Ronaldo, Messi or Salah? Who’s going to win Ballon d’Or 2018?

This will largely depend on what happens during the World Cup.

Messi’s Barcelona was winning the title in Spain, while Mohamed Salah was wreaking havoc across Europe. Ronaldo was in electric form too, but his Real Madrid had all the eggs in one basket – the Champions League. As the battle between Messi and Salah for Europe’s best goal scorer raged on, Los Galacticos were quietly pushing their way towards Kiev. The Argentinian won that battle, albeit by a slight margin (45 goals in all competitions compared to Salah’s 44), but Cristiano won the Champions League (catching them both in the process with 44 goals of his own).

The Portuguese’s season was a tale of two halves. He had a rough start, scoring just four goals in his first 14 La Liga games. As the season progressed, the defending Ballon d’Or winner found his groove and went on an incredible goal-scoring spree, feasting on his opponents. At one point, he had scored 18 goals in 9 matches. All that while he was helping Real Madrid get past Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Bayern Munich in Europe’s most prestigious competition. Los Blancos’ third consecutive Champions League trophy, along with Mohamed Salah’s unfortunate injury in the final means that Cristiano has taken over the role as Ballon d’Or favourite once more.

Source: www.goal.com

These are the latest odds:

If the odds are 5/4, that means  if you were to bet £5, you would expect a £4 return.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Lionel Messi

Mohamed Salah

This just goes to show you how good Messi and Ronaldo are. Salah had a historic season, probably the best in English Premier League history. Yet, he’s still behind the other-worldly duo. Barring a miraculous comeback and a surprising Egypt World Cup run, Liverpool’s forward is unlikely to catch up with his rivals. Messi can, though. He beat Ronaldo in La Liga. He had more goals scored (32 to 26) and won the title. In addition, Barcelona won the Copa del Rey as well.

El Phenomeno has stated many times that he would exchange any title he’s won in his life to win the World Cup. He’s a man on a mission in Russia, but he can’t do it by himself. Ronaldo is surrounded with better teammates. Portugal is the defending European champion. What’s the conclusion? Messi’s and Ronaldo’s national selections are expected to go very far this summer. How far they get should determine which of the two wins the 2018 Ballon d’Or.