The race for the Ballon d’Or 2022 faces its last months and Leo Messi will not be in that sprint. For the first time since 2005, 17 years ago, the Argentine talent is left out of that fight. He is not nominated among the 30 candidates that have been announced this Friday. He has won this individual trophy seven times, the most in history. His lousy season at Paris Saint Germain has removed him from a list in which he was the main protagonist in the last decade. Madrid player Karin Benzema is the main favorite to win this award.
The prestigious award will be granted at the gala on October 17, and Messi, who received this recognition last year, will not be present. In the last decade, Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have monopolized the fight for this award that rewards the best footballer of the year. In fact, both cracks have always won this recognition, except in 2018, when he took it Croatian Luka Modric, boosted by his great season with Real Madrid and his national team. Cristiano is nominated for this edition.
Benzema has completed his best season since he signed for the white team 13 years ago, scoring 44 goals and giving 15 assists in 46 games. Figures that support his strong candidacy for the Ballon d’Or, although the qualitative factor has also been essential for the feeling that he has practically no competitor for the award.
In addition to the titles, because the double in the League and ‘Champions’, and the Spanish and European Super Cups will help the striker to get closer to the coveted award.
The French magazine ‘France Football’ announced in March that would modify its system to designate the winner and the winner of the Ballon d’Or. Thus, instead of taking into account what was done in the calendar year, this edition will take into account the entire 2021-22 season. As for the voting system, this will be limited to the representatives of the first hundred countries in the FIFA ranking, in the case of the male Golden Ball, and the first 50, in the case of the female, in search of gaining more legitimacy. .
The 30 nominees are: Karim Benzema Vinicius, Casemiro, Rüdiger, Modric and Thibaut Courtois (Madrid); Rafael Leão and Mike Maignan (Milan); Christopher Nkunku (Leipzig); Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Fabinho, Darwin Nunez, Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool); Joshua Kimmich and Sadio Mane (Bayern); Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, João Cancelo, Riyad Mahrez, De Bruyne and Erling Haaland (Manchester City); Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona); Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane (Tottenham); Sebastien Haller (Dortmund); Killian Mbappe (PSG); Dusan Vlahovic (Fiorentina); and Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United).
