Ballon d'Or winner already aware of triumph

"The news of the winners is made with a simple phone call. The winners have been made aware by me, I phoned them, they asnwered and so they knew, in the most clear way," assured Ferré, in a chat between the magazine and some of its readers. 

As well as the winner of the Men's Ballon d'Or,  he also informed the winner of the female award and the victor of the U21 prize, which will be handed out for the first time this year. 

Ferré divulged that the reaction of the winners was "emotional for the most part."

Cristiano Ronaldo,Luka Modric, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappé and Raphael Varane are the players who received the most votes, and are the selected players to appear on the front page of 'France Football' this week, when the keenly awaited award will be announced.

In the last few weeks, the majority of people are predicting Croatian central midfielder Modric to triumph, thus breaking the hegemony of Cristiano Ronaldo in the last few years. 

That said, many voices are also pointing towards the French World Cup victory in Russia as the best reason for a native to win the award, which has not happened in nearly 20 years, since Zinedine Zidane won the honour. 

"It is the year of the French", as so was claimed this week by Atlético Madrid and France defender Lucas Hernandez.