Ramos and Florentino to join Modric for Ballon d'Or
The captain and president of Real Madrid will travel to Paris with the midfielder, who is widely tipped to win the award dominated in recent years by Messi and Ronaldo.
Luka Modric, the favourite to win the 2018 Ballon d’Or, will be accompanied to the award ceremony in Paris on December 3 by club president Florentino Pérez and Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos, as well as his family.
Modric, who scooped the Fifa Best award in September after his World Cup heroics with Croatia, is being widely tipped to end Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi’s decade-long hegemony of the top award in football and to mark the occasion Real are also bringing along club legends and ambassadors Raúl and Roberto Carlos to the ceremony in expectation of Modric’s triumph.
Cristiano Ronaldo to absent himself from Paris ceremony
The other primary candidates for the award are Kylian Mbappé – who may have to settle for the inaugural Kopa Award as the best under-21 player of the year – Ronaldo and Antoine Griezmann, who is tipped to come third and has not yet announced if he will attend the ceremony or not.
The Italian media has already speculated Ronaldo will not travel to Paris, even though he is likely to make the podium. Raphaël Varane is also in the running and would be the first defender to win the Ballon d’Or since Fabio Cannavaro in 2006.