9 modern greats we can’t believe never made the Ballon d’Or podium: Suarez, Bale…
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo‘s long-running dominance of the Ballon d’Or has meant some legendary footballers from Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea never made it onto the podium.
Between 2008 and 2012, the top three of the Ballon d’Or tended to feature one or both of the era-defining superstars. Meaning that competition was fierce for the remaining spot and some truly incredible footballers missed out altogether.
Here are nine modern-day greats of football we can’t believe never finished in the top three of the Ballon d’Or.
Luis Suarez
His Spanish namesake was a frequent fixture on the Ballon d’Or podium back in the 1960s, claiming the award outright in ’60, but the Uruguayan never made it into the top three.
Remember when Suarez was absolutely outrageous for Liverpool in their 2013-14 title chase? AKA arguably the best any Premier League footballer has ever been?
Not only did the forward not make the Ballon d’Or podium that year, but he failed to make FIFA’s entire 23-man shortlist. Wild.
“Everyone brings it to attention, as Gerard Pique said, and what he told me is that they voted me as the best player in the most difficult league in the world, or one of the most difficult,” Suarez responded.
“I was also the highest goalscorer of all of the European leagues. But I prefer to keep quiet before saying things because every time that I speak there could be a problem.”
After he won the European Golden Shoe with his 31 goals for the Reds that year, you suspect that Suarez was snubbed for political reasons – namely feasting on Giorgio Chiellini’s neck during that year’s World Cup. Fair enough.
But he continued to miss out even after curbing his more cannibalistic instincts on his best behaviour at Barcelona.
Messi and Neymar naturally made the podium after Barcelona’s 2014-15 treble but the third member of that famous trident missed out while Ronaldo finished runner-up.
The following year he claimed a second European Golden Shoe and ended up Barcelona’s top scorer in all competitions with 59 goals in all competitions but missed out to Messi, Ronaldo and Griezmann.
Gareth Bale
One of the 23 players that made the shortlist ahead of Suarez in 2014, the Welshman became a frequent fixture in subsequent years, particularly during his Real Madrid peak.
He never made it higher than sixth in 2016 – the year in which he won a second of five Champions League trophies with Los Blancos and shone on the international stage with a starring role in Wales’ run to the Euro 2016 semi-finals.
Bale never getting into the top five just shows how elite the competition was during his mid-2010s pomp.
Mohamed Salah
For eight years now Salah has been absurdly brilliant at Liverpool, winning everything there is to win.
Liverpool team-mate Virgil van Dijk finished second after the Champions League victory of 2019, but the Egyptian King’s exploits haven’t quite been recognised to the same degree.
READ: The 15 players who have made the Ballon d’Or podium ahead of Salah since 2018
Didier Drogba
Salah isn’t the only great of the African game that can feel unfairly overlooked when it comes to football’s most prestigious individual award. 1995 winner George Weah and 2022 runner-up Sadio Mane are the only two African footballers in history who have made it onto the podium.
The Ivorian only finished eighth after his talismanic role in Chelsea’s 2012 Champions League triumph.
In fairness, Spain dazzled at the Euros a few weeks later and Messi scored an outrageous tally of 91 goals(!) that calendar year. Tough break.
Ending up three places behind Europa League winner Radamel Falcao in the voting was a bit of a weird one, though.
Francesco Totti
“Totti has a genius in him that I don’t see in other players. Not even Zizou has the same kind of intuition,” says three-time Ballon d’Or winner Michel Platini.
Some statement, that. But a generation that grew up watching Serie A in the late 90s and noughties will recognise exactly what he means.
There was a logic to Totti missing out, though. A club like Roma never really gave him the platform to compete for it. He never once played in a Champions League semi-final, for example.
You imagine the story might’ve been quite different had he returned Florentino Perez’s calls and gone to Real Madrid, but that would’ve ruined the mystique of one of the great one-club careers.
Looking back, you could certainly make a case that he’d have been a worthy winner ahead of Michael Owen in 2001. That season Totti inspired the Giallorossi to the Scudetto, operating wonderfully as a playmaker. He only finished fifth that year.
Roy Keane
Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo were the only Manchester United players to make the podium over the course of Sir Alex Ferguson’s imperial era of English football dominance.
That leaves a lot of immensely successful footballers who didn’t quite make it, from Peter Schmeichel to Paul Scholes to Nemanja Vidic to Robin Van Persie. But the one name we couldn’t look past is the 1998-99 treble-winning captain.
“Sixth!?” Keane responded when informed that was the highest he ever finished in the voting on the Stick To Football podcast.
“Me coming sixth makes it a bit of a joke, doesn’t it?”
Wayne Rooney
Alright, we couldn’t look past Rooney either.
Manchester United’s all-time top goalscorer, Rooney won five Premier League titles, one FA Cup, three League Cups and the Champions League – and played in another two finals.
He didn’t quite hit the heights, or boast the longevity, of his old team-mate Ronaldo – but then again who did? Rooney nevertheless sustained a very high level for well over a decade.
Then again, he never won a Premier League Golden Boot either. Maybe his peaks just weren’t as spectacular as they threatened to be when he burst onto the scene as a teenager?
Andrea Pirlo
The Italian never made it onto the Ballon d’Or podium, but he was recognised by organisers France Football back in 2020 in their all-time, all-star ‘dream team’ alongside the likes of Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho, Carlos Alberto and Zinedine Zidane.
Not a bad team, that.
The kicker? That was the ‘Second Team’. Pirlo couldn’t quite usurp Xavi, Lothar Matthaus, Pele or Diego Maradona at the top table.
Arjen Robben
“The fact that Arjen Robben failed to make the top three was a shame,” declared former chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, a two-time Ballon d’Or winner himself, in 2014.
“It’s barely possible to play better than he has in the last year and a half.”
Robben and Franck Ribery were the two leading lights of Bayern’s historic 2012-13 treble, but only the latter was recognised on the Ballon d’Or podium.
Ronaldo and Messi, as they invariably did back then, finished first and second respectively.
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