French Football magazine "France Football" announced the 2018 Ballon d'or winner.

It was awarded by the Croatian national team, midfielder Lucas Modric, Real Madrid's player.

33-year-old Modric last season with Real Madrid in the Champions League (CL) has won the 3rd consecutive championship. In the Russian World Cup this summer, he led the Croatia national team to the second place as captain, and won the Golden Ball award for best player in the tournament. He was awarded the best player of the Year award of UEFA (European football federation) and FIFA (international football federation) respectively.

Up to now, the Argentine national team FW Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Portugal national team FW Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) had dominated the award, but since 2007 for the first time in 11 years, it was awarded by the other two. Messi has been defending the top three since 2007, but lost the top three for 12 consecutive years in fifth place this time.

MEN’S B’ALLON D’OR LEADERBOARD:

1 Luka Modric

2 Cristiano Ronaldo

3 Antoine Griezmann

4 Kylian Mbappe

5 Lionel Messi

6 Mohamed Salah

7 Raphael Varane

8 Edin Hazard

9 Kevin De Bruyne

10 Harry Kane

Presented to the ”best in the world " players, the Ballon d'Or prize was founded in 1956. In 2010, the name was changed to "FIFA Ballon dOr" by a partnership with FIFA, but with the expiration of the contract, "Ballon dOr" Sponsored by"France Football"was revived from 2016. The number of candidates will be 30 (23 in the old system), the announcement of the final candidate will be abolished, and voting will be conducted only by journalists. The awards ceremony will be held at the beginning of 2019.