Ballon d’Or Betting – Who Is Going to Win?

Check out the list of the 30 best football players of 2016. Who do you think deserves the prize the most?

The list of the 30 candidates for this year’s Ballon d’Or betting sites has been released and it consists of some obvious names as well as some rather surprising ones. However, some things become quite obvious upon checking out these names: La Liga is by far the best league with the best players: almost half of the candidates play for a Spanish team. 13 out of 30, to be precise. Online sportsbooks already have a clear favourite, but there can always be surprise…let’s see which players have a chance to win!

The list includes 6 players from Real Madrid (Pepe, Modric, Bale, Kroos, Ramos and Ronaldo), 4 from Barcelona (Iniesta, Neymar, Suárez and Messi) and 3 from Atletico Madrid (Koke, Godín and Griezmann). Premier League seems to be the second best league as 8 layers are represented: Agüero and De Bruyne from Man City, Ibra and Pogba from United, Mahrez and Vardy from Leicester, Payet from West Ham and Lloris from Tottenham.

Juventus and Bayern Munich also had quite a season; they have 3 and 4 candidates respectively: Dybala, Higuaín and Buffon from Juventus, while Bayern’s best players were Lewandowski, Neuer, Müller and Vidal. Dortmund’s Aubameyang also represents Bundesliga, and Sporting’s Rui Patricio is the only representative of the Portuguese league. One of these world class footballers will be Ballon d’Or winner in January.

Why Cristiano deserves the prize

Cristiano Ronaldo is by far the most likely candidate at Golden Ball winner betting, according to online betting news in the EU. His odds for becoming Ballon d’Or winner are 1.13 (2/15) at Betfair. Not without a merit! The Portuguese crack had an outstanding season once again.

Cristiano Ronaldo won the Champions League with Real Madrid and he also became Euro 2016 champions with Portugal. He scored 16 goals in the club tournament – which would be a record if he didn’t score 17 2 seasons earlier. He also scored 35 goals in La Liga which was only topped by Luis Suárez. After such an impressive season, Cristiano Ronaldo has good chances of becoming Ballon d’Or winner for the 4th time.

Why Griezmann deserves the prize

The Atletico Madrid striker had a terrific season – despite the fact that he lost all the important finals because there was someone much better than him. However, he led Atletico to Champions League final only to lose to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid on penalties. In addition, he also led France to Euro 2016 final – only to lose to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal on extra time. Easing the pain, apart from being runner-up at Euro 2016, he was also the top scorer of the tournament.

He also claimed a bronze medal for Atlético in La Liga and was a key member of that achievement: Antoinne Griezmann scored 22 league goals, however, Barcelona and Real Madrid strikers were more effective than him: Neymar, Benzema, Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez scored 24-24, 26, 35 and 40 respectively. Griezmann’s odds to win Ballon d’Or are 9.00 (8/1) at Coral Sportsbook.

Why Messi deserves the prize

I have no idea. His most shocking performances this year happened at the hairdresser and not on the football field. He has been playing in superb form again since September, but at Ballon d’Or betting, we must consider the entire year. And Messi failed at the vast majority of this period.

He won La Liga and Copa del Rey with Barcelona, but that’s hardly worth enough to make you favourite for Ballon d’Or betting. Barcelona got knocked out in the Champions League by Atletico de Madrid in the Quarter-finals. In addition, Messi also played in the Copa América where his team got to the finals, only to lose to Chile on penalties.

Messi missed his one, and after the game he gave up on the Albiceleste (a decision which he soon revoke) as a way of expressing his disappointment. Is that the attitude of a winner? Messi might be favourite at online sportsbooks in Spain as he always is, but he is definitely not the one who deserves the prize this year. The odds for Messi’s triumph are 8.00 (7/1) at Paddy Power and 7.00 (6/1) at BetVictor.