On October 28, at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, there will be a new winner of the Ballon d’Or, the highest individual accolade in men’s football. By common consent, the leading contenders are Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior , who scored in Real Madrid ’s Champions League final victory, and Spanish midfielder Rodri , who excelled in triumphant campaigns for both Manchester City and his national team. Advertisement Should Vinicius Jr, 24, win the award, he will be the first player born in the 21st century to do so.
More remarkably, Rodri would be the first winner born in the 1990s. Either would be the first winner to be born since December 1987. Such was the dominance of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo , who have respectively won eight and five of the last 15 Ballon d’Or titles, a run punctuated only by victories for two of their contemporaries: Luka Modric in 2018 and Karim Benzema in 2022.
Messi, Ronaldo, Modric and Benzema were all born in the mid-to-late 1980s. All were regarded as prodigious talents in their teens. All have excelled deep into their thirties and only now, in the twilight years of their careers, have they begun to wind down: Messi, 37, in Major League Soccer with Inter Miami, and Ronaldo, 39, and Benzema, 36, in the Saudi Pro League with Al Nassr and Al Ittihad.
Modric, 39, is still going strong at Real Madrid. The brilliance of Messi and Ronaldo often overshadowed that of a group of players now in their early-to-mid thirties that includes Ne.