PARIS: For the first time since 2003 neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo have been included in the nominees for the men’s Ballon d’Or award, which were announced on Wednesday, with stars of Spain’s Euro 2024-winning team and Real Madrid’s Champions League victors featuring heavily.
Messi claimed the eighth Ballon d’Or of his glittering career last year and has been nominated 16 times.
Now aged 37, he is not among the 30 contenders this time despite winning another title with Argentina at the Copa America in July.
Portugal’s five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo, now 39, also failed to receive a nomination last year.
Messi won his first Ballon d’Or in 2009 — the start of a four-year streak of taking the top prize. He was first nominated in 2006.
Messi and Ronaldo turned the competition into a near-two-way contest during the peak of their careers — winning it a combined 13 times from 2008.
Ronaldo’s first nomination was 2004.
Their omission from the list of nominations is likely due to leaving European club football, with Ronaldo having moved to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
Brazil forward Vinicius Junior is among the favourites and is one of six members of the Real team that won La Liga and the Champions League last season to be nominated.
Jude Bellingham, Dani Carvajal, Toni Kroos, Antonio Ruediger and Fede Valverde are the others, while Kylian Mbappe — who left Paris St Germain for Real over the close season — features too.
Carvajal is among the contenders from the victorious Spain team alongside 17-year-old Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams, Alejandro Grimaldo, Dani Olmo and Rodri.
England, runners-up to Spain at Euro 2024 have five other nominees apart from Bellingham: Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden.
Manchester City’s Norwegian star Erling Haaland, runner-up to Messi last year, is on the list as well.
Xabi Alonso, who won the Bundesliga in an unbeaten season with Bayer Leverkusen, is among the favourites for best coach. His rivals include Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti and Spain’s Luis de la Fuente.
In the women’s Ballon d’Or Feminin, Champions League winners Barcelona have six nominees in total, including last year’s winner Aitana Bonmati and two-time winner Alexia Putellas.
Former winner Ada Hegerberg is also nominated, along with five members of the United States’ Olympic gold medal-winning team in Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman, Lindsey Horan and goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.
The 2024 Ballon d’Or Awards ceremony, to crown the world’s best player, will take place on Oct 28 in Paris.
Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2024
