France Football have announced the 30 final nominees for this year’s Ballon d’Or award.
The Golden Ball will be handed out on 17 October and for a first time be guided by seasonal achievements and performances rather than the calendar year as in previous editions.
France Football are looking for the successors of Lionel Messi, who won his seventh Golden Ball last year and Alexia Putellas, who won the third edition of the Women’s Ballon d’Or.
The French publication also made changes to the voting system with now only representatives from the 100 highest-ranked FIFA nations being allowed to vote. In addition, the voting criteria were slightly adjusted and are now based on three criteria:
- Individual performance and the decisiveness of individuals.
- Collective performance and the achievements of the team during the season.
- The player’s class and his sense of fair play.
All 30 nominees:
- Thibaut Courtois
- Rafael Leão
- Christopher Nkunku
- Mohamed Salah
- Joshua Kimmich
- Trent Alexander-Arnold
- Vinícius Júnior
- Bernardo Silva
- Luis Díaz
- Robert Lewandowski
- Riyad Mahrez
- Casemiro
- Heung-Min Son
- Fabinho
- Karim Benzema
- Mike Maignan
- Harry Kane
- Darwin Núñez
- Phil Foden
- Sadio Mané
- Sébastien Haller
- Luka Modrić
- Antonio Rüdiger
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Kevin De Bruyne
- Dušan Vlahović
- Virgil van Dijk
- João Cancelo
- Kylian Mbappé
- Erling Haaland
Seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi has not been named among the 30 nominees, neither has Neymar.
