For some, the European Footballer of the Year accolade is merely a trinket on the wider quest for the game's richest team prizes. For others, it represents the culmination of a season or even a career's worth of consistency.

Often in the recent past, the Ballon d'Or has been a great announcement to the world stage, occasionally accompanied by the FIFA World Player of the Year title. While for others, it provoked only the response of 'it's about time' from their loyal band of followers, satisfied with the recogintion finally coming the way of 'their man'.

Some winners have gone on to wrack up the team and individual honours in the years after their collection of the Golden Ball, while others have faded far from the reckoning.

Success on the field however, is not a prerequisite of attaining the honour bestowed on the continent's best individual by France Football magazine, but it evidently helps. It is no coincidence that all but one of the previous ten winners were champions of one competiton or another in the year they received the award.

The last ten seasons have produced ten different winners, who were at varying ends of the career spectrum when taking the gongs. As another set of contenders do battle for the continent's top honour, it is worth examining the legacy of a decade's worth of champions.

So what makes a winner?

Zinedine Zidane: A Statement Of Intent (1998)

A trend of the Ballon d'Or delegation has been to choose, in international tournament years, a player representing the winning side. It proved in 1998, when France Football selected 'Zizou' as its champion after his two-goal salvo fired les Bleus to World Cup glory over Brazil. That year, Zidane also claimed a Serie A title with Juventus and was a runner-up in the Champions League to Real Madrid, a club with whom he eventually won the trophy. He also went on to claim a slew of individual honours, including no fewer than three FIFA World Player of the Year Awards, a record he shares with only Ronaldo.

Rivaldo: A Golden Year (1999)

International tournaments, of course, occur on 'odd-years' in South America, and it was Brazil who prevailed in the 1999 edition of the Copa América, with Rivaldo to the fore. His five strikes helped the Seleçao to victory, and he netted in each of the knockout games, with a brace in the final. 1999 was arguably the pinnacle of the bow-legged playmaker's career; he claimed the FIFA World Player of the Year award and was roundly regarded as the best individual talent on the globe. A lull folllowed his triumph, with the 2002 World Cup victory illuminating the latter stages of Rivaldo's journey downwards. After three lucrative and successful with Olympiakos and a season with AEK Athens, the 36-year-old is currently making the big-bucks in Uzbekistan with Bunyodkor.

Luis Figo: By A Hair's Breadth (2000)

After the turn of the millennium, we were treated to one of the closest Ballon d'Or races of recent times, when Luis Figo pipped Zidane by the narrowest of point margins. Figo left Barcelona amid acrimony and wound up as a 'Galactico' at Real Madrid during the summer of 2000, and he saw out a successful spell at the Bernabeu with two Liga titles and a Champions League, among other titles. Unique among the list of winners, Figo was part of no team that claimed on-field rewards during the year his award was bestowed, but claimed the FIFA World Player of the Year accolade the following season, as well as a La Liga title. Now working with compatriot José Mourinho at Inter, a club at which he has continued to accrue honours well into his mid 30s.

Michael Owen: Unfulfilled Promise (2001)

The surprise winner of the 2001 edition of the Ballon d'Or was Liverpool's Michael Owen, a player who claimed a club treble of sorts that season. His goals fired the Reds to FA Cup and League Cup success, and he also won his only European honour by clinching the UEFA Cup in a thriller against Alaves. Since then, it can be argued that things have gone off the boil for the one-time golden boy. After bursting onto the scene at the 1998 World Cup, Owen was tipped for superstardom. However, he left Liverpool for an unhappy spell at Real Madrid a summer before the Reds won the Champions League and has been since ravaged by injury. Currently, he cannot get a game for England and has featured as captain in fits and bursts for lowly Newcastle United.

Ronaldo: Back On Top Of The World (2002)

There could not have been one begrudger when Ronaldo was awarded the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year accolades in the year that Brazil took the World Cup by virtue of their attacking trident, which was comprised of the Phenomenon, Rivaldo and the emerging Ronaldinho. Even though Ronnie played only 60 matches at club level across the two seasons that encompassed 2002, he netted 37 times and formally announced himself back on the global stage after a series of debilitating injuries. The individual honour was recognition for the hard work the 32-year-old put in, the patience he showed and ultimately the joy he inspired when he took to the field again. Perhaps typical of a striker of his gluttony, Ronaldo's individual achievements far outstrip those of any team of which he was part. After leaving Madrid fat and unhappy, Milan beckoned, where injury cruelly struck again. Alas, he still has not recovered and languishes in his home land, unbelievably waiting for a team to take a chance on him.

Pavel Nedved: Scant Consolation (2003)

Quite simply, in 2003, Pavel Nedved was untouchable. He was the driving force behind a Juventus side that claimed a second successive Scudetto, he was Serie A's Footballer of the Year and the UEFA Champions League Player of the Season. However, he would have swapped it all for the one chance he did not get. Booked in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, Nedved was forced to sit out the final as Milan claimed the spoils in a game that cried out for his urgency. It was a devestating blow for the Czech midfielder, who nonetheless maintained his levels of consistency thereafter. Fiercely loyal to Juve, he stayed with the team throughout Calciopoli to add a Serie B medal to his collection and now, even in his advancing years, is still playing a key role in Claudio Ranieri's side.

