Lionel Messi set for Ballon d’Or but Neymar threatens the old duopoly | Sid Lowe

The Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo rivalry has defined the award since 2008 but Neymar’s emergence could mean the days of the same old one-two are numberedWhen Michael Owen won the Ballon d’Or in 2001, becoming the first and still the only Englishman to win European football’s player of the year award since Kevin Keegan, his manager had to take him aside and impress upon him just how important this was. “Gérard Houllier was surprised when he first told me,” O