The Ballon d Or will be handed out on Thursday and, as has become tradition, the football world waits with bated breath to see which of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo will win it.
The Barcelona and Real Madrid stars have won every edition of the prize since 2008, both as France Football s standalone award and during its merger with FIFA s prize, and it seems inconceivable that the duopoly will not continue in 2017.
Plenty of debate has raged over which of them has deserved to get their hands on the glittering gold sphere every year, but not quite so much air time has been given to assessing those who deserved it just as much – perhaps even more so.
Well, in the spirit of Ballon d Or decency, we re going to do just that. Here are the players we think fully deserved to have won the award every year since 2008
2008: IKER CASILLAS
Casillas came fourth in the Ballon d Or standings the year Ronaldo won his first, which seems more than a little harsh.
The goalkeeper captained Spain to Euro 2008 glory after winning LaLiga with Real Madrid, earning the Zamora Trophy for his clean sheets in Spain s top flight. This was also the year of the first of his five IFFHS World s Best goalkeeper prizes.
2009: XAVI
This was Messi s first victory, the Argentine finishing ahead of Ronaldo and Barcelona team-mate Xavi after the Catalans won the treble in Pep Guardiola s first season in charge.
Given he was the top assist-maker in LaLiga and the Champions League (he set up Messi s goal in the final win over Manchester United), the UEFA Club Midfielder and LaLiga Midfielder of the year, it seems unjust Xavi did not get his hands on the trophy.
