It is for the first time since 2005 that 7 times Ballon d’Or winner, Lionel Messi has missed out on the Ballon d’Or nominations. The Ballon d’Or voting list, which will choose the finest European footballer from the previous season on October 17, one month before the FIFA World Cup, was made public on Friday, August 12. Owing to the Argentine’s dismal debut season at Paris Saint-Germain, Lionel Messi was missing from a 30-person list that features the world’s biggest football stars.
No Lionel Messi, No Neymar at Ballon d’Or nominations
Neymar was also left off this time. The list of participants includes Lewandowski, Kylian Mbappé, Karim Benzema, Erling Haaland, and five-time champion Cristiano Ronaldo. Other players on the list are Son Heung-min, Sadio Mané, Kevin De Bruyne, Harry Kane, and Mohamed Salah. There are six Manchester City players on the list. Liverpool has seven candidates as well.
Liverpool has the most nominees of any club with seven players: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz, Fabinho, Sadio Mane, who has since joined Bayern Munich, Darwin Nunez, Mohamed Salah, and Virgil Van Dijk.
Messi was unable to leave his brilliant mark with the PSG team after leaving Barcelona in the summer of 2021. The team was in dire search of a Champions League success. The Ballon d’Or judges were dissatisfied by his lackluster club performance as he only managed 11 goals for PSG overall.
The Ballon d’Or no longer honors the best player over the course of a calendar year, which has worked against the Argentine superstar. It is now determined on a season’s performance, emphasizing “the individual performances” and the “decisive and impressive character” of the nominees.
Other adjustments made with the intention of expediting the process include a decrease in the proportion of votes. Voters will therefore no longer take a player’s career achievements into account. The award has been granted to men annually since 1956 and to women annually since 2018. However, both were suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
