The Person Paul Pogba Said Would Break The Ronaldo/Messi Monopoly Now Looks Insane

Will anyone ever stop Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi being the best player in the world? It seems like the pair are destined to win awards for that pretty much forever. But Paul Pogba thinks he knows who is going to do it.

Cristiano Ronaldo has already picked up the Ballon d'Or for the past 12 months and some are already saying it's inevitable that he will add to his trophy collection by picking up the upcoming Balon d'Or trophy.

Between them the pair have collected the last ten Ballon d'Ors and the last man to win one who wasn't called Ronaldo or Messi was Kaka in 2007, and that year the pair of superstars finished in second and third respectively.

It seems likely to most that the two will be battling once again for the trophy at the end of the year, but Paul Pogba said back in 2017 that Zlatan Ibrahimovic could have been the man to break their monopoly.

Speaking to FIFA.com about who could win it the Manchester United midfielder named Zlatan saying, "Of course, there are other players who can do that [win the award].

"We have Zlatan at Manchester United. Even he could do it. He's 35 years old, but the way he's playing, the way he's scoring goals, you can see that he's been in the top level for more than ten years."

Two other players were also on the former Juve man's list but he did warn that anyone wanting to take the title away from world football's supremo pair would have to do something pretty special:

"[Eden] Hazard, Neymar, [Luis] Suarez are doing so well and scoring goals, these are great players who - if they keep scoring - can do that.

"They need to keep scoring though, because that's the case with Cristiano and Messi, whose performances are always on top."

Neymar is the most recent player to join the two in the top three for the Ballon d'Or but over the years that has been seven different players with only Xavi being in the top three more than once.

Who do you think will win the next Balon d'Or?

Let us know.

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Topics: Paul Pogba, Football News, Football, Manchester United, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi, Balon d'Or, Cristiano Ronaldo

Jack Kenmare

Jack Kenmare is a writer at SPORTbible. He's interviewed some of the biggest names in sport, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pele, Carles Puyol and Tim Henman. He dabbles in all things sport but football is his biggest passion. He was once hit in the head by a wayward strike from Nicky Butt and lived to tell the tale.

@jackkenmare_