Humanity has been almost obsessed with determining the best in every possible domain and sector you can think of. A trend that started with competitions where athletes really went one against the other, has evolved into having prizes and recognition of the best teams and individuals in every possible aspect of life. That’s why, when we’re talking about top-tier prizes like the Oscar, Nobel Prizes or the Golden Ball, the interest around them is so huge because they clearly determine the best of the best in their particular fields of activity. But even though the Oscars and the Nobel Prize to enjoy a  wide extent of popularity, nothing can really compete with football and the phenomenon it represents on the planet. So, let’s take a look at some of the biggest disputes for the title of the best football player on the planet, also known as the Golden Ball or Ballon d’Or.

Historical Disputes

As stated above, competition among athletes is not a new thing, it takes place early in history with the Olympiads in Ancient Greek. So, you shouldn’t be surprised that nowadays, sport in general and football in particular is the competition that sparks the most interest when it comes to determining who’s the best. Going back in history we have remarkable disputes for the most-wanted prize in the life of a football player. Pele and Maradona fought for it back in the day and both received a honorary Ballon d’Or in 1996 and 2013.

Football has always been generous in providing spectacular ‘clashes’ between top-performing players and after the Maradona and Pele era, we had the chance to witness the same thing between Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff. And while, on paper, Cruyff seems to be the winner of his dispute with three Golden Ball trophies compared to only two for Beckenbauer, there’s nobody out there that can deny these two provided a lot of high-quality football over the years.

As we approach modern times, there was one last piece of top-level competition between football players. Each of them leaded their teams to great victories and dominated football taking turns in their times as active players. Even more than that, they were colleagues in a spectacular team of Real Madrid that dominated European football for many years in a row. If you haven’t guessed it already, we’re talking about Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo. Not Cristiano Ronaldo, but what where the chances for two of the biggest players of the world to be named Ronaldo, but the Brazilian superstar that conquered the hearts of his fans with his amazing striking skills. Again, it looks like Ronaldo won this competition since he has two Ballon D’Ors compared with only one for Zidane.

And after all, that’s what Ballon d’Or is all about, taking these top players and reducing everything down to numbers in order to establish who is the best, leaving out subjectivity and fan base. Otherwise, we will have a never-ending dispute such as the one that follows.

Messi vs Ronaldo

Ronaldo fans, don’t stop reading just because we’ve chosen to put Messi first in the comparison. It’s only a matter of alphabetical order and we’re going to discuss each player in the following sections. And after going through all those other fantastic players that competed for the title of the best player in the world so far, you’d think it doesn’t get any better than this. But those who are lucky enough to be contemporary with these two, know that there’s something special about this rivalry.

Messi

With 5 Ballon d’Or titles under his belt, Lionel Messi is considered to be the best player modern football has seen. His long-lasting career at Barcelona has rewarded him with no less than 32 trophies, including 9 La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League trophies and six Copa del Rey. Despite being Argentina’s top goalscorer in history, Messi didn’t win any important titles with his national team but he is still going strong and could prove everyone wrong in the 2022 World Cup. His recent form at Barcelona shows that there’s no difference between the Messi that won the last Ballon d’Or and the one of 2019.

Ronaldo

With the same amount of Ballon d’Or wins, 5, Ronaldo seems to be tied with Lionel Messi at almost every category you can think of. However, when you look closely at the numbers, we see that Ronaldo holds some records of his own. He is the record-holder for the most goals in the UEFA Champions League with 127 goals, most goals scored in a single Champions League season, 17 goals in the 2013/14 season, Europe’s all-time best international goalscorer with 85 goals for Portugal and the most hat-tricks in the history of La Liga, 34. Besides these stats, Ronaldo also can be proud of being Portugal’s most capped player of all time with 156 times he’s been the captain of the national team as well as being his country’s football team top goalscorer with 85 goals. And if the achievements in Portugal don’t look that impressive to you, we saved this one for last – Real Madrid’s all-time best goalscorer with 450 goals.

And with his most recent achievement of winning il Scudetto with Juventus, Ronaldo became the first player in the world to win Europe’s top three championships – Premier League, La Liga and Serie A.

With such impressive resumes, both of these players can win the Ballon d’Or for the sixth time in 2019. After all, Luka Modric ended a 10-year period in which the title was only won by one of these two. And you too can take full advantage of the Ballon d’Or competition between all these remarkable players and make money by betting the winner at 1xBet. Follow your instinct, check out the complete analysis and increase your income by using 1xBet’s excellent odds.