There is a lot of talk around this year's Ballon d'Or, which could be the edition to end the 10-year reign of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and reports suggest a new winner has now been leaked.
Click through the gallery above to see the favourites for this year's Ballon d'Or award.
Two weeks ago, French journalist Eric Mamruth reported that the three players with the most points after half of the votes were counted were Luka Modric, Raphael Varane and Kylian Mbappe, respectively.
Neither Messi nor Ronaldo made that leaked top three despite sharing the Golden Ball between them over the past 10 years.
This week, there were two more Ballon d'Or leaks. First, journalist Mootaz Chehade revealed that France Football's team will travel to Madrid next week for cover photos with the winner.
This suggestion would seemingly leave only Modric, Varane and Antoine Griezmann in the running to lift this year's Golden Ball, which will be handed out on 3 December.
The Ballon D'Or this year will be awarded to a player who plays in Madrid, either Griezmann, Varane or Modric. Next week France Football's team will travel to the Spanish capital to make the usual photo with the prize that should be on the cover of the magazine.
— Mootaz Chehade (@MHChehade) November 19, 2018
A few days later, Italian journalist Tancredi Palmeri reported that, according to "insiders", Griezmann will be crowned as the 2018 winner of the prestigious award.
Some insiders saying that Ballon d'Or went to Griezmann, let's see
— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) November 20, 2018
Modric is widely seen as the favourite to lift the award after already picking up the UEFA Player of the Year and FIFA's The Best Men's Player prizes earlier this year.
For more information on the favourites for this year's Ballon d'Or, read our feature in this week's edition of Soccer Laduma, issue 1100!
