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Chris WrightToe Poke writer
Karim Benzema won the 2022 Men's Ballon d'Or aft the Real Madrid striker saw his herculean efforts successful 2021-22 rewarded with the astir illustrious idiosyncratic grant successful European football.
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The results of this year's awards revealed astatine Monday's gala besides signalled thing of a oversea alteration arsenic some Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, some fixtures astatine the Ballon d'Or polls for 15 years, recorded incredibly disappointing finishes successful the ballot.
Previously, astatine slightest 1 oregon some players had finished successful the apical 3 of the ballot each azygous twelvemonth since 2007, but the 2022 last standings saw Ronaldo lavation up down successful 20th spot (his lowest ranking since 2005) portion Messi didn't adjacent marque it connected to the 30-man shortlist astatine all.
Ronaldo and Messi archetypal appeared unneurotic successful the apical 3 of the Ballon d'Or ballot backmost successful 2007 erstwhile they respectively finished 2nd and 3rd down victor Kaka successful the last poll.
Ronaldo past ascended to triumph his archetypal Ballon d'Or successful 2008, sparking a prolonged epoch of domination for some himself and his rival arsenic they proceeded to stock the adjacent 10 awards betwixt them.
Here we illustration the 2 players' respective Ballon d'Or finishes twelvemonth by year, starting with Ronaldo's maiden occurrence immoderate 14 years ago.
2008 (Ronaldo: Ballon d'Or winner, Messi: 2nd)
Aged 23 astatine the clip and during the penultimate play of his archetypal stint astatine Manchester United, Ronaldo was the archetypal of the duo to triumph the Ballon d'Or. The Portuguese guardant scored 42 goals during the 2007-08 run arsenic United won some the Premier League and Champions League, which yet saw him decorativeness up of Messi successful the vote.
2009 (Messi: winner, Ronaldo: 2nd)
Messi was bestowed with his archetypal Ballon d'Or astatine the property of 22 aft a Treble-winning play that culminated successful him scoring successful Barca's Champions League last triumph implicit Ronaldo's United. He became the archetypal Argentine subordinate to beryllium crowned winner, a feat ne'er achieved by Albiceleste large Diego Maradona.
2010 (Messi: winner, Ronaldo: 6th)
Barcelona dominated the 2010 awards arsenic Messi claimed his 2nd Ballon d'Or portion the remaining podium places were occupied by chap La Masia alumni Andres Iniesta and Xavi, a reflection of Spain's triumph astatine the World Cup implicit the summer. Meanwhile Ronaldo finished a distant sixth beneath Wesley Sneijder and Diego Forlan.
2011 (Messi: winner, Ronaldo 2nd)
With 43 goals and 21 assists successful 47 games implicit the people of 2011, it came arsenic small astonishment erstwhile Messi won a 3rd consecutive Ballon d'Or aft his peerless performances fuelled Barcelona to a formidable quintuple -- LaLiga, Champions League, Spanish Supercopa, UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup -- successful the abstraction of 1 year.
2012 (Messi: winner, Ronaldo: 2nd)
Ronaldo erstwhile again had to marque bash with finishing runner-up down Messi arsenic the Barcelona guardant became the archetypal subordinate successful footballing past to triumph 4 successive Ballon d'Ors. The satellite was past treated to the show of Messi collecting his record-shattering trophy portion dressed up to the nines successful a fabulous polka dot tuxedo.
2013 (Ronaldo: winner, Messi: 2nd)
Ronaldo managed to claw backmost immoderate crushed successful 2013 by winning his 2nd Ballon d'Or arsenic the prolific Real Madrid striker pipped Messi and Franck Ribery to the grant by virtuousness of scoring 55 goals successful 55 matches for Los Blancos during the 2012-13 season.
2014 (Ronaldo: winner, Messi: 2nd)
Ronaldo completed his Ballon d'Or chapeau instrumentality astatine the property of 29 successful resounding benignant acknowledgment to a landslide triumph implicit Messi successful the last poll. Scoring 51 goals successful 47 games successful 2013-14 overall, the Portuguese prima besides helped extremity Real Madrid's quest to unafraid "La Decima" (the club's 10th European Cup title) by scoring a record-breaking 17 goals successful the Champions League.
2015 (Messi: winner, Ronaldo: 2nd)
Messi returned to the apical of the ballot successful 2015 aft winning 5 trophies with Barcelona (including LaLiga and the Champions League) and contributing 52 goals and 26 assists successful 61 games for nine and state implicit the people of the calendar year.
2016 (Ronaldo: winner, Messi: 2nd)
The pendulum past swung again the pursuing twelvemonth arsenic Ronaldo took the honours successful 2016 to kickstart a three-year streak of sustained Champions League success. The 31-year-old scored 54 goals successful 2015-16 arsenic Real Madrid became European champions again earlier adding 3 much goals to his hefty tally arsenic Portugal won Euro 2016.
2017 (Ronaldo: winner, Messi 2nd)
Ronaldo drew level with Messi's grounds by claiming the 5th Ballon D'or of his vocation successful 2017 by virtuousness of scoring 42 goals successful a LaLiga and Champions League double-winning play with Real Madrid the erstwhile run (2016-17).
2018 (Ronaldo: 2nd, Messi: 5th)
After playing a starring relation for some Real Madrid and Croatia, Luka Modric rocked the Ballon d'Or country by muscling into the framework and becoming the archetypal subordinate different than Ronaldo and Messi to triumph the grant for an full decade.
2019 (Messi: winner, Ronaldo: 3rd)
Messi moved retired successful beforehand erstwhile again by winning his sixth vocation Ballon d'Or successful 2019 aft scoring 51 goals and laying connected 19 assists (a whopping full of 70 extremity involvements) successful 49 matches during the 2018-19 season, the run successful which helium won his last LaLiga rubric arsenic a Barcelona player. Messi and Ronaldo were separated connected the podium by Virgil van Dijk, who finished successful the silver-medal spot aft his heroics for Liverpool successful their Champions League-winning campaign.
2020 (Awards cancelled owed to Covid-19)
Despite astir large leagues and competitions yet being completed aft the archetypal planetary lockdown owed to the pandemic, the determination was taken not to manus retired an grant successful 2020.
2021 (Messi: winner, Ronaldo: 6th)
Having departed Barcelona to articulation Paris Saint-Germain, Messi further extended his grounds successful 2021 -- though his seventh Ballon d'Or came arsenic thing of a daze to galore fans who felt that Bayern Munich's unstoppable extremity instrumentality Robert Lewandowski was a nailed-on cert to triumph the award aft being truthful cruelly denied successful 2020 erstwhile helium spearheaded the German giants' Champions League triumph.
2022 (Ronaldo: 20th, Messi: DNQ)
Is the glorious Messi-Ronaldo Ballon d'Or duopoly yet over? The 2022 Ballon d'Or effect surely looks ominous for the once-presiding brace aft Ronaldo conscionable astir managed to limp into the little recesses of the last 30-man standings portion his Argentine modern failed to marque the people entirely.
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