Messi, Seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, miss this year Nomination
Seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or When he was left off the 30-person list for this year’s top football prize, Lionel Messi paid a steep price for an unsatisfactory debut season with Paris Saint-Germain.
One of the three members of England’s Euro-winning team to make the shortlist for the women’s prize is Lucy Bronze, who finished second in 2019.
Lionel Messi, who took home the trophy last year, has consistently been nominated since 2006 and, with the exception of 2018, had consistently appeared in the top three.
But because he moved from Barcelona to Paris, Messi, 35, will not receive the prize in 2022.
The Ballon d’Or no longer honors the best player over the course of a calendar year, which has also worked against the Argentine superstar.
Instead, it is determined by a season’s record that emphasizes “the individual performances” and the “decisive and remarkable nature” of the nominees.
Lionel Messi was unable to imprint his brilliance on a PSG squad that was in desperate need of a Champions League victory after departing Barcelona in the summer of 2021.
The eventual champion Real Madrid eliminated the French champions in the round of 16 to claim the title.
Messi only scored 11 goals for PSG in total, and the judges for the Ballon d’Or, which will be presented in Paris on October 17, were unimpressed by his mediocre club play.
Neymar, a PSG teammate who scored 13 goals in 28 games this season, is also absent.
There are a few surprises on the rest of the nominees’ list.
Karim Benzema, a striker for France’s national team, is the clear favorite after helping Real Madrid win their 14th Champions League championship.
His goal total for the European season was 15.
Benzema is likely to become the fifth French winner after Raymond Kopa in 1958, Michel Platini in 1983, 1984, 1985, Jean-Pierre Papin in 1991, and Zinedine Zidane in 1998.
Benzema scored 44 goals in 46 games for a Madrid team that also won the Liga in 2021–2022, making 46 appearances.
The 34-year-old scored to give the Spanish giants a 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday, giving him 324 goals overall.
Only Cristiano Ronaldo, with 450, is ahead of him on the club’s all-time list after that moved him ahead of Raul.
He is eligible to win the Ballon d’Or. Is there a question? Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of Real, remarked, “Not for me”.
Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner for Manchester United, is nominated once more this year.
Thibaut Courtois, Casemiro, 2018 winner Luka Modric, Vinicius, and ex-Chelsea star Antonio Rudiger are teammates of Benzema and are also included on the 30-man roster.
Beaten finalist in the Champions League Liverpool has the most nominees of any club with seven players.
They are Darwin Nunez, Mohamed Salah, Virgil Van Dijk, Sadio Mane, who has since moved to Bayern Munich, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz, and Fabinho.
English stars Bronze, Millie Bright, and Arsenal attacker Beth Mead, who won the Golden Boot at the women’s Euro, are among the 20 players on the women’s Ballon d’Or list.
Selma Bacha, Kadidiatou Diani, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, and Wendie Renard are France’s four nominees.
The current winner Alexia Putellas, who was forced to withdraw from the Euros due to an injury, and the first winner of the award in 2018 Ada Hegerberg from Norway are also contenders.
AFP
