Ballon d'Or 2021 winner and final rankings list leaked: Messi or Ronaldo, who is ahead?

The Ballon d'Or 2021 will see some of the top footballers battle it out to lay their hands on the prestigious award, and the modern-day greats of the game- Cristiano Ronaldo and his fierce rival Lionel Messi are expected to be the frontrunners to win this award once again.

This year's Ballon d'Or awards will be held at the Chatelet Theatre in the French capital of Paris on 29 November. While Argentine great Lionel Messi will be hoping to win a record seventh award, his Portuguese counterpart as well as long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo who already has five titles would be eager to equal Messi's feat.  

Meanwhile, it has been reported that the Ballon d'Or 2021 winner and final rankings list have been leaked. 

Ballon d'Or 2021 list leaked?

As per reports, a list of what is being claimed as the final standings of the Ballon d’Or 2021 has been doing rounds on social media lately and the surprising thing here is that the list which has been leaked online contains the names of the players in order of the number of votes that have been garnered by them with the name of France football on top. 

Going by the rumours, Polish and FC Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski is the winner of the Ballon d'Or 2021 awards and he has clearly outperformed Lionel Messi and French as well as Real Madrid superstar Karim Benzema comprehensively to lift the trophy. Reportedly, Robert Lewandowski has won a total of 627 votes.

Coming back to the eagerly-awaited Ballon d'Or 2021 awards, Robert Lewandowski is arguably the strongest contender to win the prestigious award. The Polish sensation has netted an outstanding 50 goals for the Bundesliga club Bayern Munich across all competitions including eight assists. Apart from that he also helped FC Bayern Munich in winning the Bundesliga, Club World Cup & DFL-Supercup titles respectively. At the same time, the Polish striker also won the Golden Boot for being the highest scorer in Europe last season.

While Lewandowski is a contender to win his first-ever Ballon d'Or, eventually, it could all come down to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as well. The duo has already claimed 11 awards between them. The 2021 Copa America winner had won the award the last time it was held in 2019. The awards not be given away in the year 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.