Golden ball: Kanté, Mbappé and Benzema in the list of nominees

Who will succeed Lionel Messi, rewarded in 2019 before a year 2020 set aside due to the pandemic? We will know the answer and the identity of the new winner of the Ballon d’Or – who may be the Argentinian of PSG, but that is another debate – on November 29. But while awaiting the delivery of the trophy at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the names of the thirty nominated for this prestigious distinction awarded by the magazine France Football were unveiled this Friday on the L’Equipe channel.

Obviously, kings are on this list. Lionel Messi who already holds the absolute record (6) is in the running to win a seventh trophy and Ronaldo is there to have a sixth and come back to the height of his Argentinian rival. Only this year, the competition is tough because the two geniuses have won few trophies (the Copa America all the same for Messi).

Griezmann absent

Winner of the Champions League, Chelsea can hope to win with the French N’Golo Kanté for whom a part of the French public, the English Mason Mount or even César Azpilicueta. European champion, Italy is also well armed with Leonardo Bonucci, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Giorgio Chiellini, Jorginho who managed the double with Chelsea. And the French? Besides Kanté, the Blues’ chances of succeeding Zinédine Zidane, the last French winner in 1998 are real and rest on Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema, who will have to reckon with the Pole Robert Lewandowski. Antoine Griezmann is not on this list, unlike Neymar.

Finally, it should be noted that the two PSG goalkeepers Gianluigi Donnarumma and Keylor Navas are both nominated for the Yachine trophy which will reward the best goalkeeper of the year. Two Ligue 1 players are also on the list of the Kopa trophy rewarding the best youngster: the Belgian from Rennes Jérémy Doku and the Portuguese from PSG Nuno Mendes.