The nominations for the Ballon d’Or are always a big issue. The names that are ‘left over’, the ones that are missing, the ones that are always there, the ones that never appear....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
When it comes to selecting the nominees for the award, it doesn’t rain on everyone’s parade. Nor on this occasion, although everything suggests that the nominations will be of little use for an award that is already a ‘winner’. It is ‘vox populi’ and his name is Karim Benzema.
The French striker is the favourite to win the Ballon d’Or 2022 for his great season at Real Madrid and, of course, he has made the list of 30 candidates announced this afternoon by ‘France Football’. The list is notable for one notable absence, that of Leo Messi.
The ’30’ of PSG is not among the 30 best, while Cristiano Ronaldo remains despite having had a more discreet season. Nor is another ‘old superstar’ in Lewandowski, who recently left Bayern Munich to join Barça this summer.
Everything points to Benzema
Apart from the absence of the Argentinian, all eyes are on Benzema.
The player has been key in winning the league and Champions League and, with the changes of criteria in the selection of the winner, everything points to the fact that no one will cough him up at the top.
The 100 best countries in the FIFA ranking will vote and the award will be given for the past season and not the whole year, in other words, it will only be taken into account from August 2021 to July 2022 (the World Cup will be left out).
In addition, as always, collective success and the player’s influence on his team will be valued, something Benzema can boast of with Real Madrid.
Everything points to the Frenchman, but we will have to wait until October to know the winner. There are other names that are also on the table and that, with the current criteria, also have a chance of winning it.
This is the case of Vinicius and Courtois, who were also key players in the Whites’ achievements, De Bruyne, who won the Premier League with Manchester City, and Lewandowski, the current Barça player who won the Golden Shoe for the best goalscorer in Europe.
Of the other 25 names, a priori none should be in contention for the award.
The presence of Cristiano Ronaldo stands out, who despite his poor season is still there, and that of Haaland and Mbappé, who are set to be the next two kings of the world. We shall see.
These are the 30 nominees to win the Ballon d’Or: Thibaut Courtois, Rafael Leao, Christopher Nkunku, Mohamed Salah, Joshua Kimmich, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Vinicius, Bernardo Silva, Luis Diaz, Robert Lewandowski, Riyad Mahrez, Casemiro, Heung-Min Son, Fabinho, Karim Benzema, Mike Maignan, Harry Kane, Darwin Núñez, Phil Foden, Sadio Mané, Sébastien Haller, Luka Modric, Antonio Rüdiger, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kevin de Bruyne, Vlahovic, Van Dijk, Cancelo, Mbappé and Haaland.
