For the first time in over 10 years, neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d'Or trophy.
After such a historic duopoly - with both players winning the competition five times each - Luka Modric has added the revered award to his growing collection.
The Croatian midfielder has enjoyed a spectacular 2018, winning the Champions League and helping to inspire his country all the way to the World Cup final.
He won the 'Golden Ball' for his performances in Russia and that soon prompted UEFA and FIFA to gift the Real Madrid man their own annual, individual awards.
And the journalists who vote on France Football's Ballon d'Or competition have voted similarly, crowning Modric has the world's best player in 2018.
2018 Ballon d'Or
Many football fans will agree with the decision and at the end of the day, the accolade is designed to focus on the last 12 months and shouldn't be overly influenced by past achievements.
Nevertheless, supporters are almost in complete agreement that Messi and Ronaldo remain the world's best two players, regardless of Modric's silverware this year.
As everybody will know, however, settling on the number one player is a much more divisive issue with those supporting Messi and those backing Ronaldo coming in almost equal numbers.
Football fan's tweet about Messi
Debate about the two players' careers are unlikely to end, but it does make fans wonder who has enjoyed the better 2018.
The voting suggests Ronaldo has enjoyed a far more successful year, with the Portuguese finishing three places higher, yet some of the statistics point in the opposite direction.
And amidst all the debate on Twitter, one football fan has left a more thought-provoking tweet than most and it really raises questions about the Messi vs Ronaldo debate.
Check it out below:
In their defence, the stats provided are absolutely spot on.
Although Ronaldo and Messi are - incredibly - absolutely level-pegging for goals in 2018, the latter's larger number of assists sees the balance tip in his favour.
Meanwhile, Barcelona have rivalled Real Madrid's European victory by capturing the La Liga, Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup this year.
As the post goes onto note, too, Messi was perceived to have enjoyed a much better 2017-18 season domestically and procured most of the individual awards.
When everything is taken into consideration, it seems incredibly harsh that Messi has only finished fifth in the France Football voting.
There's still a strong argument for Ronaldo and he undoubtedly deserves to be near the top, but the gap should be much smaller than the supposed rankings suggest.
At the end of the day, neither player has taken home the top prize and it serves as inspiration for them to push themselves even harder going in 2019.
Who do you think had the better 2018 - Ronaldo or Messi? Have your say in the comments section below.