Should have been Sneijder or Iniesta, but not Messi.
I don't like this favoritism for Cristiano and Messi. Ballon dOr should be for the best performing player for the particular year, not just who is the best one overall.
Ballon d'Or has been ruined since the late 90s honestly but the damage took place some years after.
It's a popularity contest and the worst thing is that thing where NT captains and coaches picked the players as if they had proper exposure and knowledge on these things.
So up until 2007 it was still media hogwash but at least the majority was well informed. After 2007 it just became a manipulated event and a PR stunt and people wanted to get their 15 minutes of media exposure or be in a FOMO situation where the average guy who didn't vote for Messi or Cristiano would get media backlash.
2000 Figo won. Zidane, Totti, Nesta and Schevchenko were the only other worthy candidates.
2001 should have gone to Totti instead of Owen but everyone loved the boy wonder. Raul almost won, too, that year.
2002 shouldn't have gone to Ronaldo, but he should have won 1998. 2002 could have gone to Rivaldo but he was slept on because he had already won in 99 and moved to Milan where he didn't have the impact everyone expected. Zidane also, but didn't play in the WC. Roberto Carlos could have been that guy too.
Vieri deserved mention but he wasn't even listed....
2003 should have been Maldini. Fucktard Nedved was immense but still.
They gave Shevchenko the 2004 because he won the Scudetto but he didn't play in the Euro, nor went far in Europe. It was mostly because they felt he got robbed for a few years.
Deco deserved it but people weren't ready to name him over some other living legends of the time.
Adriano also deserved a shout with his Copa America run.
2005 was between Ronaldinho and Adriano but they had to put in Gerrard and Lampard in the discussion because that's when the PL hype train started.
Shevchenko, Eto'o and Makaay were probably the next in line objectively, at least from forwards.
2006 went to Cannavaro but he only had a great World Cup run, but he wasn't the best player on his team.
Should have been Ronaldinho again, but under that regime it was rare to give players multiple awards. Extremely rare. From 2008 and on, the politics were over and they only kept the media hype going, with almost no critical voting process.
In 2007 Messi did not deserve a top 3 finish behind Kaka and Cristiano imo. That should have gone to Nesta probably, but after the Cannavaro vote, no one would give another center back a chance. And it was a total popularity contest and this was Serie A at its lowest due to Calciopoli despite Milan winning CL and Inter having what was supposed to be the best squad in the world.