The first Ballon d’Or with neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo on the final shortlist of nominees will be awarded this season after neither the Copa America winner nor the Saudi Pro League leading scorer made the 30-man list.
That, of course, is not surprising, but it remains a wonder that only two other players have won the France Football award for best player in the world other than Messi or Ronaldo in the last 15 years (Luka Modric in 2018 and Karim Benzema in 2022).
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With all four active winners not on the shortlist, we will have a first time Ballon d’Or winner this year. In fact, only two players — Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland — have finished in top three during their careers.
Ten of the 30 men are on Premier League rosters and a further three have played in England’s top flight.
Manchester City and Spain star Rodri is one of the favorites to win the award, with Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan/Argentina), Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid/Brazil), and Mbappe (Real Madrid and PSG/France) certainly in the discussion.
Read the full list below.
Premier League well-represented while England lead way for internationals
Four Manchester City players made the list — Haaland, Rodri, Phil Foden, and Ruben Dias — while Premier League runners-up Arsenal placed four players on the shortlist in Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, William Saliba, and Declan Rice.
Also represented are Chelsea (Cole Palmer) and Aston Villa (Emiliano Martinez),
Four players have switched clubs since the summer, with Kylian Mbappe (PSG to Real Madrid), Mats Hummels (Dortmund to Roma), Artem Dovbyk (Girona to Roma), and Dani Olmo (Leipzig to Barcelona) finding new homes betwen seasons.
England place six players on the list, level with EURO champions Spain and ahead of Germany (four). Copa American champions Argentina only merited two players on the 30, level with Norway, Portugal, and France. One-player nations include Ukraine, Switzerland, Uruguay, Turkey, Brazil, and Nigeria.
Ballon d’Or snubs: Who wasn’t named?
Up until the announcement, you could’ve placed bets on several players to win the award who have far better odds than players on the short lists.
Messi was +2500 to win it, the sixth-best odds in one book, while Julian Alvarez and Unai Simon were top 15. Alexis Mac Allister, Kevin De Bruyne, Kai Havertz, Ollie Watkins, and Bernardo Silva were also in a similar camps but would’ve given the Premier League a laughable majority in representation depending on who they replaced for the award.
Colombia does not have a representative despite a scintillating year. Luis Diaz (Liverpool) and Carlos Cuesta (Genk) likely didn’t have the club accolades to do the trick, we guess? Xavi Simons had an exceptional EURO 2024 with Germany and Bundesliga campaign with RB Leipzig.
2024 Ballon d’Or 30-man shortlist
Jude Bellingham (England and Real Madrid)
Ruben Dias (Portugal and Manchester City)
Phil Foden (England and Manchester City)
Federico Valverde (Uruguay and Real Madrid)
Emiliano Martinez (Argentina and Aston Villa)
Erling Haaland (Norway and Manchester City)
Nico Williams (Spain and Athletic Bilbao)
Granit Xhaka (Switzerland and Bayer Leverkusen)
Artem Dovbyk (Ukraine and Roma)
Toni Kroos (Germany and Real Madrid)
Vinicius Jr (Brazil and Real Madrid)
Dani Olmo (Spain and Barcelona)
Florian Wirtz (Germany and Bayer Leverkusen)
Martin Odegaard (Norway and Arsenal)
Mats Hummels (Germany, AS Roma)
Rodri (Spain and Manchester City)
Harry Kane (England and Bayern Munich)
Declan Rice (England and Arsenal)
Vitinha (Portugal and Paris St-Germain)
Cole Palmer (England and Chelsea)
Dani Carvajal (Spain and Real Madrid)
Lamine Yamal (Spain and Barcelona)
Bukayo Saka (England and Arsenal)
Hakan Calhanoglu (Turkey and Inter Milan)
William Saliba (France and Arsenal)
Kylian Mbappe (France and Real Madrid)
Lautaro Martinez (Argentina and Inter Milan)
Ademola Lookman (Nigeria and Atalanta)
Antonio Rudiger (Germany and Real Madrid)
Alejandro Grimaldo (Spain and Bayer Leverkusen)