Andriy Shevchenko: Still Falling (2004)

The Ballon d'Or is by no means a kiss of death to a career, but it has preceded some inglorious falls from grace, none more so apparent than Andriy Shevchenko. After shooting Milan to their first Scudetto of the decade and sitting top of the Serie A scoring charts in 2004, it's been nothing but a downward slide for Sheva. The 2005 Champions League final seemed to mark the beginning of the end for the ex-Dynamo Kyiv man, when he missed a last gasp sitter and the crucial spot kick that handed the tie to Liverpool. An ill-judged transfer to Chelsea followed and took him out of his comfort zone, and Sheva has yet to recover his composure. The 32-year-old looks a world away from the player who claimed the spoils in 2004.

Ronaldinho: Over The Hill? (2005)

Question marks still hang around 'Dinho's neck like the extravagently bling R10 chain that festoons the Brazilian himself. Is he finished? Is he lazy? Is the hunger there any more? Is he still clubbing? Difficult it may be for anybody, in any walk of life, to maintain focus and eagerness once all one's career aspirations are reached by the age of 27. The 2005 Ballon d'Or was handed to the toothy South American at the end of a year that saw him absolutely in his pomp. A second consecutive FIFA World Player of the Year award, the first of two consecutive Liga titles and a Confederation Cup with Brazil all helped little Ronnie to the top of the pile. He followed the successes with a Champions League for good measure in 2006, to go along with the two Copa Americas and the one World Cup he already had won with the national side. His credentials have taken a serious battering since then however, and at one stage last season, he couldn't even merit a place on the Barcelona bench. The signs are encouraging for the start of his Milan career however, but is it possible to once again hit the heights? Or is his foot terminally off the gas?

Fabio Cannavaro: Dramatic Decline (2006)

The summer of 2006 shaped up as a disaster-in-waiting for Italian football. La Nazionale, away at the World Cup, went on lock-down as the fever of Calciopoli took hold at home. Incredibly, the team managed to forge a steely determination and togetherness and reap the top reward from an engaging and entertaining competiton. Gianluigi Buffon, the runner up in the Ballon d'Or stakes, was always going to struggle as he was a goalkeeper, so it was left to the team's captain Fabio Cannavaro to take the plaudits, impressive still for a centre-back. Canna was no doubt the best defender at the tournament, in which only a penalty and own goal were conceded by the Azzurri, and he had just helped Juventus to an ultimately 'tainted' Scudetto. He followed the World Cup with a move to Spain and Real Madrid, where he has continued to wrack up the honours, but individually was far from convincing, and even a weak link at times. His decline after winning the award was faster than any other, but had nothing to do with motivation, moreover, it had everything to do simply with the end of a cycle.

Kaka: Champions League Class (2007)

There is no doubt that Kaka was the top individual world performer in 2007; a touch of his class allowed Milan to wreak vengeance on Liverpool in the Champions League final, a tournament in which Kaka excelled all season long; from attacking midfield, he claimed the tournament's top scorer award with ten strikes. FIFA also acknowledged his supremecy by lauding the 26-year-old with the World Player of the Year gong. The pretenders to his title this year, namely Messi and Ronaldo, were not fit to lace his boots this time last season, but a spell on the sidelines has left the modest Brazilian on the fringes of things this time around as the pair battle it out in his absence. It would be premature and erroneous to suggest that Kaka has lost appetite or ability since his injury, and it would be a poor soul who backs him not to reclaim the spoils on another occasion.

2008 ?

Bunyodkor, Newcastle United, a training pitch in Rio and the Milan reserves may not be the most likley places to find the recipients of one of the game's most prestigious baubles, but those locations can serve as a warning to the incoming that there is always work to be done.

It is justifiable to say that for some, decline is the natural progression that comes with aging bodies and minds. However, segnor Cannavaro was older than both Owen and Shevchenko are now by the time his moment came.

It may be a question of peak; it is a common mistake by pundits to describe as the best in the world those players who went out at the height of their powers. Michael Owen and Andriy Shevchenko may be cursed as has-beens simply because they peaked too soon, whereas somebody like Nedved, with unerring consistency, has never wavered or waned and held his own among the elite.

Ronaldo's tale is another to tell; it is said that any individual makes his own luck, but it is heart-wrenching to think what might have been for the Phenomenon had he not suffered injuries that have befallen him. As it is, there are still sceptics who think the all-time World Cup top-scorer has something to prove; worse still, there is a generation of supporters who refer to this guy as merely the 'other Ronaldo.'

A footballer's career can go any number of ways, at any number of times, but the Ballon d'Or, for the very best, is only a pat on the back along the path to potential greatness; it guarantees nothing but the recognition that you played better than the rest for one year and one year only.

It is unfair and inaccurate to suggest that the Ballon d'Or is the first beat on the snare of a deathmarch to a career, but take heed, contenders, of this salutary caveat: you are only as good as your last season.

Peter Staunton, Goal.com

 

Cristiano Ronaldo will win 3-4 more Ballon d'Ors during his career, whether he stays at Man U, goes to Real, whatever (given he stays healthy). The ORIGINAL Ronaldo would have been one of the best ever had his knees held up.

I think Sheva's decline was more from the move to Chelsea than anything. He was a round peg for a square hole. Kaka will be a top player for years to come too. The one who will challenge C Ron for the accolades will be Messi. Imagine a side with Messi and Ronaldo in the attack? Wow...

 

Ronaldo's agent offered him to Barca after the World Cup incident that caused Chistiano to be a target in England Barca declined thinking they would get Henry that summer. But I'm glad he didn't come I believe too much of a good thing is bad