A few hours have passed since UEFA published the identity of the three candidates for winning the European Player of the Year title, and tonight (Friday) “France Football” also revealed the list of candidates for winning the “Ballon d’Or”. Unlike UEFA, the list of the French magazine is much longer and includes 30 players, but it provided a particularly big line – for the first time in 17 years, Lionel Messi is not on the list at all.
Less than a year since he won the title for the seventh time, the record holder paid the price of a difficult acclimatization season in Paris Saint-Germain and was not included in the list. Neymar is also not on the list, so Kylian Mbappe is the only representative of the team from the City of Lights on the list of the French magazine.
The one who is included in the list despite a particularly disappointing season is Cristiano Ronaldo, who previously won the title five times. Although the Portuguese led Manchester United’s list of scorers last year, the team’s season was very disappointing and they missed the ticket to the Champions League.
Naturally, the three candidates for the UEFA title – the clear favorite Karim Benzema, Thibaut Courtois and Kevin De Bruyne – were also included in the list. European champions Real Madrid and their runner-up Liverpool lead the list with six representatives, Manchester City followed with five candidates. It should be noted that Unlike the previous years, this time the title will be distributed according to the achievements in the 2021/22 football season and not according to the achievements in the calendar year.
The full list of players, according to the teams they played in last season, includes the following players:
Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
Mike Mannion (Milan)
Raphael Lao (Milan)
Harry Kane (Tottenham)
Yushua Kimich (Bayern Munich)
Darwin Nunes (Benfica, now in Liverpool)
Christopher Ankonko (RB Leipzig)
Phil Foden (Manchester City)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
Sadio Mane (Liverpool, now at Bayern Munich)
Trent Alexander Arnold (Liverpool),
Sebastian Haller (Ajax, now at Borussia Dortmund)
Vinicius Jr. (Real Madrid)
Luka Modric, (Real Madrid)
Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea, now at Real Madrid)
Luis Dias (Liverpool)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich, now in Barcelona)
Kevin De Brauna (Manchester City)
Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus)
Casemiro (Real Madrid)
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Jung Min Son (Tottenham)
Joao Cancelo (Manchester City)
Fabinho (Liverpool)
Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid
Erling Holland (Borussia Dortmund, now Manchester City).