Luka Modric Overtakes Ronaldo & Messi to Win This Year's Ballon d'Or

After claiming the Best Male Player title at the FIFA Awards earlier this year, Croatian star Luka Modric has beaten out both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the 2018 Ballon d’Or. Ending both Ronaldo and Messi’s 10-year streak of dominance, Modric is the first player to win since former Brazil and AC Milan forward Kaka won the honors back in 2007.

Modric rightfully won the top accolade after seeing an impressive 12 month dominance in the sport. The Real Madrid midfielder found great success on the pitch having won his third consecutive Champions League title with La Liga giants Real Madrid as well as guiding his home country of Croatia to its first ever World Cup Final this past July in Russia.

Coming in second place was Ronaldo, who joined Juventus from Real Madrid this past the summer. On the other-hand, Messi came in fifth. French teammates Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe placed third and fourth, respectively.

On winning Modric told BBC Sport, “Maybe in the past there are some players who could have won the Ballon d’Or like Xavi, Andres Iniesta or [Wesley] Sneijder but people finally now are looking at someone else.” He continued, “This award is for all the players who probably deserved to win it and didn’t. It is difficult to express my emotion and how I feel in words. It is something unique for me. It was very special.”

Take a look at the top 10 below.

1. Luka Modric (Real Madrid and Croatia)
2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus and Portugal)
3. Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid and France)
4. Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain and France)
5. Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina)
6. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt)
7. Raphael Varane (Real Madrid and France)
8. Eden Hazard (Chelsea and Belgium)
9. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City and Belgium)
10. Harry Kane (Tottenham and England)

In more sports news, adidas and EA Sports revealed limited edition jerseys.