Neymar, Wayne Rooney & the top 10 greatest players to never win the Ballon d'Or - ranked

Indeed, only six players in history have won more trophies than Zlatan Ibrahimovic, which is a testament to his insatiable hunger for victory and longevity at the highest level. The indomitable striker won 11 league titles in four different countries, and he is third in the list of the highest scoring players this century behind Messi and Ronaldo, with 62 of his goals coming at international level with an unfancied Sweden team.

Despite all of that, Ibrahimovic's highest finish in the Ballon d'Or voting was only fourth, which he managed at PSG in 2014. The former Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona, AC Milan and Manchester United striker's failure to win the Champions League, or even reach the final, always counted against him, but he did still find the net 48 times across 124 appearances, and is the only player to ever score for six different clubs in the competition.

Ibrahimovic was also a maverick with a penchant for the spectacular. He made the impossible possible and had a larger-than-life personality that made him pure box office. There were plenty of other contenders for the final spot on the list, including Francesco Totti, Dennis Bergkamp, Alessandro Del Piero, Roberto Carlos, Samuel Eto'o, and Gianluigi Buffon, but Ibrahimovic gets the nod for being a one-of-a-kind genius who set incredible standards of consistency.

Raul Gonzalez is regarded as one of the finest players to ever wear the iconic Real Madrid shirt, having scored 228 goals in 550 appearances for the club between 1994 and 2010. The Spanish centre-forward was a deadly finisher with both feet and had unrivalled instincts in and around the box, which were invaluable to Madrid during their runs to Champions League glory in 1997-98, 1999-2000 and 2001-02.

Real also amassed six La Liga titles with Raul leading the line, including when he was at the peak of his powers in the 2000-21 season. He won the Golden Boot with 24 goals and also finished as top scorer in the Champions League, but narrowly missed out on the 2021 Ballon d'Or to Liverpool frontman Michael Owen.

Owen was acknowledged for firing Liverpool to an FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup treble, but only hit 24 goals in all competitions compared to Raul's 32. The Real icon, who also racked up 102 appearances and 44 career goals for Spain, was the best player in Europe that year. It could also be argued that Raul didn't always get his due credit in Madrid's Galactico era, despite his quality in the final third never wavering and his underrated leadership skills as captain.

Only one defender was worthy of a place in these rankings: the elegant, unflappable AC Milan and Italy legend Paolo Maldini. Il Capitano was an expert reader of the game with remarkable stamina and strength, which meant he rarely came off second best in one-v-one situations, and he was versatile enough to operate as both a centre-back and left-back.

“There are great players and there are world-class players. Then there are those who manage to go beyond that term. Paolo is the perfect example," former Italy international Del Piero once said in what was also a "perfect" assessment of Maldini. There has never been a more complete defender, and probably never will be.

Maldini's career achievements back that up, with five Champions League crowns and seven Serie A titles amassed across his 25-year stint at Milan, while he also earned runners-up medals with Italy at both the World Cup and European Championship. Few players have left a bigger imprint on the game than Maldini, and he should really have claimed multiple Ballons d'Or, but incredibly, he only made it onto the podium once, on the back of a masterclass in Milan's 2003 Champions League final win over Juventus.

Xavi Hernandez was the heartbeat of the greatest club and international sides ever, a masterful deep-lying playmaker who was always one step ahead of everyone else on the pitch. The diminutive midfielder won the Champions League four times and La Liga on eight occasions during his 17-year career at Barcelona, while also leading Spain to back-to-back European Championships and the World Cup.

Between 2009 and 2012, Barca and Spain were both unstoppable, and Xavi came third in the Ballon d'Or voting in each of those years behind overall winner Messi. The Argentine prevailed through the strength of his insane number of goal contributions and individual flair, but Xavi was unfortunate not to finish above his Barca team-mate at least once.

