Announcing the list of players nominated for the Ballon d’Or

Announcing the list of players nominated for the Ballon d’Or, France Football announced 30 candidates for the 2022 Ballon d’Or on Friday.

Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema headed the nominees for the prestigious Ballon d’Or award.

The France international enjoyed an impressive season with Real Madrid, scoring 44 goals in 46 appearances and helping the team win Champions League and La Liga titles.

Lionel Messi, the seven-time award winner, was not nominated this year for the first time since 2005, and Brazilian teammate Neymar also missed the race.

Other candidates include Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, who has just joined from Borussia Dortmund, and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah.

The winner of the award will be announced on October 17.

The award is awarded for the first time based on the player’s performance during the regular season from August to July instead of during the period during my birthday.

The list of 30 candidates is as follows:

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)

Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)

Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)

Casemiro (Real Madrid)

Luka Modric (Real Madrid)

Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea then Real Madrid)

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)

Luis Diaz (Porto then Liverpool)

Fabinho (Liverpool)

Darwin Nunez (Benfica then Liverpool)

Virgil van Dyke (Liverpool)

Joao Cancelo (Manchester City)

Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)

Phil Foden (Manchester City)

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund then Manchester City)

Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)

Sadio Manet (Liverpool then Bayern Munich)

Rafael Liao (Milan)

Mike Minian (Milan)

Son Heung-min (Tottenham)

Harry Cain (Tottenham)

Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich then Barcelona)

Sebastien Haller (Ajax then Borussia Dortmund)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)

Dušan Vlahović (Fiorentina then Juventus)

Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)

Christopher Nkunku (Leipzig)