Messi’s Name Absent As Ballon d’Or 2022 Releases 30-Man Nominees

A 30-man shortlist for this year’s Ballon d’Or award has been announced today, Friday, 12 August 2022.

This was confirmed by the organizers of the award, via their website today.

It would be recalled that Lionel Messi, who currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain, won the Ballon d’Or last year after beating the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Jorginho and Karim Benzema.

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Below are the nominees for this year’s Ballon d’Or:

Thibaut Courtois (BEL, Real Madrid), Rafael Leao (POR, AC Milan), Mohamed Salah (EGY, Liverpool), Joshua Kimmich (GER, Bayern Munich), Christopher Nkunku (FRA, RB Leipzig), Trent Alexander-Arnold (ANG, Liverpool), Robert Lewandowski (POL, Bayern Munich then FC Barcelona), Bernardo Silva (POR, Manchester City),Vinicius Junior (BRE, Real Madrid), Luis Diaz (COL, FC Porto then Liverpool), Karim Benzema (FRA, Real Madrid), Fabinho (BRE, Liverpool), Riyad Mahrez (ALG, Manchester City), Heung-min Son (CDS, Tottenham), Casemiro (BRE, Real Madrid), Phil Foden (ENG, Manchester City), Harry Kane (ENG, Tottenham), Sadio Mané (SEN, Liverpool then Bayern Munich), Darwin Nunez (URU, Benfica then Liverpool), Mike Maignan (FRA, AC Milan), Kevin De Bruyne (BEL, Manchester City), Sébastien Haller (CIV, Ajax then Borussia Dortmund), Luka Modric (CRO, Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (POR, Manchester United), Antonio Rüdiger (GER, Chelsea then Real Madrid), Joao Cancelo (POR, Manchester City), Erling Haaland (NOR, Borussia Dortmund then Manchester City), Kylian Mbappé (FRA, PSG), Virgil Van Dijk (HOL, Liverpool) and Dusan Vlahovic (SER, Fiorentina then Juventus).

NPO