EXCLUSIVE Ballon d'Or Special: Why Neymar Should Win

Finally the three man list for the 2016 Ballon d’Or  were released yesterday and just as widely expected Neymar, Messi and Ronaldo are the final three that were shortlisted for the 2016 Ballon d’Or.
Today on Absolute Hearts Blog we have decided to bring you a special on why each one of the shortlisted three should be the winner and we are starting off with Neymar. So this is why we think Neymar should win the Ballon d’Or for 2016.

If there is any player currently that can dethrone Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi domination no doubt that player is Neymar Jr. as his form this season suggests that football may have already reached the moment for his coronation. He was as important as anyone last season as Barcelona became the first club to win a second Treble. His Champions League goal finally put paid to Juventus' resistance and there has never been any question that he would struggle to keep on getting better into his third season. He has scored 14 goals in the first 13 weeks of this campaign, only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund has scored more with 17.

Neymar’s improvement has been stunning. In his first campaign he scored 15 goals, now in his third he already has 16 with two thirds of the season left. Barcelona are top of La Liga after two months without Messi because the 23-year-old picked up the baton, without Messi he has become the leader of Barcelona too. The most encouraging thing from Barcelona's point of view is the way Neymar seems to handle the pressure that grows from week to week. The Ballon d'Or has turned into a goals-scored competition in recent seasons. Judges have stopped looking beyond those basic criteria - one that already decides the Golden Boot. Barcelona have now scored 160 goals in 2015 and 125 of those have come from the boots of Neymar, Messi and Suarez.

His commercial clout goes from strength to strength and that also seems not to bother him. Various Spanish media reported on Saturday that Nike have agreed to make Neymar the face of their global campaigning in 2016 ahead of Ronaldo.  The 23-year-old was already going to be the face of the Olympics but he will now be their No 1 across all events and countries. There is even talk that in the post-Cristiano era Real Madrid could make another attempt to sign Neymar with a transfer of Luis Figo-size ramifications. Their desire to tempt him across the forbidden divide goes against the player's own desire to stay at the Nou Camp but Barcelona have been financially crippled of late by the need to revamp the famous stadium and have also paid for their own success – with bonuses dished out for winning the Champions League greater than prize money earned.

None of that will cause Neymar to lose a moment's sleep. He will keep scoring the sort of goals that make young supporters sitting down at the Nou Camp for the first time fall in love with the game and the team. His goal against Villarreal will not be bettered this season. He started the move with a header in his own half out to Suarez, he glided from the halfway line to the edge of the area and he flipped the ball up over Jaume Costa and shot past Alphonse Areola on the volley with a 180 degree turn for good measure.

So stay glued to Absolute Hearts Blog as we bring you Why Ronaldo Should Win in a couple hours. Share your views with us by via the comment box.