Madrid's Modric reveals his favourites to win the Ballon d'Or 2019
The Croatian tips the usual suspects along with a couple of Liverpool stars
Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric is the star of the latest edition of France Football, which is dedicated to the Ballon d'Or 2019. The Croatian features as the winner of last year's award, along with Ada Hegerberg, who claimed the female prize.
Modric broke Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's hegemony over the award after a successful year with Madrid and Croatia. But this year he is not even among the 30 nominees for the prize. The last winner to not even be nominated 12 months later was Marco van Basten, who won it in 1992 but disappeared in 1993.
As for this year's prize, Modric said: "I think it will be difficult, but for me there are four names that stand out: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah. I wish them good luck."
Messi has already won FIFA's The Best and is one of the favourites to win the Ballon d'Or after winning La Liga with Barcelona and claiming the sixth European Golden Shoe of his career. The alternatives are Ronaldo, a Serie A winner with Juventus, and Liverpool's Champions League winner Van Dijk.
As well as Messi, Barça teammates Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Frenkie de Jong and Antoine Griezmann have also been nominated in the male category, while Lieke Martens is up for the women's award.
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