Ballon d'Or: 5 Players That Would Have Won If Messi And Ronaldo Didn't Exist

4. Andreas Iniesta - Barcelona

World Cup winner, European Cup winner (twice) and Champions League winner (also twice) Andres Iniesta is one of the other players to have fell into that 'third place' category. The Spaniard may not have been helped by the fact the winner of each of those awards was his club team mate and friend Lionel Messi. The 29-year-old is still considered to be one of the greatest midfielders of all time, as well as one of the best footballers of his generation, but similar to Ribery, may never win the award now due to his age, which is another crying shame. The highlight of his career undoubtedly came in 2010, when he scored the winning goal in the World Cup final against Holland to claim Spain's first ever World Cup. He was also named Man of the Match. Two years later, he was named best player of EURO 2012. but ever since then, his career hasn't been glittering enough to hold a prolific title such as best player in the world, despite many thinking that 2013 has been a quiet one for Iniesta. He "only" won the La Liga title and the Spanish Supercopa.