Soccer Football - 63rd Ballon d'Or - The Grand Palais, Paris, France - December 3, 2018 Real Madrid's Luka Modric with the Ballon d'Or award REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

PARIS (Reuters) - Real Madrid’s Croatia midfielder Luka Modric was named winner of the 2018 Ballon d’Or on Monday, breaking Cristiano Ronaldo’s and Lionel Messi’s decade-long hold on the prestigious award. Messi and Ronaldo had won every Ballon d'Or since 2008, and usually fought only each other for the greatest recognition among soccer's elite. Women's fight for recognition on the biggest stage took a big step with Hegerberg's award. Modric, 33, helped Real Madrid win a third successive Champions League title in May and also captained Croatia to their first World Cup final, being named player of the tournament despite his side losing 4-2 to France. The midfielder was voted player of the tournament. "As a kid we all have dreams. My dream was to play for a big club and win important trophies," Modric said. “The Ballon d’Or was more than just a dream for me and it is really an honor and a privilege to hold this trophy.”

Ronaldo was second in the polling followed by France forward Antoine Griezmann. Paris St Germain’s France forward Kylian Mbappe, who also collected the Kopa award for the best under-21 player, came fourth, with Barca forward Messi finishing fifth. Brazil star Neymar was third last year but only 12th this time. Lionel Messi has failed to make the top three of the Ballon d’Or for the first time since 2007, finishing fifth in this year’s final vote. Modric had never previously been in the top three. "2018 is a dream year for me," the 33-year-old Modric said. “Throughout my career I realized hard work, persistence and belief in yourself in difficult moments are the foundations of success.”

Modric’s father was shown on the big screen wiping away tears during the ceremony at the imperious Grand Palais in Paris. Ronaldo missed out on a record sixth award, which would have moved him one ahead of Messi. The last player to lift the award apart from the Argentine and Portuguese, who have won it a joint-record five times each, was Kaka in 2007 when the Brazilian played for AC Milan. Ronaldo also won the Champions League last season with Modric, before leaving to join Juventus. He scored a hat trick against Spain at the World Cup but he failed to make an impression when Portugal lost to Uruguay in the round of 16. Mbappe and Griezmann scored in the 4-2 World Cup final win against Croatia. Mbappe earned a domestic treble with Paris Saint-Germain. Griezmann also scored twice for Atletico Madrid in the Europa League final win against Marseille. France coach Didier Deschamps said a France player should have won the award. "They deserve it because of what they did with the national team at the World Cup and also because of the trophies they won with their clubs," Deschamps said. The 19-year-old Mbappe — the youngest player to score in a World Cup final — won the Raymond Kopa Trophy awarded to the best young player. The award, voted for by journalists and organized by French magazine France Football, has been dominated by Barcelona’s Messi and Ronaldo, first when he was at Manchester United and subsequently with Real Madrid, since 2008. The three-time Women's Champions League winner with French side Lyon was named the world's best female player of 2018 at a gala in Paris on Monday. ‘I want to say thanks to my team-mates because this would not have been possible without them, my coach or our president Jean-Michel Aulas,’ Hegerberg said after lifting the award. This is a huge step for women’s football.’

MORE: Luka Modric wins 2018 Ballon d’Or to end Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi dominance "I want to end this speech with a message to all young girls in the world. Believe in yourselves.”

The outspoken 23-year-old Hegerberg said she won’t play for Norway at the Women’s World Cup in France next June. Taking a stand against what she describes as a lack of respect for female players in Norway, she hasn't played for the national team since 2017 when it crashed out of the group stage of the Women's European Championship without scoring a goal. Speaking in an interview shortly before collecting her Ballon d’Or, Hegerberg told The Associated Press on Monday she has no plans to reconsider her decision taken to preserve her “authenticity and my values, as a person, as a footballer.”

“A lot of things need to be done to make the conditions better for women who play football,” she said. "It's all about how we respect women's football. I don't think the respect has been there. "Sometimes you have to take tough decisions to stay true to yourself. I let them know, quite clearly, what I found wasn't working."
In association football, Croatian midfielder Luka Modrić wins the Ballon d'Or and becomes the first player other than Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to win the award since Kaká in 2007.