Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho's Ballon d'Or year, 2005, was the peak of the most joyful career of the modern era. He had arrived at Barcelona in 2003 with the club in a trough and the Camp Nou humming doubt, and within a season he was receiving standing ovations at the Bernabéu — an honour Real Madrid reserves for nobody. The elastic trick, the no-look passes, the free kicks rolled under the wall with the cheek of a man dethroning physics: opponents tried to be angry about it and failed.

He won a World Cup in 2002 with a free kick that lobbed David Seaman from forty yards, and his years at the peak — 2004 to 2006 — coincided exactly with the fall of the last great defensive era and the rise of the modern juggernaut that Messi and Cristiano would build. He was the bridge, and he enjoyed the crossing. Football's joy is usually manufactured; his was the one thing in the sport that never had to pretend.