FIFA 18 predicts future Ballon d'Or winners - no place for Mbappe but one random Premier League star wins

For the last 10 years the Ballon d’Or has been shared between just two players; Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have both won it five times in a decade of dominance.

Surely that has to end at some point, right? Well, YouTuber GardieFIFA has used FIFA 18 and rattled on through the seasons to see which players pick up the award each year.

And the results make for some interesting reading.

Using FIFA’s stats and algorithm GardieFIFA was able to predict who will win the Ballon d’Or according to the game’s Career Mode and for the first couple of years Ronaldo takes it again in 2018 and 2019 – at the age of 34 – to leave him with two more awards than Messi. After 2019 neither of them win it again.

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It leaves him with six Ballon d’Ors in seven years and is still one of the best players in the world at that point.

Come 2020 and finally, for the first time in 13 years since Kaka in 2007, someone other Ronaldo or Messi wins the Ballon d’Or and it’s Bayern Munich’s 32-year-old striker Robert Lewandowski. In 2021 a 29-year-old Neymar wins his first Ballon d’Or but perhaps the most surprising thing about that it he is still at PSG.

Antoine Griezmann is the next winner in 2022, another player surprisingly still at his club, Atletico, and 31-years-old at the time and a year later he takes the award again in 2023 to become the first player in three years and the last player until 2013 to win back-to-back Ballon d’Ors.

Here’s where it starts to get interesting as in 2024 it’s Mauro Icardi, 31, who wins the award, and in the last six years he has at some point made the move to Inter Milan to Real Madrid where he picks up the gong. A year later Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus wins the Ballon d’Or, the first player from the Premier League to do so since Ronaldo in 2008.

Next it’s the turn of Paraguayan Antonio Sanabria, now of Real Betis but by 2026 he’s at AC Milan and he’s 30-years-old. He’s the first Paraguayan to ever win the award and the first Serie A player to take it home since Kaka in 2007. In 2027, a 32-year-old Angel Correa wins the award, having moved from Atletico Madrid to cross-town rivals Real at some point.

In 2028 someone called Emiliano Cardozo who plays for Barcelona wins it, but he may well be a regen (potentially Sergio Aguero’s) seeing as he’s rated at 90 by the age of 25. He’s the first Barca player since Messi 13 years previously to win it.

In 2029 another Premier League winner but it’s a random one; centre-back Axel Tuanzebe, who by this point is 32 and has moved from Manchester United. He’s the first defender to win it since Fabio Cannavaro 23 years previously in 2006 and, quite frankly, is the most unlikely name on this entire list.

In 2030 the winner is AC Milan’s 28-year-old Chilean left-winger Sebastian Sebrino, who is obviously Alexis Sanchez’s regen. Finally, in 2031, the last year on FIFA Career More before you are forced to retire, it’s Real Madrid’s 25-year-old striker Leandro Freire who takes the award.

So a lot of South Americans and a lot of players over 30. Crazy.

Full list of the winners:

2019: Cristiano Ronaldo – Real Madrid

2020: Robert Lewandowski – Bayern Munich

2021: Neymar – PSG

2022: Antoine Griezmann – Atletico Madrid

2023: Antoine Griezmann – Atletico Madrid

2024: Mauro Icardi – Real Madrid

2025: Gabriel Jesus – Manchester City

2026: Antonio Sanabria – AC Milan

2027: Angel Correa – Real Madrid

2028: Oscar Cardozo – Barcelona

2029: Axel Tuanzebe – Everton

2030: Sebastian Sebrino – AC Milan

2031: Leandro Freire – Real Madrid