At the start of the millenium we had a run of weak Ballon d'or winners:
2000 - Figo
2001 - Owen
2002 - Ronaldo (this version of Ronaldo was not all time great)
2003 - Nedved
2004 - Shevchenko
I think Vinicius is at this level right now and wouldn't look out of place among these guys. It's when...