This year's Ballon d’Or was very much unpredictable. With Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, and Van Vidjk on the list, it became more difficult to guess right whom the winner would be. In the history of football, as far as I know, there has never emerged a Ballon d’Or winner without the champions league victory. Going back, I don’t seem to have seen any except if I missed it while counting, (It’s possible). This years’ decision was totally different.
Van Dijk won the champions league with Liverpool, premiership runner up with Liverpool, National league runner up with Netherlands
Ronaldo won the Serie A with Juventus, won the National league cup with Portugal
Messi won the Laliga, with Barcelona
Apart from the titles won by these players, they all played different roles and have their individual performances.
Van Dijk is the rock at the Liverpool defense.
Messi and Ronaldo are super goal scorers
There are some defensive records that Van broke. He has the highest won duels this season, and the only man to play more than 1,000 minutes in Europe's top five leagues last season without being dribbled past. He played 3,385 minutes in one season, only missing the final 35 minutes of a 3-0 win over former side Southampton in September with an injury. He played more passes than any other defender – (more than 3,000 passes) with a 90% success rate.
Congrats to Messi.