Messi, Ronaldo, Dybala: FIFA 18 predictions for Ballon d'Or wins have aged terribly

The Ballon d’Or can, for the most part, be pretty predictable.

After all, we are talking about an individual prize that has only been won by three different individuals since 2007 with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi romping their way to 12 of the last 13 plaques.

It’s a status quo that makes the next awarding of France Football’s revered accolade a very interesting one because it looks for all intents and purposes as though the duopoly might come to an end for good.

While you can never say never when it comes to the evergreen Ronaldo and Messi, the seemingly inevitable triumph of Karim Benzema could well bookend one of the most astonishing eras in football history.

And that might open the door for great competition and speculation surrounding the potential winners of the most coveted individual prize in the men’s game going forward.

As such, predicting who will win the upcoming editions of the Ballon d’Or right now is far more entertaining than some 2010 commentator listing his forecast as: Messi, Messi, Ronaldo, Messi, Ronaldo, Messi.

Here at GIVEMESPORT, we’ve already chanced our arm by predicting future winners of the prize, so now we’re turning our attention to a fascinating, alternate method in the form of EA Sports’ FIFA video game series.

Using its iconic ‘Career mode’ function, gamers are able to simulate the footballing world into the future and see who the game forecasts to win their equivalent of the Ballon d’Or: Player of the Year.

And back in 2018, YouTuber ‘TheMasterBucks’ tested out this feature by simulating the game all the way until 2029 to see which players FIFA 18 thought would be crowned best in the world each year.

Having amassed more than 500,000 views, it was a fascinating video at the time,