Leo Messi was, for the first time in nearly two decades, ignored by Ballon d’Or voters.
Messi was left off the 30-player list for the men’s version of the award for the first time since 2005, when he was an 18-year-old just breaking into the Barcelona starting eleven.
Since then, Messi has won the Ballon d’Or seven times, including 2019 and 2021 (the last two times the award was given out). He’s finished second five more times, and came in third in 2007.
Despite much discussion over whether Manchester United would be better off without him, Cristiano Ronaldo—the winner in all five of the years Messi came in second—did make France Football’s list, which was entirely made of players in Europe’s five biggest leagues.
The Premier League unsurprisingly lead the way, with 15 of the 30 nominees playing in the English top flight. Liverpool and Manchester City both had six nominees, tied with Real Madrid as the most at any one club, while Tottenham had two, and—in Ronaldo—Manchester United had one.
Even within the concentration of top players within the most wealthy leagues, it is striking how many Ballon d’Or nominees play at just a handful of clubs within those leagues. Ligue 1 was only represented by Kylian Mbappé, who only opted to stay in France after an extraordinary contract offer from Paris Saint-Germain. Serie A and the Bundesliga, meanwhile, combined for only seven nominations.
Only 10 nominees represent countries outside of Europe, with Brazil leading the way with four nominees. Africa was represented by Riyad Mahrez (Algeria), Sadio Mané (Senegal), and Mohamed Salah (Egypt), while the lone nominee from Asia, CONCACAF, or Oceania was Heung-Min Son (Korea).
The complete list of 2022 men’s Ballon d’Or nominees
- Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
- Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
- João Cancelo (Manchester City)
- Casemiro (Real Madrid)
- Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
- Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
- Luis Díaz (Liverpool)
- Fabinho (Liverpool)
- Phil Foden (Manchester City)
- Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
- Sébastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund)
- Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)
- Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
- Rafael Leão (AC Milan)
- Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)
- Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
- Mike Maignan (AC Milan)
- Sadio Mané (Bayern Munich)
- Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain)
- Luka Modrić (Real Madrid)
- Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)
- Darwin Núñez (Liverpool)
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
- Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid)
- Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
- Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
- Heung-Min Son (Tottenham Hotspur)
- Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
- Vinicius Jr. (Real Madrid)
- Dušan Vlahović (Juventus)
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