Xavi's work in the middle of the park was never anything less than immaculate, and without him controlling the tempo of games, Barca would not have been nearly so dominant, but it went under the radar. As a team player, Xavi had no equal. As former Spain and Man Utd midfielder Ander Herrera said in a fitting tribute to Xavi after his departure from Barca in 2015: "There won’t be another player like him. The style of Barcelona and the national team was forged through him."

Unlike Xavi, Luis Suarez never made it into the Ballon d'Or's top three, which is one of the great injustices in the history of the award. There was certainly not a more electrifying, unpredictable player to watch in the 2010s, which saw Suarez become a cult hero at Liverpool before forming one third of the famed 'MSN' attacking trio at Barca alongside Messi and Neymar.

The Uruguay striker very nearly inspired Liverpool to their first Premier League title in 2013-14, scoring what was then a record single-season haul of 31 goals, but amazingly, didn't even make the final 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d'Or. However, Suarez probably would have been right in the mix with first-place Ronaldo and runner-up Messi had he not been hit with a four-month ban for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup.

That was just one of many controversial incidents that overshadowed Suarez's exploits on the pitch, but he cleaned up his act somewhat after joining Barca that summer, and reached an even higher level. Suarez notched 25 goals in his debut season at Camp Nou as Barca won the treble before plundering a staggering 59 across all competitions the following year to cement his status as the most deadly centre-forward on the planet. Defenders couldn't lay a glove on Suarez when he was firing on all cylinders, and his breath-taking performances warranted Ballon d'Or recognition, but like everyone else at Barca, he just couldn't quite get out of Messi's shadow.

Robert Lewandowski should have two Ballons d'Or to his name. The prolific Pole was the heavy favourite for the award in 2020 after a 55-goal season for Bayern Munich that ended in Champions League, Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal glory, only to see his coronation cruelly cancelled by France Football due to the coronavirus pandemic, and he finished second to Messi the following year despite recording 62 goals in all competitions, 24 more than the Barca legend.

He's been a genuine contender for the Ballon d'Or many other times, too, because his goal output has always been so high. At Bayern, Lewandowski scored 30 or more Bundesliga goals in five of his eight seasons, and he hit the 20 mark in three of his four years at Borussia Dortmund before that. He's shown no sign of slowing down since joining Barca at the ripe old age of 33 in 2022 either, adding another 101 goals to his CV in just 147 matches.

As if all of that wasn't enough, he's also Poland's all-time top goalscorer with 85 from 158 appearances. Lewandowski perfected the art of being in the right place at the right time long ago, and he possesses a ruthless streak that sets him apart from his peers. He is thus on course to go down as the greatest striker to never win the Ballon d'Or, but if he powers Barca to their first Champions League crown since 2015 this season, the 36-year-old could still get that monkey off his back.

Unlike Suarez, Neymar might have eventually replaced Messi as Barca's talisman, had he not chased riches and an easier ride when joining PSG for a world-record €222 million fee in 2017. A true generational talent who effortlessly glided past opponents and always stayed ice cool under pressure, Neymar recorded a combined 181 goals and assists in 186 appearances for Barca en route to winning eight trophies.

Neymar was third in the Ballon d'Or rankings in both 2015 and 2017, but did not get close to holding the Golden Ball again after making the switch to France. Although the Santos academy graduate still put up insane numbers at the Parc des Princes, a lack of competition for PSG in Ligue 1 hurt him, and chronic injuries began to derail his career as questions were also asked of his party lifestyle away from the pitch.

There have still been glimpses of the best Neymar, most notably in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals when he scored an unbelievable solo goal against Croatia, and he overtook Pelé as Brazil's all-time top goalscorer the following year. But there is an overriding feeling that Neymar wasted his prime years. If he'd taken better decisions and been more focused, Neymar could have been a Hall of Famer.

In 2017, Robbie Savage described Wayne Rooney as "the most under-appreciated footballer we have seen in English football" on BBC Radio Five Live, which is as accurate today as it was then. From the moment he burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old at Everton, Rooney had to deal with unfair expectations, but somehow managed to exceed them time and time again. 

