The Ballon D’or is a yearly award for the best soccer player throughout the year. Luka Modrić(33) has been declared as the winner of the 2018 Ballon D’or, breaking the consecutive trophies awarded to Messi and Ronaldo over the previous 10 Ballon D’ors since 2008.

This year’s nominees for the 2018 Ballon D’or included: Luka Modrić, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe. Additionally, the first-ever Women Ballon D’or was awarded this year to Ada Hegerberg, marking her as the first Norwegian to have won a Ballon D’or. Other nominees also participating were: Fran Kirby, Saki Kunmagi, Dzsenifer Marozsan, Lucy Bronze, Pernille Harder, and Amandine Henry. The Ballon D’or is awarded to the best male soccer player and female soccer player over the course of the year. Another award was also presented: The Kopa Trophy, which is awarded to the best male soccer under 21 years of age. Evidently being the only young player to attend the awards was Kylian Mbappe (19) who won this award. 

After winning three consecutive UEFA Champion Leagues with Real Madrid, Modrić, captain of the Croatian national football team, led the Croatian national team to their first World Cup finals ever against France in the 2018 World Cup.  It was only destiny for Modric to be granted the Ballon D’or after being awarded the Golden Ball (which is awarded to the best player in the FIFA World Cup) and receiving the FIFA best player award for 2018.

  Ada Hegerberg on the other hand, has contributed to her club (Olymipique Lyonnais) by winning three domestic doubles and win the women’s champion league scoring 41 goals; as well as scoring 38 goals in 66 appearances with her national team on top of scoring 197 goals for other clubs. As a 23 year old female soccer player, she has nearly 300 goals. She has also won Europe’s best player award and went from being a prodigy at 15 with the national team to now being recognized as the first-ever female to win a Ballon D’or.

Kylian Mbappe has been an absolute prodigy for the last two years in football. The 19 year old has gone as far as winning a World Cup final with France in 2018 and even scored in the World Cup final. With his Club team, Paris Saint German (PSG), winning the league in France, he has a total of 68 goals. Mbappe is the second-youngest player ever to score in a World Cup final.

In second place stands Cristiano Ronaldo. Despite Ronaldo not winning the Ballon D’or, unlike previous years, he did quite a number of achievements–as well such as also winning the UEFA Champion Leagues three times in a row with Real Madrid. Ronaldo, however, did wind up leaving Real Madrid the previous season to an Italian team named Juventus. He is currently is captain for Portugal, and single handedly tied Portugal against Spain in the 2018 World Cup. He is also the current leader as top goal scorer in the European league UEFA CL with 120; also he has 5 Ballon D’ors previously.

Finally, this year’s Ballon D’or has been the more influential than all the  years prior. Starting with Modric breaking the ongoing competition between Ronaldo and Messi, to the first female winning the trophy, and having a young talented 19 year old receiving an award as well. Change is definitely a good sight to see for the future years of the Ballon D’or.