Diego Simeone doesn't think that the Ballon d'Or should go to Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, for the first time in 10 years, but instead to his own player Antoine Griezmann.
Monday could, and probably should, see the end of an era in football. For the first time in a decade the man who wins the Ballon d'Or may well not Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.
For the past 10 years the pair have dominated world football, picking up pretty much every team and individual award and breaking all sorts of records. They have 10 Ballon d'Ors between them, sharing them fairly with five each.
Having missed out at this year's FIFA The Best Awards it looks likely that someone else's name will also be on the Ballon d'Or, when it's handed out on Monday, for the first time since Kaka won it.
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Luka Modric won FIFA's award after helping Real Madrid to their third Champions League win in a row and getting Croatia to the final of the World Cup.
However Diego Simeone believes that Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann should win it, after helping France win the World Cup. Talking, via the Express, the Atleti manager said:
"We can safely say that Cristiano [Ronaldo] and Lionel Messi are the best footballers in the world.
"But not in this 2018.
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"At this lap Antoine was superior to everyone, nobody did what he did for his teams.
"When a footballer makes sure that the whole team can work based on his brain, it has an incalculable value."
Explaining how important the French forward was to the country's World Cup win in Russia Simeone added, "France plays thanks to his intelligence, when he is well physically and mentally, there is no player in the world who know how to see and play football like he does," he added.
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"And even looking beyond the titles he won this season, the World Cup, the Europa League and the European Super Cup, there was no soccer player who was more important to the team than Griezmann."
Griezmann was expected to be playing for Barcelona with the Frenchman heavily linked with a move across La Liga, but he decided to stay at the Wanda Metropolitano.
Neither Griezmann or Messi could make the necessary difference in the game between the two sides last weekend, with the game finishing 1-1, on Monday though there's every chance that the Frenchman will come out on top.
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The end of an era awaits on Monday, but who will start the new one.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, Atletico Madrid, Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, Ballon d'Or, Cristiano Ronaldo, La Liga, Diego Simeone