Ballon d'Or: Contenders Announced, Who Stands Better Chance To Clinch Award?
The nominations for the prestigious Ballon d'Or have been released, and for the first time in two decades, neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi made the list released on Wednesday. Though, both players are the biggest winners of the award, this year, they will be missing out completely.
Apparently, the chance to winning the prize is open to a new face, in fact, to a first timers. Even at that, what is the chance of any of the contenders clinching the prize? We take a dive into some of the contenders and the prospect of winning considering an overlook their performance in their respective domestic leagues, and also, in the UEFA Champions League.
Jude Bellingham is one of the nominees for the prize. He was sensational for Real Madrid last season, won the Champions League and La Liga title for the club alongside Vinicius Jr who also made the list. Vinicus can be credited for being the play-maker for Real en route to victory at both competitions. However, Bellingham led the goalscoring with 19 goals followed by the Brazilian in second.
From the Premier League, players like Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer, and Bukayo Saka made the list. They all are strong contenders but in terms of domestic performance, Haaland stands out having the most goals last season with 27 goals, leading Manchester City to lifting the domestic league trophy for the third time in a row. Palmer is yet another favourite from the Premier League with 22 goals for Chelsea, who finished seventh of the seventh to qualify for a European competition after a playoff.
Amongst the contenders is Ademola Lookman, who for his contributions led Atalanta to lift the Europa League trophy with an hat-trick in the final against Bayer Leverkusen. The Nigerian forward also assisted his country to reach the final of the AFCON Cup which they lost to the host country, Cote d'ivoire.
Amongst defenders nominated is Antonio Rudiger. A German and Real Madrid defender. His position on the pitch does not mean he stands no chance. Three defenders have won the award before and the most recent one is Fabio Cannavaro in 2006. Frank Beck3nbauer is the first defender to win the award and the only one ever to have won it two-time.
Too big to be left out is Kylian Mbappe. He is not a first-timer and best known for his incredible scoring skill that did not only won trophies for his former club, Paris St-Germain, he also was instrumental to leading France to win the Fifa World Cup in Russia and as runners-up of the Fifa World Cup in Qatar. He currently plays for Real Madrid.
See the full list below:
Jude Bellingham
Hakan Çalhanoğl
Dani Carvajal
Martin Ødegaard
Dani Olmo
Cole Palmer
Rúben Dias
Declan Rice
Artem Dovbyk
Rodri
Phil Foden
Antonio Rüdiger
Alejandro Grimaldo
Bukayo Saka
Erling Haaland
William Saliba
Mats Hummels
Federico Valverde
Harry Kane
Vinícius Jr.
Toni Kroos
Vitinha
Ademola Lookman
Nico Williams
Emiliano Martínez
Florian Wirtz
Lautaro Martínez
Kylian Mbappé
Granit Xhaka
Lamine Yamal
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