Neymar leads the race for the 2017 Golden Ball

It is not Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi but Neymar who is leading the race for the 2017 Golden Ball.

According to Bleacher Report, Neymar leads the first quarter of the 2017 Ballon d'Or race. Despite a lackluster first half of the season, Neymar has shone in the second half. Surely, his contribution to Barca's 6-1 win over PSG at Camp Nou will be mentioned many times from now until the end of the year.

“It was the best game I have ever played in my life,” Neymar told Marca after helping Barca stage a stunning comeback at home. Neymar’s brilliance even overshadowed Messi’s performance.

At the national team level, Neymar also helped the Brazilian team win tickets to the 2018 World Cup. To be able to surpass Messi and Ronaldo in the 2017 Ballon d'Or vote, Neymar needs to continue his current form and help Barca win the Champions League as well as La Liga this season.

Meanwhile, Messi is only ranked 2nd after the first 4 months of the 2017 Ballon d'Or race, although he has scored 18 goals in all competitions this year. Messi has maintained a stable performance at Barca, but his career has not been very favorable for the national team.

The 2017 Golden Ball race rankings after the first 4 months of this year.

Argentina are having a tough time in the World Cup qualifiers. They will be without Messi for the next three games, as he is suspended for insulting a linesman. Messi has a huge influence in the Argentina team and there are fears that the Tango team will not be able to qualify for the World Cup without the Barca star.

Bayern Munich's Lewandowski is third in the 2017 Ballon d'Or race. The Polish striker has continued his fearsome scoring form this year with 16 goals in all competitions, including 12 in the Bundesliga. This season, Lewandowski has scored four hat-tricks at club and national team level. If Lewandowski continues his scoring form, Bayern Munich will have a chance to win the Champions League and the Polish player himself will become a strong candidate for the 2017 Ballon d'Or vote.

Luis Suarez ranked 4th in the 2017 Ballon d'Or race after the first 4 months of this year. He also scored 16 goals in all competitions, in addition to making 6 assists. However, Suarez did not have a favorable time in the Uruguay team. He was suspended due to accumulating enough yellow cards in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in South America. Without Suarez, Uruguay suffered a 1-4 defeat to Brazil.

Neymar is expected to break the dominance of Ronaldo and Messi in the race for the Golden Ball.

Antoine Griezmann is fifth with 13 goals this year but what's more impressive is that he has scored those goals in 12 different games for Atletico Madrid. It's clear that Griezmann has regained his scoring instincts after Atletico Madrid suffered a crisis in attack in the first half of the season.

To win the 2017 Ballon d'Or, Griezmann needs to help Atletico Madrid win titles in the Champions League and La Liga. But this is a very difficult challenge for him and coach Diego Simeone's team.

Cristiano Ronaldo is only ranked 6th in the 2017 Ballon d'Or race. This year, the Portuguese star has played quite well, scoring 12 goals and making 5 assists. However, there are times when Ronaldo shows that he is no longer able to maintain his peak form as before. However, Ronaldo can still dream of winning the 2017 Ballon d'Or, if he helps Real Madrid win La Liga and successfully defend the Champions League title.

Neymar and the tight shirt in Barcelona

There are two reasons why neutral fans would want to see Barcelona play. Firstly, they have Leo Messi on the pitch, and Neymar is probably the other reason.

Meanwhile, Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus) is in 11th place, behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Dortmund). Chelsea's N'Golo Kante is in 12th place in the 2017 Ballon d'Or race, while Hazard is only in 14th place.

Since 2016, France Football magazine has ended its cooperation with FIFA in organizing the award ceremony called FIFA Ballon d'Or. That means France Football will again have exclusive rights to organize the Ballon d'Or award as in the past and the voting format will also change, that is, only take votes from sports journalists around the world.

People are still waiting for a name to appear to break the dominance of Ronaldo and Messi in the Ballon d'Or vote. The last player to surpass Messi and Ronaldo to win the Ballon d'Or was Ricardo Kaka (2007).

According to TT&VH