Ballon d'Or: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at last have competition, with Neymar backed to break duopoly

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the world footballer of the year award for so long that they have outlasted Sepp Blatter: a previously unimaginable feat of human endurance that will stretch to eight years at Fifa’s honey-dripping gala in Zurich.

For the first time, the likely winner, Messi, who is 1-50 in one bookmaking list, will not have to endure Blatter’s

embarrassing grandad routine on stage before collecting the Ballon d’Or that reliably identifies the world’s greatest player. If Blatter’s absence marks a juddering break with history (even his portentous Presidential award has disappeared from the programme), the much nicer Messi-Ronaldo duopoly remains intact. But at least people are starting to speculate openly about who might follow this astounding double act.