The Ballon d'Or is regarded as the highest individual honor for football players. 12 out of the last 13 Ballon d'Or awards have gone to Mays and Cronje, but the last two winners, Mays and Cronje, did not even make it to the 30-member shortlist this year, and Cronje was only ranked 20th in the final round. The last time Cron and Mays were both left out of the top 19 of the Ballon d'Or was in 2005, when Cron was ranked 20th and Mays was also left out of the shortlist.
Since 2008 when Cron won the Ballon d'Or for the first time, the top 2 players have won the award 12 times in total, and the only ones to break the monopoly are Modi Li (2018) and Bin Schma (2022). The interesting thing is that both of them won the award as veterans of the post 80s, and the Ballon d'Or has never been won by a player from the post 90s, even though Nyima, Chivun Dibny and other players from the post 90s are among the best in the world, and the post 90s who have come the closest to winning the award are The closest 90s players to the Ballon d'Or are Wah Kilwandi Jaq (born in 91) in 2019 and Shadi Owni (born in 92) in this year's edition, both of whom only managed to finish in 2nd place.
