For the past few years, the winner of the FIFA Ballon d’Or has been won by either Lionel Messi or C.Ronaldo.
This trend started off back in 2008 when C.Ronaldo won the individual award of that year and from there on out it has been a battle between the Portuguese superstar and the Argentinean wizard.
Lionel Messi has won the FIFA Ballon d’Or award 5 times while C.Ronaldo on 3 occasions. According to Javi Martinez of Bayern Munich, someone who deserves to be nominated for the upcoming FIFA Ballon d’Or nomination is Thomas Muller.
Thomas Muller is a regular starter for Bayern Munich who has played for the German club for the entirety of his career and during the nomination of last year, he didn’t get enough votes to snatch the individual award and Muller clinched the 6th spot while Lionel Messi won it for the 5th time.
Javi Martinez believes that Thomas Muller has done more than enough to be seriously taking into consideration as someone who can win the award.
"Thomas should be considered for the Ballon d'Or. He has done some fantastic things over the past few years. Not just at international level at World Cups and European championships, but also at club level. He will definitely be on the shortlist for the Ballon d'Or and he will be getting closer to top spot step by step." Bayern Munich’s Javi Martinez said as he praised his teammate Thomas Muller.
The Barcelona star, Lionel Messi on the other hand is certain that Neymar has what it takes to win the prestigious individual award as he has backed the Brazilian attacker on numerous instances.
This season has not been going so impressively for Lionel Messi as Barcelona was knocked out from the Champions League and the Argentinean attacker has struggled to replicate his performances from past seasons. The recent decline of Messi can allow other players to step it up and show their worth.
Another candidate for the next Ballon d’Or is Luis Suarez as the Uruguayan has played a huge role for Barcelona in their latest La Liga title after scoring 13 goals in 5 league appearances from only 16 shots on target.
There still is a long way to go before the 2017 edition of the award to be given away and even for the nominations to be announced but it might be the time when a new footballer is elected as there are many performers who have been standing out and it might not be a battle only between Messi and C.Ronaldo.
