The French Football Weekly editorial staff provides a brief overview of the most consistent players in the ranking of the prestigious prize awarded by France Football.
This Monday, the identity of Karim Benzema’s successor will be revealed. The France Football 2023 Ballon d’Or will be awarded during a gala ceremony organized in Paris. Although the name of the winner is often subject to debate, the skimming carried out each year by journalists and the photograph of the final ranking speak more of the consistency at the highest level of the best players in the world.
It is on this point that the French Football Weekly editorial team wanted to focus on by weighting the last 5 Ballon d’Or rankings to establish a hierarchy of the best footballers on the planet over the last decade.
For past years, the scale is as follows:
Winner : 20 points
2nd : 18 points
3rd : 17 points
4th : 16 points
5th : 15 points
6th : 14 points
7th : 13 points
Between 8th and 10th : 12 points
Between 11th and 15th : 8 points
Between 16th and 20th : 5 points
Beyond 20th place : 3 points.
The past years are the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 editions. The distinction was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Furthermore, all players named this year 2023 collect 10 additional points.
When reading the final ranking, career hazards must also be taken into account: some players entered the world football landscape during this period, while others put an end to their first life as a footballer.
Who is the best player in the world over the last 5 years?
THE FINAL RANKING:
1 – Lionel MESSI (Argentina): 83 points
2 – Kylian MBAPPE (France): 79 points
3 – CRISTIANO RONALDO (Portugal): 74 points
4 – Robert LEWANDOWSKI (Poland): 68 points
5 – Kevin DE BRUYNE (Belgium): 67 points
– Mohamed SALAH (Egypt): 67 points
7 – Luka MODRIC (Croatia): 60 points
8 – Karim BENZEMA (France): 57 points
9 – Harry KANE (England): 40 points
– Sadio MANE (Senegal): 40 points
11 – Antoine GRIEZMANN (France): 37 points
12 – N’Golo KANTE (France): 35 points
13 – Erling HAALAND (Norway): 30 points
– NEYMAR (Brazil): 30 points
15 – Eden HAZARD (Belgium): 25 points
– Riyad MAHREZ (Algeria): 25 points
– BERNARDO SILVA (Portugal): 25 points
18 – Virgil VAN DIJK (Netherlands): 23 points
19 – VINICIUS JR (Brazil): 22 points
20 – Thibaut COURTOIS (Belgium): 21 points
– Luis SUAREZ (Uruguay): 21 points
photo credit: Panoramic
With this cumulative ranking, Lionel Messi has established himself as the best player in the world over the last 5 years. A number 1 status which should be reinforced this Monday evening, unless Kylian Mbappé precedes him.
The Bondy prodigy achieved the feat of slipping in front of Cristiano Ronaldo to appear between the two great rivals of the contemporary era. It should be noted that the Frenchman is also the only player in the world to have reached the top 10 every year over the last 5 editions – a feat that even Messi and CR7 could not achieve.
photo credit: Panoramic
The top 5 is completed by two models of consistency in the most attractive league in the world, Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah.
Luka Modric and Karim Benzema then follow thanks in particular to their respective coronations in 2018 and 2022. The Croatian and the French are the only players who managed to break the Ronaldo-Messi hegemony in first place.
photo credit: Panoramic
Harry Kane and Sadio Mané complete a top 10 which looks great, and which does not include the ultra-talented Neymar, weighed down by too frequent injuries and already joined by an Erling Haaland launched like a bomb.
Finally, 9 of the 20 ranking players no longer play in Europe. As if to confirm the idea of a tipping point in the elite of world football. This is the law of cycles. It is up to the natural heirs to benefit from it. They are the future kings. The future belongs to them. In this sense, it seems difficult to imagine the crown slipping away from Mbappé, Haaland, Vinicius or Bellingham in the coming years, unless another meteorite falls on the football planet between now and then…
