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Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar named finalists for FIFA Ballon d'Or award

Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar named finalists for FIFA Ballon d'Or award

It's become a bit of a reusable headline: Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi shortlisted for FIFA Ballon d'Or award.

And on Monday, it was published for the fifth year in a row. This time around, Messi's Brazilian Barcelona teammate Neymar joined them in the threesome of the world's best players of the past year. Which is to say that for the fifth straight year, the number three will be someone new.

Because for as good as Neymar has been in 2015, it seems predetermined that this is once again a two-horse race between Messi and Ronaldo. The majestic Messi and the regal Ronaldo. Humbleness and hubris. As fine as any players the game has ever seen. Going head-to-head again, in an indisputable golden age for the sport.

Ronaldo has won the thing the last two years. The three glitzy editions before that, Messi lifted it. In 2009, he also won both the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the year – before the two prizes were combined. In 2008, Ronaldo pulled the same feat. It's 4-3 to Messi, in case you're counting.

He's expected to win it again over Ronaldo – because this thing is a vote, the latter says, and CR7 understands that no matter how much he tans, he has never shone quite as brightly as the pallid Messi.

While Messi has missed October and most of November with a knee injury, and even though Ronaldo outscored him in the 2014-15 season and 2015-16 thus far, the FIFA Ballon d'Or, weirdly, is an individual prize in which you tend to be graded for the most part on team performance.

Messi won the La Liga-Copa del Rey-Champions League treble again with Barcelona and took Argentina to the final of a major tournament for a second summer in a row – the 2015 Copa America, following the 2014 World Cup. Ronaldo won nothing – not with Real Madrid and not with Portugal.

What's more, the Portuguese has begun to decline some on the field, even if he remains ruthlessly prolific in front of goal. He isn't the player who opened up defenses by himself with his swooping dribbles and unstoppable runs, and he has become more of an out-and-out striker. Messi continues to change games by his mere presence, pulling two or three men towards him on the flank at all times. And since Messi, at 28, is two years younger than Ronaldo, that gap will likely only get bigger, provided the Argentine stays healthy.

Jorge Sampaoli, meanwhile, was shortlisted for world coach of the year for winning the Copa America with Chile, the country's first piece of major silverware. Pep Guardiola made it, too, for his work with Bayern Munich. Luis Enrique was honored for Barca's treble.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.