Djokovic Beats Ballon d’Or Winner Modric to Best European Athlete Title

Novak Djokovic accrued 145 points in the 61st edition of the survey, with 23 press agencies on the continent. The podium was completed by footballer Luka Modric, Champions League winner and Club World Cup with Real Madrid and FIFA World Cup Runners up with the Croatian team on 132 points. British driver Lewis Hamilton, five-time Formula One world champion on 114 points.

In fourth place was Czech skier and snowboarder Ester Ledeck with 74 points, and the fifth place is the French biathlon athlete Martin Fourcade .

Romania’s Simona Halep collected only 39 points, being on par with the Polish athlete Kamil Stoch, Winter Olympic champion at Pyeong Chang.

Romania had two laureates in this survey in its 61-year history. Gymnast Nadia Comăneci in 1976 and 1500 metre runner Gabriela Szabo in 1999. In the previous two years the title was won by Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Among the top ten are Austrian skier  Marcel Hirscher , Norwegian skier  Marit Bjoergen , French football player Antoine Griezmann , French athlete Kevin Mayer , Romanian tennis player Simona Halep and Polish ski jumper Kamil Stoch.

Earlier this month, ESPN compiled a list of 20 most dominant athletes in the world. Leading the list is headed by American gymnast Simone Biles and includes the likes of Novak Djokovic who had a stellar year, Lewis Hamilton, who won his fifth title in 2018 and Lebron James.

The list is compiled based on an athletes’ strongest performance in 2018 compared with their peers’ over a 20 year period.

Simona Biles, ranked number one, has a rating of 3.248 and that is on the back of winning her 4th world title and that was one of the best displays in the event and was achieved win the biggest margin over her competitors.

Luka Modric, who was a finalist with Croatia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and won his first Ballon d’Or, is eighth on the list with a rating of 1.410. He had a stellar world cup personally had most passes in Russia, created more chances than anyone and won the Golden ball. Modric also won his third consecutive Champions League Title with Real Madrid in May.