Modric plays second fiddle to Ronaldo no more

Well done, Luka Modric, for bringing about a much-needed change in the world of top individual footballing honours. He did the impossible this week by ending a two-man stranglehold on the Ballon d’Or, the biggest accolade a player can receive.

I’ve got nothing against Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, but was growing tired of seeing their faces alongside that nice trophy in all of the previous 10 editions.

In fact, the pair’s dominance has been so overwhelming that they had shared the top two steps of the Ballon d’Or podium in no fewer than nine of the previous 10 editions.

In 2010 Andres Iniesta man- aged to sneak into second, ahead of Ronaldo, but behind Messi.

And he “only” scored the winner in extra time of the World Cup final and won a gazillion trophies with Barcelona.

That puts Modric’s feat in perspective.

Last season, Ronaldo dominated the scoring charts during the knockout stages of the Champions League, setting goal records left, right and centre.

He has, in fact, done less on some of the occasions he did win the Ballon d’Or in the past.

Messi also did what he usually does. He scored heaps of goals for Barcelona in their run to more domestic silverware and also featured strongly in the early stages of the Champions League.

But enter Modric, who was no stranger to success before leading Croatia’s fairytale run to the World Cup final this year.

He was, incidentally, by Ronaldo’s side when the Portuguese star won all four of his Ballon d’Or titles at Real Madrid.

And the Croatian might not hold the same kind of stardom or have the same following in the world of football, but he sipped from the very same bubbly as Ronaldo in annexing four Champions League titles in five seasons.

Even after winning the Golden Ball as the most valuable player at the World Cup, it was still not a given that the diminutive Modric would take the Ballon d’Or.

Remember in 2014, when the sulking Messi was awarded the Golden Ball after losing the World Cup final to Germany? The Argentine still had to watch Ronaldo walk away with the biggest accolade of all at the end of that year.

But in the end Modric ran out comfortable winner of the Ballon ahead of Ronaldo, with another podium rookie, Antoine Griezmann, rounding off the top step and relegating Messi from the medals for the first time in a dozen years, which is quite amazing.

Not for one second am I implying that Ronaldo, who is now 33, and 31-year-old Messi’s days are numbered. In fact, this might just spur them on to try even harder to go past five titles towards the twilight of their careers.

Nothing would give either one of these two great rivals more satisfaction than to finish their careers with more Ballon titles than the other.

But Modric deserves all the accolades this time and now the stranglehold has been broken, who knows? Maybe the floodgates to future Ballon titles might open up as well.