3. Lionel Messi
If 26 league goals, 16 assists and a La Liga title is considered a below-average season, your name is Lionel Messi.
Though the Ballon d’Or has done away with the three-player shortlist this season, Messi would surely get an invite if there was one. But for the first time since this Messi-Ronaldo rivalry began in 2008, the Argentine No. 10 will not finish in the top two in voting.
Of course it all has to do with the height of the bar. When you’re the greatest player in the world and probably the best of all time, individual awards become harder and harder to win.
Messi enters every calendar year as the Ballon d’Or favorite, but his grip on the award loosened when Barca crashed out of the Champions League in the quarterfinals.
We can even point to the exact moment when his hopes for the award were dashed. After failing to break through with a goal against Chile in the Copa America final. Messi and Argentina were left to the fate of penalties.
Not only did Argentina lose for the second straight season, but Messi shockingly missed, sailing his kick over the bar. Luckily for us all, the miss didn’t break Messi, or even send him into international retirement as he initially said.
He’s been back. He’s been great. Only this time, when it comes to the Ballon d’Or, he’ll be third.