Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are two giants of the game that have left legacies that will endure on forever. They are, undoubtedly, the best footballers the world has seen in the past decade.
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It shouldn’t surprise anyone that in the last 11 years, the Ballon d’Or has been shared between the two 10 times (Modric winning it last year being the only outlier). And for all purposes, it looks like it is, again, a battle between the two for football’s most prestigious individual award.
Lionel Messi vs Ronaldo: What do the odds say?
The odds so far favor Argentina’s magical genius, Lionel Messi. The Barca man is the favorite of the bookmakers to win the Ballon d’Or currently. In fact, the odds are very much in his favor- 1/2 for Messi winning the award. This follows on the back of an impressive domestic campaign. And along with the league, it seems as Barca may get their hands on the Copa Del Rey as well.
Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, has ceded ground in this race thanks to Juventus’s poor performance in the Champions League and the Italian Cup. Juventus did win the Serie A, but that is almost a foregone conclusion, regardless of the presence of Ronaldo.
Ronaldo’s odds for winning the Ballon d’Or are almost the same as that of Raheem Sterling and Kylian Mbappe. Both these players matched Ronaldo’s achievement by winning their respective leagues, with Sterling even doing an impressive treble.
Between Messi and Ronaldo, in terms of odds, is the Liverpool trio of Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah. Following an impressive 97 point league campaign, their odds may get a further boost shall they boost Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League final.
Nevertheless, the firm favorite at the moment is Lionel Messi. His fifty goal, twenty-two assists season has seen to that. The only blemish on his record is that shocking Barca CL semifinal knockout at the hands of Liverpool.
