Ronaldo also won his first Ballon d'Or based mostly on his performances at club level, although he also played well in the Copa America that year. The difference between the Cup Winners Cup, UEFA Cup and Champions League was not anywhere near as big back then. Inter beating Lazio in the 1998 UEFA Cup final for example featured Nesta, Nedved, Mancini, Djorkaeff, Zamorano, Simeone etc.
Just think like that, players like Messi / CR7 / Mbappe / Haaland / Benzema / Lewa - all have potentials to go in many list of top 20 players in their position of all time(for Messi/CR7 - probably top 5).
Compared that to defenders, do you honestly see any defender actually breaking top 20? I can not think of anyone barring Ramos/VVD, that too if I really try.
Its an era of attackers, and will remain till we get better era of defenders. I had read a stat that Maldini+Baresi have together conceeded only 23 goals per season in 6-7 seasons played together. Thats the type of defenders the 90s strikers used to be up against.
Part of the problem is that defenders get slaughtered for every mistake that they make, even if they make 5 good defensive contributions before and after that. Seems worse now with social media. Doesn't happen with strikers, sure their mistakes are highlighted, but the goals they score more than make up for it.
The defenders were protected within systems, Maldini and Baresi are GOAT defenders that would excel in every era of football, but a lot of limited enough defenders were protected by everyone playing more defensively in outlook. In hindsight if we take a 70 or 80 year outlook, the 90s will be remembered as the deviation from the norm, rather than the standard, as the likes of Haaland are closer to some 50s, 60s and 70s records.