Ronaldo, Lukaku, Messi: Who should win the 2021 Ballon d'Or? | OneFootball

Belgium are through to the quarter-finals of Euro 2020 where they will play Roberto Mancini's superb Italy side.

The Red Devils beat Portugal 1-0 last Sunday evening to book their place in the next stage of the tournament, Thorgan Hazard grabbing the only goal of the game in the 42nd-minute.

Belgium's overall performance could certainly be described as 'dogged', with Portugal unlucky not to beat Thibaut Courtois on at least one occasion.

However, a number of Roberto Martinez's players still turned in stellar individual displays to help secure the victory.

Star striker and record goalscorer Romelu Lukaku was one of them, the Inter Milan man's exceptional hold-up play and underrated dribbling ability proving too much to handle for Ruben Dias and Pepe.

It really has been a remarkable year for Lukaku and if he can guide Belgium to glory at Euro 2020 after winning the 2020/21 Serie A title with Inter, he'll be in the mix to win the coveted Ballon d'Or award.

The folks over at Goal have actually ranked the former Manchester United striker third in the latest update of their 'Ballon d'Or 2021 Power Rankings'.

Let's take a look at the 20 players they've named and the order they are in...

Belgium 1-0 Portugal Match Reaction | The Football Terrace

20. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City & England)

19. Paul Pogba (Manchester United & France)

18. Federico Chiesa (Juventus & Italy)

17. Harry Kane (Tottenham & England)

16. Mason Mount (Chelsea & England)

15. Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona & Holland)

14. Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City & Germany)

13. Antoine Griezmann (Barcelona & France)

12. Phil Foden (Manchester City & England)

11. Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain & Brazil)

10. Ruben Dias (Manchester City & Portugal)

9. Erling Braut Haaland (Borussia Dortmund & Norway)

8. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid & France)

7. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus & Portugal)

6. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City & Belgium)

5. Lionel Messi (Barcelona & Argentina)

4. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich & Poland)

1. N'Golo Kante (Chelsea & France)

After winning the Champions League and enjoying a successful start to Euro 2020, Kante retains top spot on the list.

Lukaku is closing in on him, though, the Belgian striker now multiple places ahead of both Ronaldo and Messi - the pair who have won 11 Ballon d'or awards between them.

We're slightly surprised to see Mbappe ahead of the Inter man, given that Lukaku has scored three times at Euro 2020 and the Frenchman is yet to get off the mark at the tournament.

But regardless of that, it's just refreshing to see a top three that doesn't feature either Messi or Ronaldo, as they've dominated the award for a tad too long.

1 of 20

Who is this scoring a penalty for Italy against Joe Hart?

Daniele De Rossi Antonio Cassano Thiago Motta Andrea Pirlo

next story previous story

Danny Ryan

Interested in: Arsenal, Barcelona, Boxing

Danny Ryan is a Senior Writer and Boxing Lead at GiveMeSport. He's had the pleasure of interviewing the likes of Tyson Fury, Gary Lineker, Amir Khan, Lennox Lewis, Joe Root, David Haye, Frank Warren, Kell Brook & Joseph Parker. He once got Eoin Morgan to commentate on THAT Super Over and is an above average FIFA player.