The Ballon d'Or is world football's most prestigious individual award. This award is given every year by France Football magazine. As always, the shortlist for the Ballon d'Or has been published by the French magazine 'France Football'. But there are no names of the two football stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo! It comes as a surprise to football fans. 13 times in the last 16 years, these two have won the award! The names of these two superstars are not there.
The 30-man shortlist for the 2024 Ballon d'Or award was released by French magazine 'France Football' on Wednesday (September 4) night. For the first time since 2003, neither Messi nor Ronaldo have been shortlisted for the Ballon d'Or.
Messi has won the Ballon d'Or a record eight times, second most to Ronaldo at five. Since 2008, the two have not won the Ballon d'Or only twice. The award was won by Luka Modric in 2018 and Karim Benzema in 2022. The award was not given in 2020 due to covid. That time may be over. Without Messi and Ronaldo, the journey of the new football world started with this short list. This year, someone new will get the golden ball.
Ronaldo and Messi have already learned the lessons of European football. Ronaldo spent the last season personally for Al Nasr club in Saudi Arabia. He scored 35 goals in 31 matches in the Saudi Pro League. The 39-year-old forward scored 44 goals in 45 matches for the club across all competitions.
Meanwhile, although Argentina won the Copa America, football superstar Messi did not do well in the tournament personally. He is still out of the field with an ankle injury in the final. He didn't do too badly for Club Inter Miami. But it was not enough to earn a place in the Ballon d'Or battle.
FIFA's Player of the Year award and France Football's Ballon d'Or merged in 2010. Since the contract with FIFA ended, France Football started giving the Ballon d'Or alone from 2016. However, from this year, they announced the Ballon d'Or by merging with UEFA, the highest organization of European football. As a result of the agreement with them, UEFA canceled the player of the year award given to them.
30-man shortlist for Ballon d'Or : Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Ruben Dias (Manchester City), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Federico Valverde (Real Madrid), Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa), Arling Haaland (Manchester City), Nico Williams (Athletic Bilbao), Granit Xhaka (Bayer Leverkusen), Artem Dovic (Girona/Roma), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid), Dani Olmo (Leipzig/Barcelona), Florian Virtz (Bayer Leverkusen), Martin Odegaard (Arsenal), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Rodry (Manchester City), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Vitinha (PSG), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid), Lamine Yamal (Barcelona), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Hakan Kalhanoglu (Inter Milan), William Saliba (Arsenal), Kylian Mbappe (PSG/Real Madrid), Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan), Ademola Lookman (Atalanta), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid), Alex Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen).
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