Ballon d’Or nominees announced as Lionel Messi misses out | OneFootball

France Football have tonight revealed their 30-man shortlist for this year’s Ballon d’Or, with the notably omission of Paris Saint-Germain forward Lionel Messi, who will be absent from the running for the first time since 2005.

The list includes four Frenchmen, namely Christopher Nkunku, Kylian Mbappé, Mike Maignan and Karim Benzema.

Ballon d’Or nominees:

Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)

Rafael Leão (Milan)

Christopher Nkunku (Leipzig)

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)

Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)

Vinicius JR (Real Madrid)

Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

Luís Díaz (Liverpool)

Roberto Lewandowski (Barcelona)

Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)

Casemiro (Real Madrid)

Heung-Min Son (Tottenham Hotspur)

Fabinho (Liverpool)

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)

Mike Maignan (Milan)

Darwin Núñez (Liverpool)

Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)

Phil Foden (Manchester City)

Sadio Mané (Bayern Munich)

Sébastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund)

Luka Modrić (Real Madrid)

Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

Dušan Vlahović (Juventus)

Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)

João Cancelo (Manchester City)

Kylian Mbappé (PSG)

Erling Haaland (Manchester City)