Sports
Modric dedicates Ballon d’Or to Xavi, Iniesta, others
Reigning Ballon d’Or winner, Luka Modric has acknowledged that the duopoly of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo denied some players the opportunity to win the award.
The Real madrid star was crowned the best footballer in the world in Paris on Monday night, and he became the first player other than Messi or Ronaldo to win the award in over a decade.
Victory caps a stellar year for the Croatian, who also was named the world’s top male player at the Best Fifa Football Awards, the UEFA awards and received the Golden Ball award for the best player at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
“Maybe in the past there are some players who could have won the Ballon d’Or like Xavi, Andres Iniesta or [Wesley] Sneijder but people finally now are looking at someone else,” he told BBC after the Gala on Monday.
Read Also: Modric wins the Ballon d’Or, Hegerberg bags historic women’s title; Mbappe voted best u-21
“This award is for all the players who probably deserved to win it and didn’t. It was a really special year for me.
“It is difficult to express my emotion and how I feel in words. It is something unique for me. It was very special,” he said.
Ronaldo came second to Modric, followed by World Cup winners Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe in third and fourth, before Messi in fifth spot.
On receiving the title, Modric described Ronaldo and Messi as “phenomenal players” before appreciating the fact that “To win means I did something really special on the pitch this year, that’s why 2017-18 was the year for me.”
Meanwhile, 23-year-old Norway and Lyon star, Ada Hegerberg was crowned the winner of the first ever Women’s Ballon d’Or, and Mbappe won the first Kopa award for best under 21 player.
RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears
Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...