Five brilliant Ballon d’Or bets without Messi and Ronaldo
Published:
Holly Thackeray | October 20th
Five fantastic outside shouts
The Ballon d’Or is the most prestigious individual prize in world football and, now that the final thrilling shortlist has been revealed for 2015’s best and brightest, Coral are offering a cracking alternative market for punters to enjoy alongside outrights.
Should customers tire of the ‘big two’ Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi swapping the trophy back and forth, indulge in betting on this individual accolade without the prolific pair, to essentially pick a probable third place/next highest finisher.
Here are our five shouts for the honour…
Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
As if that wasn’t enough, the Argentine led his country to a Copa America final, before picking up where he left off with City to score 11 in eight across all competitions so far.
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Another star in City colours, Belgian whizz De Bruyne (incredible at 80/1) has taken to Premier League life like a duck to water, notching four in eight outings so far, but is nominated for the Ballon d’Or for previous potent exploits with Wolfsburg.
Dangerman De Bruyne took the Bundesliga and Europa League by storm with Die Wolfe, scoring 16 in all competitions and only Messi made more assists in an elite European division. In addition to excellently helping his side to a DFB Pokal triumph, deadly De Bruyne was also a protagonist for his nation, as Belgium topped Euro 2016 qualifying Group B.
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Lewandowski has smashed records in 2015, equalling a historic haul of 13 in Euro qualifying for the White Eagles, who subsequently clinched an automatic spot in France.
Meanwhile, for Bayern, with whom the hitman lifted a Bundesliga title, the Polish predator also famously poached five goals in nine minutes, the quickest quintet in Europe since records began. A terrific tally of 16 in 12 for Munich is a stat to match Ronaldo and co, so back Lewandowski’s brilliance.
Luis Suarez (Barcelona)
Could 2015 be the year controversial Suarez’s skills finally won doubters over? Barcelona suits the silky striker to a tee, and the Uruguayan has been on his best behaviour since joining the Catalan giants.
With clubmate Neymar a little short at 6/4, Suarez is a better bet at 6/1, having been equally instrumental with his all-round play as well as goals and assists as Barca finished last term with a treble. Scoring in the Champions League final to turn the tie will have only helped his cause.
Arturo Vidal (Bayern Munich)
Last season saw the Italian giants come within touching distance of a treble, after making their first Champions League final for 12 years, though capturing a domestic double is nothing to be sniffed at. While, Chile also went on to tremendously win their first ever Copa America in summer. The common denominator here? Vidal (33/1) vigorously manning the engine room.
Related
Read more on Robert Lewandowski’s exploits in our archive
Keep up to date with the latest on Luis Suarez
