2018 and rightly so. for the first time, FIFA has chosen the rightfull winner after 10 years of bias and popularity rating. Modric truly deserves and fanboys plz don't come for me. LET'S GO LUKA
aqib_10_
260
ballon d'or is a joke now
Ice_ScorpionMSN
246
Stating my opinion here, so don't give hate replies. I believe Modric doesn't deserve the Balon D'or. He had a nice World Cup taking his country to the finals, but that's pretty much it. The Balon D'or should be based on statistics, awards and performance. Statistics wise leaves Messi, Ronaldo, Salah, Varane, and Griezmann up as candidates. Messi and Ronaldo have scored in the high 50's and gave many assists. Salah has broken the goal record in the premier league. Varane and Griezmann performed a great World Cup and won. Modric on the other hand carried his team to the finals and didn't win. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Modric's play style, but overall stats and performance don't add up to make him the best.
lamarimarrakech
234
Things do not know how they happened
aqib_10_
215
what a year for luka modric
aqib_10_
204
welcome to the ballon d'or club
Harden1313
200
From the most under rated player to the most overrated player.
Lanbdz
188
Too much football politics in here and are these players picked by merit or hand picked to satisfy certain people and certain leagues? lf so this is the biggest joke ever and in my opinion we had young players who lit the World Cup and who deserved it not Modric. If there is any league that deserved to have a nominee from then it is the EPL. All they are doing is to tell us that unless you play in the LaLiga then forget about this award. In my opinion it is all about telling the world that unless you play for those few clubs forget about it. And forget about it for sure as it is all crap to me. Thanks but not thank you.
lubcimnouy
174
if so then iniesta was robbed in 2010
Thiago_
159
FIFA just do apologize 😡😡👇👇👇💵
Crazice
150
Dont get me wrong, modric does deserve the ballon d'Or, but i feel that it wasnt his best season, all he did was to bring croatia to the finals as well as being a part of the squad that won the champions league which shouldnt have been their win. He didnt make decisive passes and dosent track back to get the ball back. Real madrid by themselves are nothing without ronaldo, modric is just overrated. Im not saying that modric dosent deserve it, i just feel that varane who has been more solid at the back and someone that works hard, as well as a player who has won the world cup is more deserving. Dont hate on me, im just expressing my thoughts and i do not hate real madrid.
Asap24
150
Ballon d'or should be officially named Joke d'or
Eddiegaddis
146
This year's individual prizes were manipulated as the Maestro played with his music Congratulations to the history of writing Modric to a page of his pages .. Page 2018! 👑
Boadlpu
146
joke of the century! Officially not Balon d'oro it is not called Madrid d'oro!🤣🤣🤣🤣
yoseilmnpu
126
we need to use VAR for this decision 😂😂
witbcdimty
105
Look at Modric achievement for this year. World cup final, uefa champions league winner , uefa man player of the year, uefa best man player,
Just ignore those dog.. Don't argue with those idiot think he better than Ballon D'or judge when the reality he's just fan boy don't have any passion about football and crying when something didn't happen like they want.
payback
97
Luka Modric has done a clean sweep of major individual awards in 2018: World Cup Golden Ball UEFA Player Of The Year FIFA 'The Best' Player Of The Year Ballon d'Or Respect.
CraigJack
90
Fully deserved!!! Anyone who thinks otherwise is a bare hater. All football experts voting for individual awards wnt get up one morning n go hectic handing all awards to one man if he did nt deserve it. May this sound as a wake up call that we are sick n tired of the Messi/Ronaldo propaganda, football is way bigger than the two of them. Time for new standings in football, no more award of individual trophies bc u won competitions or scored more goals bt rada bc as an individual u gave more than any oda player in a clear visible way to get them to win or go to higher heights. Let it be henceforth that any player be it goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or attacker can win individual awards. Time for a new approach!!!!
Nobknou
90
better joke than my life 😂😂 i'm a barca fan but ronaldo was supposed to win it and messi being runner up and modric third 😂 ballon dor or perez dor? 😂
aqib_10_
85
end of an era
as_win10
80
I am very much happy to see Modric winning the Ballon d'Or and ending the monopoly of Messi and Ronaldo. But I wonder how Messi is not in the top three and Mbappe is better than him. I agree with the top ten list but the order is not correct. I also wonder why Koulibaly was not included in the 30 man list. My Rankings 1. Luka Modric 2. Cristiano Ronaldo 3. Lionel Messi 4. Antoine Griezmann 5. Raphael Varane 6. Kylian Mbappe 7. Muhammed Salah 8. Eden Hazard 9. Harry Kane 10. Kevin de Bruyne
Zaubcer
79
Dodric is so just like to win ballon !
paddler
74
Luka Modrić in 2018: Champions League 🏆 World Cup finalist 🥈 World Cup Golden Ball 🏆 FIFA Best Player 🏆 Ballon d'Or 🏆
akshay_anand
69
People who are saying Modric doesn't deserves the ballon d'or award didn't watched the whole last season...He was without a doubt the most consistent player last season...I remember how badly Madrid started, at the start Cristiano was fully off color and every time Modric used to pass the ball to Cristiano he used to lose the ball and Modric had to run backward to stop the counter attack...I remember there were lots of trolls going around on Ronaldo then and Ronaldo responded the trollers by literally destroying them with his spectacular form after January.But Modric remained the most consistent player and carried his best form at WC too and totally deserves all the awards he won this year.
Savannah
57
Leo Messi in 2018: - 43 goals, 21 assists - x3 trophies - Most goals in Europe - Golden Boot winner - Most UCL goals Only ranked FIFTH in the Ballon d'Or rankings...
RealMd13
50
For the Captains and the coaches who voted for Luka modric as a madridsta I salute you! its has been a long time before another player has won the Ballon dor besides Ronaldo and Messi the last player to win the Ballon dor before Ronaldo and Messi domination began was Kaka in 2007 and an ex Real madrid player and the 1st player to win the Ballon dor after 10 years of Messi and Ronaldo Domination Is Luka modric a Real madrid player and Luka modric Is a phenomenon he is an artistic genius dribbler ball controller architecture creator playmaker and an Lethal Game changer I am happy to see that as a Futbol fan I am proud as always Hala Hala Hala Hala MADRID Vamooooooos