Sergio Ramos Picks His Top Five For The Ballon d'Or

If it had been Spain who won last year's Euros then maybe Sergio Ramos would have beaten Cristiano Ronaldo to last year's Ballon d'Or. Instead Ramos will be hoping he can win it this year, he won't, but the Real Madrid defender has picked his top five.

The Ballon d'Or might be my least favourite part of football, which probably isn't what you want to hear before an article about the award so feel free to scroll down and find the relevant part of this article- I'll prefix it with an asterisk so you know.

Part of my personal problem with the whole thing is the idea of a personal award inside of a team game, especially when the award doesn't always go to the best player but the player who happens to have won the most.

_{The Ballon d'Or in all it's majesty. Seriously what's the point in it. Image: PA}

This year it's once again likely to go to Cristiano Ronaldo after Real Madrid won the Champions League and La Liga which will put the Portuguese forward level on five award each with arch nemesis Lionel Messi.

* Strangely enough Los Blancos teammate Sergio Ramos believes that Ronaldo should win the award this year with Messi second, other fellow Real stars are his third and fourth picks in Sergio Ramos and Marcelo whilst legendary keeper Gigi Buffon rounds off the top five:

Who would make your top five?

The Ballon d'Or based on stats

The 30 nominees for the 2017 Ballon d'Or award list have been released, and as expected, it's caused huge debate relating to who has made the cut, and who hasn't.

The award was linked with FIFA from 2009 and 2015, but the football governing body have since moved away and created their own 'FIFA: The Best' award, with the Ballon d'Or shortlist and eventual winner decided by a panel of journalists, hosted by publication France Football.

But had the list been purely based off performance data and statistics, rather than subjective opinion, it would have been very different.

As we know, as useful as they are, stats do not always tell the story and can be manipulated in various ways. However, in these type of instances, it makes for interesting reading to see who would have been part of the 30-man list for the prestigious award.

Stats site Who Scored, have come up with a different 2017 Ballon d'Or shortlist using statistical data and ratings accrued over the year. It sees Neymar, the most expensive footballer in world football, top the charts with a 8.80 rating, while Lionel Messi is in second on 8.60.

Image: PA

Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago Alcantara didn't even make the list of 30 from France Football, but going off stats, he has been the third-best player this year. Atalanta captain Alejandro 'Papu' Gomez is in fourth, while Harry Kane is ranked fifth.

Image: PA

Perhaps most surprising is the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the favourite to win the award and tie Lionel Messi on five Ballon d'Ors, is all the way down in ninth.

The list does feature a good chunk of those who are on the actual shortlist, but there are plenty of glaring admissions and suprise inclusions.

Here is the list from France Football in full:

Neymar (PSG/Brazil)

Luka Modric (Real Madrid/Croatia)

Paulo Dybala (Juventus/Argentina)

Marcelo (Real Madrid/Brazil)

N'Golo Kante (Chelsea/France)

Luis Suarez (Barcelona/Uruguay)

Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid/Spain)

Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid/Slovenia)

Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool/Brazil)

Dries Mertens (Napoli/Belgium)

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City/Belgium)

Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich/Poland)

David De Gea (Manchester United/Spain)

Harry Kane (Tottenham/England)

Edin Dzeko (Roma/Bosnia)

Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid/France)

Toni Kroos (Real Madrid/Germany)

Sadio Mane (Liverpool/Senegal)

Radamel Falcao (Monaco/Colombia)

Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus/Italy)

Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina)

Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich/Germany)

Edinson Cavani (PSG/Uruguay)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund/Gabon)

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid/France)

Eden Hazard (Chelsea/Belgium)

Kylian Mbappe (PSG/France)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)

Isco (Real Madrid/Spain)

Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)

Thoughts on the two lists?

Sound off in the comments.

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Sergio Ramos, Lionel Messi, Ballon d'Or, Spain, Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid, La Liga

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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