From all the "typical" Ballon D'Or winners related to the WC, him with Modric are perhaps the ones that had more going on for them, but neither in an strict footballing sense had ALL going on for them to take it.
Nor Zizou, nor R9, etc had seasons to back up totally their prize. And also in some cases is not even clear as water that some of this fellas had the best perfomances in their NT's among their mates to obtain the Cup.
Yet this has a lot to do in most of these cases, to the extreme romanticism of WCs (that I do not share in an strict footballing sense) mixed with a compliment to the player's carreer (in some cases ICONIC ones) and even to compliment a role with others (Modric/Fabio)
Some people complains that with the whole Messi/CR silly rivalry the WC lost weight to give it based mostly on it again, but it's not really that true.
In 2010, Xavi and Iniesta had the "bad" luck of having in their own team a Genius in the top of his game, while in the WC (bar Iniesta's ultimate iconic goal) Villa more than probably was their best and more important player, while neither Busi, Xavi or Iniesta were in their Euro level, was more of a gritty affair (like WCs tend to be) to obtain it.
Of course either of the two winning it would have been more than fine, but also remember that the Madrid press suddenly loved players from Barsa if that means fvcking Messi in the meantime.
In 2014 the Champs didn't had an Iconic type of player (like The Kaiser or at least a Lothar), or an off the charts one and it was a TEAM (full of elite and world class players and an all time GOAT keeper in Neuer) achievement
In 2018 is a very similar case in some aspects like the current B D'Or, even if Luka didn't win the WC, but achieved an extraordinary position for Croatia that is not a Powerhouse, more than probably wasn't the a clear cut best perfomance by a player in his NT during the Cup (Perisic had a an incredible WC) yet he is there, but in Madrid this status is almost clear not. The prize had a lot do with his carreer, to give the prize to a player in midfield role, when there wasn't an off the charts season (for their own level comparison) from the usual duo and to recognize Modric's extraordinary carreer with that WC final pushing it.
In fact when Cannavaro received it, was almost like a Prize to the whole history of Italian defenders (not just Italy winning the WC), in an strict sense, that Italy more than probably wouldn't even be close to that title without Pirlo's perfomance in the Cup itself.
It's a very bizarre Prize, it's closer to a popularity, mkt, achievements, stats and mere players, coaches etc simple subjective predilections than anything else.
Most of the times even if we preffer someone else to get it, the one that gets it, has its merits too.
The really silly, bordering stupid stuff would have been to give it to Jorginho like once was named, stupid was to not give it to Lewa in 2020, that was deserved as fvck, the whole suspension of the Prize was stupid. Bordering insanity is to not have Milito even being among the ones to be in the discussion in 2010 and utterly moronic was when players outside of Europe couldn't win it
If Halland takes it, is way more than ok, if Messi takes it, would be more in the line of when Modric, R9, Zizou got it and its fine too. It "helps" Messi that Erling isn't precisly an off the charts footballer per se bar stats and that he had a below par (for his standards) end of the season, Kevin would have been pushing it a bit too much in terms of his individual season, but he had really great vital moments and titles to back it up, Rodri in fact makes a lot of sense, but at the same time in a WC period Spain really had a bad tournament and Halland in his same team decided to break some records.