With Neymar, France Football announces nominees for the Ballon d’Or

to magazine France Soccer announced on Monday the 30 nominees for the 2018 Ballon d’Or award, which will have the winner revealed on December 3, at an awards ceremony in Paris, France. Among the players are four Brazilians: Alisson and Firmino, from Liverpool, Marcelo, from Real Madrid, and Neymar, from Paris Saint-Germain. In addition to them, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, Salah, Cavani, Hazard, Modric and Pogba compete.

The list was published little by little, with posts from five players at a time. The first ones were the Argentine Sergio Agüero, from Manchester City; Brazilian Alisson, Liverpool goalkeeper, traded from Roma; Welshman Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, from Real Madrid, and Edinson Cavani, from Paris Saint-Germain. Then it was the turn of the best goalkeeper of the season (FIfa’s Best in the World award), Thibaut Courtois, from Real Madrid; Cristiano Ronaldo, current holder of the award, from Juventus; Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City; Brazilian Roberto Firmino, from Liverpool, and Diego Godín, from Atlético de Madrid. With three Real players (CR7 was still part of the squad and Courtois was not), last season’s Champions League title was essential for the selection of these athletes.

2/30

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2⃣6⃣ years old

The nominees ▶ https://t.co/clubC8GldK #ballondor pic.twitter.com/fbpjLNe4Gi

— #ballondor (@francefootball) October 8, 2018

Hours later, another five were selected: Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, from Atlético de Madrid; Belgian Eden Hazard and Frenchman N’Golo Lanté, from Chelsea; Isco, from Real Madrid, and Harry Kane, from Tottenham. Here, the influence of the World Cup on the choice of athletes can be seen even more.

In the early afternoon, the rest of the athletes were announced, including Marcelo and Neymar: Hugo Lloris, from Tottenham, Mario Mandzukic, from Juventus, Sadio Mané, from Liverpool, Marcelo and Luka Modric, from Real Madrid, Mbappé and Neymar, from PSG, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak and Manchester United’s Paul Pogba. A little later, Ivan Rakitic and Suárez, from Barcelona, ​​Sergio Ramos and Varane, from Real Madrid, and Mohamed Salah, from Liverpool, completed the list.

Check out all the nominees below:

The list of nominees for the Ballon d’Or award is drawn up by France Football magazine and the trophy is awarded through a vote by an international jury of specialized journalists, with one representative per country. The criteria for selection are mainly three: individual and collective performances, player class (talent and fair play) and his career. Each judge can nominate five players in descending order from the list of 30, awarding six, four, three, two and one points respectively. In the event of a tie, the ranking is decided by counting the number of citations in the first place and, if there is still equality, by the number of citations in the second place, and so on. If there is no change, a new vote is held including athletes ranked by merit.

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The nominees ▶ https://t.co/0WgOTCTl1Q #ballondor pic.twitter.com/BM4oEBmEn1

— #ballondor (@francefootball) October 8, 2018

The magazine also released the ten nominees for the best in the world in the under-21 category, in which the Brazilian Rodrygo, from Santos, and the French Mbappé. In women’s football, the Brazilian Marta competes with 14 more players.

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