It is the end of an era. After a ten year duopoly, the 2018 Ballon d'Or will be handed to a man other than one of the pair. For the first time since 2009, Messi and Ronaldo will witness someone else lift the most prestigious individual honour in football.
Football is very ungrateful, and when inidivdual prizes turn into popularity contests, it tends to produce cases such as the 2018 Ballon d'Or.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have won the previous ten, five each, but neither will lift their sixth this year. Those who won are undeserving of the award, and in this recent edition, the iconic duo have certainly done more of note than those others and should sit higher than fifth and second.
The voting handed Ronaldo a merited second place. The Portuguese won the Champions League with Madrid, and while he may have languered in the League, Cup and World Cup, has started the current campaign like a tornado.
Something similar happened with Messi. He achieved the double with his club, he shone at the World Cup once more and in this new season, including an injury midway through, he has begun to hit a good rhythm, with 15 goals in 16 games. Yet he has to make do with fifth place.
Messi and Ronaldo will see that, from home (they did not think to attend the ceremony, knowing that they would not win) how the beast that was created around them and the Ballon d'Or, has now turned against them.
This year, in order to win once more, they would have to come through the eye of a storm.
At last, the importance of the World Cup returns. It has undoubtedly been the most favourably considered topic when it comes to our tyrants. Because in 2010 and 2014 it did not seem to count for anything. Iniesta and Xavi watched Messi rob them, and then the Argentine was aggrieved by the marketing campaign that surrounded Ronaldo adding number three of his five Ballon d'Or's.
This edition will not restore justice to the previous unmerited Ballon d'or's, but it will certainly serve as a lesson, and aid us in looking beyond the usual two candidates.