When the Ballon d’Or 2024 nominees list was announced on Wednesday, it marked the first time since 2003 that neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi was part of it.
The Argentine Messi won the honour a record eight times, while the Portuguese Ronaldo won it five times in an era where both the footballers dominated the debate for the world’s best player tag.
Ronaldo was nominated for the first time in 2004, while Messi got his first nod in 2006.
Sportstar looks back at 2003 -- the only other year neither Messi nor Ronaldo were nominated -- and how the world looked like that year.
Cricket
MS Dhoni was yet to make his india debut. He went on to become India’s most successful captains.
Football
Man City finished ninth in the league. City is now the most dominant club in English football, having won the last four Premier League titles in a row.
READ | Ballon d’Or 2024: Where have Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo finished since 2004?
Barcelona finished sixth in La Liga
Jude Bellingham was born in 2003. The Englishman is now among the favourites to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or.
Czech Republic’s Pavel Nedved won the 2003 Ballon d’Or beating France’s Thierry Henry. He remains the only Czech footballer to win the award.
Popular Culture
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King was the highest grossing movie worldwide at $1,118,887,224
50 Cent’s ‘In da Club’ took the top spot in the Billboard.
MySpace was launched becoming one of the first major socialmedia platforms.
The ninth season of popular American sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S completed its ninth season. The series was wrapped up the following year.
Tennis
Roger Federer won his first career Grand Slam. He went on to win a further 19.
Olympic sport
Michael Phelps hadn’t won a single Olympic medal. He ended up with a record 28.
The 100m world record time (9.78s) in athletics belonged to American Tim Montgomery, which he broke in 2002. Montgomery was later found doping and was stripped of the record in 2005.
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