The seven who could be king

WHO WILL DOMINATE THE BALLON D’OR AFTER MESSI AND RONALDO?

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 50th career hattrick with a four-goal haul against Girona last Sunday to put him on 22 goals for the season just three goals behind Barcelona’s Lionel Messi in the race for the Pichichi — Spain’s top scorer’s award. But it was the heroics of Liverpool’s Mohammad Salah in his quadruple strike against Watford last Saturday that stole the limelight, which gets us thinking. Messi and Ronaldo have shared the Ballon d’Or for the past decade with five titles apiece, but they are not getting any younger and their dominance will soon wane. Here, spurred by Salah’s watershed moment against Watford, we run the rule over others who along with the Egyptian could take over the mantle of the top two in years to come. We know what you’re thinking, there’s no Neymar, Philippe Coutinho or Paul Pogba (to name but a few), but we’re looking at younger, less obvious players who haven’t yet reached their ceiling, rather than those who are peaking in the same generation as Messi and Ronaldo — those who are just one more big move away from it all clicking into place (with the exception of Marco Asensio who is already waiting in the wings at Real). The players Real and Barca can confidently spend big on to fill Messi and Ronaldo shaped holes in the coming years without worrying that they are already past their best.