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Ranking the 30 Ballon d’Or nominees

By Carter Mulvihill

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - JANUARY 11: FIFA Ballon dOr 2015 nominees Lionel Messi of Argentina and FC Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Real Madrid answer media questions during the FIFA Ballon dOr 2015 press conference prior to the FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala 2015 at the Kongresshaus on January 11, 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo by Stuart Franklin - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - JANUARY 11: FIFA Ballon dOr 2015 nominees Lionel Messi of Argentina and FC Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Real Madrid answer media questions during the FIFA Ballon dOr 2015 press conference prior to the FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala 2015 at the Kongresshaus on January 11, 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo by Stuart Franklin - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images) /
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24. Jamie Vardy

LEICESTER, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 18: Jamie Vardy of Leicester City during the UEFA Champions League match between Leicester City FC and FC Copenhagen at The King Power Stadium on October 18, 2016 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
LEICESTER, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 18: Jamie Vardy of Leicester City during the UEFA Champions League match between Leicester City FC and FC Copenhagen at The King Power Stadium on October 18, 2016 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images) /

Five years ago, several of this year’s list of nominees would be easy to predict. We knew Messi and Ronaldo would be here. We knew the likes of Gareth Bale and Thomas Muller would grow into super-stardom. But Jamie Vardy? No one could’ve predicted his meteoric rise.

His story is known. From part-time, non-league player to top scorer on the 5,000 to 1 champions Leicester City, no part of the Foxes’ title-winning season of last year is quite as enticing as Vardy’s.

A year after scoring just enough goals to help Leicester avoid relegation, Vardy erupted for 24 league goals, including a scintillating 11-match scoring streak.

If anything about a player like Vardy can be underrated at this point, it’s his international career. He scored four goals for England in 2016, despite not coming into the national team until age 28. He even netted a goal at the Euros, in which he was one of the few England players not to disappoint.

While Vardy and the Foxes will be hard-pressed to live up to last season’s form. He’s become a well-established star in the EPL and his Ballon d’Or nomination further proves that.

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