2016 FIFA Balloon d'Or Odds

However you feel about Cristiano Ronaldo, he’s pretty good at this whole footballing thing and with his team winning the 2016 European Championship, he has been thrust even further into the spotlight – if that’s possible.

Ronaldo is now the overwhelming -600 favorite to win the 2016 Balloon d’Or on Sportsbook after putting the finishing touches on Real Madrid’s Champions League victory and “leading” his team to Euro gold. It will be tough for anyone to dethrone CR7 in his quest to capture his fourth Balloon d’Or, as long as he doesn’t suffer a devastating injury in club play.

The great Lionel Messi is +500 to win the award for the second year in a row and for the sixth time in his career. His incipient legal trouble and recent Copa America failure, however, have put his chances in serious jeopardy.

The Argentinian’s Barcelona teammates Luis Suarez and Neymar also made the odds list at +550 and +3300 respectively. The three have produced magic so far in their time together at Camp Nou but have all taken hits to their personal production and did not produce in the Champions League.

To find a player outside of Spain you have to look pretty far down the list until you hit the +3300 mark and stumble upon Paul Pogba and Dimitri Payet. Both players have looked excellent for their clubs and countries but just do not control games like the men at the top of the list do.

Manuel Neuer (+10000) finished third in Balloon d’Or voting in 2014 – probably due to Germany’s World Cup win – and offers significant value in a year Messi has fallen off the map slightly.