It seems difficult for the modern football fan to comprehend, but there was a time when the game was not dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and their seemingly eternal, intergalactic battle for supremacy.
There was a time when other players might have been argued over, supported the claims of or even officially crowned the best player in the world, but that time is now a full decade past. Since then, the Portuguese forward has won the Ballon d'Or four times; the Argentinian maestro five.
The current list of candidates for the 2017 version of the award features 30 names, but it still only showcases a battle between those same two.