After just two full seasons in the Everton senior team, he made England's Euro 2024 squad and lit up the tournament with his technical prowess and physicality, which convinced Man Utd to fork out £27m for his services. Rooney then went on to become a five-time Premier League winner and United's record scorer with 253 goals. He set up another 142 for good measure while also lifting the Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League, and took in a stint as England captain between 2014 and 2017. 

Amazingly, all of that was only enough to get him to fifth in the Ballon d'Or voting, which he managed in 2011. For whatever reason, Rooney was a constant target for critics whenever things went wrong for club or country, and that held him back from Golden Ball contention. But at his very best, Rooney was an outstanding player with an insatiable winning appetite, and his highlight reel is unmatched. From his 25-yard piledriver against Newcastle to that overhead kick in the Manchester derby, Rooney gave us so many unforgettable moments and at the very least, should be considered the best player England has ever produced.

So many great players have graced the Premier League down the years, from Alan Shearer and Eric Cantona to Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, and in more recent times, Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah, but one man stands above all the rest: Thierry Henry. The Arsenal icon was the definition of poetry in motion, a true artist who was impossible to stop in full flow.

Signed from Juventus for just £11m in 1999, Henry went on to repay that fee tenfold by scoring 226 goals in an Arsenal shirt, winning the Premier League Golden Boot a joint-record four times, and making the UEFA team of the year four seasons in a row. He was the inspirational leader in the most successful period of the Gunners' entire history, with two league titles and three FA Cups collected between 2001 and 2005.

Henry could win games single-handedly with his devastating dribbling and finishing abilities, but was also a masterful creator, as evidenced by the fact that he is still one of only two players to have ever recorded 20 assists in a single Premier League season. That came in 2002-03 as Henry produced one of the finest individual seasons of all time, complete with 32 goals in all competitions, and yet it was somehow only enough for second in the Ballon d'Or reckoning behind Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved.

Arsenal fans were blessed to witness Henry's peak years, but he became a Champions League winner after leaving for Barcelona, completing Pep Guardiola's awesome attack alongside Messi and Eto'o. Henry tasted World Cup and European Championship glory with France, too, scoring 51 goals for his country in 123 games. 

"The press often ask me about Messi and Ronaldo and who is the best, but for me something is very clear: Andres Iniesta is the No.1," David Silva said of his Spain team-mate back in 2012. "I can see that he is able to do even more difficult things on the pitch. Andres is magic with the ball." That was a bold statement that few fans would agree with, but from a purely technical standpoint, it rings true. 

Iniesta was a supreme midfield dictator with unrivalled control and composure on the ball. Despite his short stature and slight physique, he made opponents dance to his tune even when under extreme pressure, simply with a drop of the shoulder or playing a give-and-go that mere mortals would blink and miss.

Unlike his long-time engine room partner Xavi, Iniesta was also decisive in the final third, usually with assists, but he also popped up with goals at the most vital moments, including against Chelsea in the 2008-09 Champions League semi-finals, and in Spain's 2010 World Cup final clash with the Netherlands. In fact, Iniesta practically dragged La Roja to the latter trophy after extra time, and deserved the bonus of a maiden Ballon d'Or.

In the end, he had to be content with second behind Messi, and also came third two years later after Spain's successful Euros defence. However, in 2018, France Football issued an apology to Iniesta, calling his absence from the list of Golden Ball winners a "democratic anomaly".

Iniesta didn't need the award to confirm his status among the best in history, though. He was always beloved by footballing purists, including Guardiola. "Andrés is one of the greats because of his mastery of the relationship between space and time," he said. "Even in a midfield where he’s surrounded by countless players, he chooses the right path every time. Andrés doesn’t only have the ability to see everything, to know what to do, but also the talent to execute it; he’s able to break through those lines. He sees it and does it."