The Ballon d’Or was a two-horse race for a decade.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s era of dominance, while fully deserved, somewhat removed the excitement around the award, due to its predictable nature.
For a bit of fun, we went back over the last ten years of results to find out what would have happened if, for some weird reason, only midfielders were eligible for the sport’s most prestigious individual prize.
Oh, and this is based on the actual voting from these specific years, not our opinion.
Let’s tinker with history…
2008: Xavi
Actual ranking: 5th
Runners-up: Kaka, Steven Gerrard
Barcelona’s metronome takes the first gong.
Xavi was the beating heart of one of the most dominant teams of the modern era.
Good to see Stevie G on the podium.
2009: Xavi
Actual ranking: 3rd
Runners-up: Andres Iniesta, Kaka
Back-to-back wins for the Catalan passmaster.
Only Messi and Ronaldo received a greater percentage of the votes in 2009, a treble-winning year for Barca.
2010: Andres Iniesta
Actual ranking: 2nd
Runners-up: Xavi, Wesley Sneijder
Xavi letting his mate in on the action.
Iniesta capped off a masterful season by scoring the winner in the World Cup final — a goal he dedicated to the recently departed Espanyol captain Dani Jarque.
Many thought Sneijder should have won the award outright.
The Dutchman led his country to the World Cup final and was instrumental in Inter’s treble.
All these midfielders finished above Ronaldo in the 2010 voting — the Portuguese star only scored 41 goals…
2011: Xavi
Actual ranking: 3rd
Runners-up: Andres Iniesta, Mesut Ozil
Order is restored.
Such is the Barcelona pair’s dominance during this era that it’s more interesting to discuss the third-placed midfielder.
Ozil was dishing out assists to anyone in the same postcode in 2011, as well as reaching a peak in terms of goal return for club and country combined.
2012: Andres Iniesta
Actual ranking: 3rd
Runners-up: Xavi, Andrea Pirlo
Iniesta’s turn again, is it? Sounds about right.
Being the best player in the world after Ronaldo and Messi is a prestigious honour and should be recognised with suitable admiration.
Pirlo a popular choice for the final podium spot.
2013: Franck Ribery
Actual ranking: 3rd
Runners-up: Andres Iniesta, Arjen Robben
Wake up everyone, we’ve got a winner who isn’t Xavi or Iniesta.
And a deserved one too, Ribery inspired Bayern Munich to the treble with a string of electric performances.
His mate on the opposite flank takes the bronze medal despite a campaign blighted by injury.
2014: Arjen Robben
Actual ranking: 4th
Runners-up: James Rodriguez, Toni Kroos
No Barcelona players on the podium at all this time around!
All three benefited from impressive World Cup campaigns but Robben’s return of 21 goals from 45 games for Bayern gave him the edge.
Some would class Robben as a wide forward, and others would say that wingers should not be classed as midfielders, but that’s much of a muchness.
2015: Eden Hazard
Actual ranking: 8th
Runners-up: Andres Iniesta, Yaya Toure
A deserved win for the uber-talented Hazard here but it’s important to note the actual ranking.
Forwards were particularly dominant in 2015, occupying the top six spots, with Manuel Neuer slotting in at 7th.
Iniesta returns while Toure takes third — the Ivorian scored 20 league goals from centre-midfield for Man City in 2013/14.
2016: Riyad Mahrez
Actual ranking: 7th
Runners-up: Paul Pogba, Arturo Vidal
A big shake-up here as Leicester’s miracle sees previous unknown entity Mahrez rocket to the very top.
We should say that if you class Gareth Bale as a midfielder then he would have won in 2016, though we reckon he’s a wide forward.
Pogba and Vidal’s respective form for Juventus and Bayern see them gain retrospective recognition, though it should be noted that both received just 0.24% of the vote…
2017: Luka Modric
Actual ranking: 5th
Runners-up: N’Golo Kante, Isco
A deserved crown for Real Madrid’s cultured Croatian.
Los Blancos’ stranglehold on the Champions League owes a lot to Modric’s temperament, experience and technical ability in the middle of the park.
Kante is the first truly defensive midfielder in this list.
The Frenchman’s inexhaustible engine has won him admirers all over the globe.
2018: Luka Modric
Runners-up: Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne
In a Xavi-esque effort, Modric makes it back-to-back wins
His efforts at the World Cup were reminiscent of Sneijder in 2010 and Rodriguez in 2014.
De Bruyne inspired Man City to a record-breaking title win and just edged out Kante for third spot.