France Football magazine has officially announced the winner of the 2018 Ballon d’Or Award. Real Madrid midfielder Modric became the winner. Modric’s win also officially ended the 10-year duopoly of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on the Ballon d’Or. Modric got 753 points, C Ronaldo and Griezmann got 476 points and 414 points respectively. Mbappe and Messi ranked in fourth and fifth places with 347 and 280 respectively.
Modric’s win has caused a lot of controversy. Many people think that Ronaldo, Messi or French players are more worthy of this award.
After the releasing the specific vote of the Ballon d’Or, Lasana Liburd, a journalist from Trinidad and Tobago, said on Twitter that the Ballon d’Or selection has made a mistake on his vote. Lasana Liburd said on Twitter that his voting order was wrong (note: he wrote FIFA player in the original text which is probably wrong and he is pointing to the Ballon d’Or). He wrote: “My FIFA player of the year selection should have been tallied as (in correct order): Messi, Modric, Ronaldo, Salah, Griezmann… I’ve voted for this prestigious award for years without issue. Don’t know what went wrong. But I do have a record of my vote…”
However, on the France Football website, Lisanna Liburd’s vote fell over and became Griezmann, Salah, Ronaldo, Modric and Messi. It is still unclear whether it is only a mistake on the website or it has something wrong in the vote counting process. One thing for sure is that this will raise more controversy about Modric’s winning.