France Football’ revealed the 30 nominees for the 2019 ballon d’or. The individual award for footballing excellence will be given out on 2nd December at a ceremony in the Théâtre du Châtelet de París.
The players who are in contention for the trophy that Luka Modric won in 2018 was announced on 21st October. ‘France Football’ also revealed the candidates for the Female Ballon d’Or, the Kopa Trophy and the Yashin Trophy.
The expectation for the award is huge. Lionel Messi, winner of the brand-new ‘The Best’, is the favourite, but 2 other great players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk, are also in contention for the award.
With regards to La Liga representation, there are 4 Barcelona players (Griezmann, Messi, Ter Stegen and De Jong), 2 from Real Madrid (Benzema and Hazard) and one from Atlético Madrid (Joao Félix).
The FIFA FIFPro voting was a lot closer – Messi 46, Van Dijk 38, and Cristiano Ronaldo 36. Ronaldo and Messi have each won the Ballon d’Or five times and finished as runners-up five times.
Below is the complete list of the 30 nominees:
- Liverpool: Van Dijk, Firmino, Alisson, Wijnaldum, Alexander-Arnold, Mane, and Salah
- Manchester City: De Bruyne, Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Aguero, and Sterling
- Barcelona: Leo Messi, Griezmann, Ter Stegen, and De Jong
- Real Madrid: Benzema and Hazard
- Tottenham: Son and Lloris
- Ajax: Van de Beek and Tadic
- Juventus: Cristiano Ronaldo and De Ligt
- PSG: Mbappe and Marquinhos
- Atletico Madrid: Joao Felix
- Napoli: Koulibaly
- Bayern Munich: Lewandowski
- Arsenal: Aubameyang
Women’s Ballon d’Or:
Kosovare Asllani (CD Tacon/Sweden)
Ada Hegerberg (Lyon/Norway)
Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns/USA)
Sofia Jakobsson (CD Tacion/Sweden)
Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit/USA)
Marta (Orlando Pride/Brazil)
Lieke Martens (Barcelona/Netherlands)
Megan Rapinoe (Reign FC/USA)
Wendie Renard (Lyon/France)
Sari van Veenendal (Atlético Madrid/Netherlands)
Sarah Bouhaddi (Lyon/France)
Lucy Bronze (Lyon/England)
Nilla Fischer (Linköpings/Sweden)
Pernille Harder (VfL Wolfsburg/Denmark)
Amandine Henry (Lyon/France)
Sam Kerr (Chicago Red Stars/Australia)
Dzsenifer Marozsan (Lyon/Germany)
Viviane Miedema (Arsenal/Netherlands)
Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride/USA)
Ellen White (Manchester City/England)
Kopa Trophy:
Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax/Juventus/Netherlands)
Vinicius (Real Madrid/Brazil)
Kai Havertz (Bayer Leverkusen/Germany)
Mattéo Guendouzi (Arsenal/France)
Andriy Lunin (Real Madrid/Real Valladolid/Ukraine)
João Félix (Benfica/Atlético Madrid/Portugal)
Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund/England)
Moise Kean (Juventus/Everton/Italy)
Samu Chukwueze (Villarreal/Nigeria)
Kang-in Lee (Valencia/South Korea)
Yachine Trophy:
Alisson Becker (Liverpool/Brazil)
Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich/Germany)
Ederson Morães (Man City/Brazil)
André Onana (Ajax/Cameroon)
Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus/Poland)
Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid/Slovenia)
Kepa Arrizabalaga (Chelsea/Spain)
Samir Handanovic (Inter/Slovenia)
Hugo Lloris (Tottenham/France)
Marc-André ter Stegen (Barcelona/Germany)
Image Credit: Daily Express
