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A page is turning, for better or for worse. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are absent from the list of 30 nominated for the Ballon d’Or, unveiled Wednesday September 4 evening on the newspaper’s website The Team. This is the first time that the two football monsters have not appeared in this preselection for the supreme individual award since 2003. The two players, who have won 13 Ballon d’Or between them – 8 for the Argentinian, 5 for the Portuguese -, pay for their declining performances with their advanced age and their golden exiles: the first in the United States, the second in Saudi Arabia.
The last time Messi and Ronaldo were absent from this list, it was the Czech Pavel Nedved who lifted the trophy. He was in good company on the podium, with Thierry Henry and Paolo Maldini, followed by Andriy Chevtchenko and Zinedine Zidane.
Lionel Messi, winner of the 2023 edition of the trophy, was not selected. This is the second time since 2005 that Messi, victorious last year for the 8th time, is out of the running for the most prestigious individual prize in the world of football, which will be awarded after the vote of a jury of journalists representing the top 100 nations in the Fifa rankings. The former FC Barcelona legend, who now plays at Inter Miami, had already been rejected in 2022.
Messi, however, won a second Copa America this year with Argentina (after 2021) but the captain of the Albiceleste, aged 37, had less impact than in the past on the success of his team, even leaving the final in the 66th minute after an ankle injury. Cristiano Ronaldo was already absent from this list of 30 last year.
The other big names in world football, however, are present. Brazilian striker Vinicius, who is the big favorite after Real Madrid’s 15th victory in the Champions League, is there in the company of his two teammates Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé. Erling Haaland, English champion with Manchester City, and English striker Harry Kane, unfortunate finalist of Euro-2024, have not been forgotten.
The list also gives a large place to European champions in the jersey of La Roja (Dani Carvajal, Alejandro Grimaldo, Dani Olmo, Rodri, Nico Williams, Lamine Yamal). On the French side, defender William Saliba, very successful at the Euro, is the only one to accompany Mbappé.
Xabi Alonso, German champion at the head of Bayer Leverkusen, Carlo Ancelotti, winner of the Champions League with Real Madrid, and Luis de la Fuente, the Spanish coach, leave with the favors of the forecasts for the prize of coach of the season. The Italian Gian Piero Gasperini, who won the Europa League with Atalanta Bergamo, Pep Guardiola and the Argentinian coach Lionel Scaloni are the others named.
Among the women, Spaniard Aitana Bonmati will attempt the double while her FC Barcelona teammate Alexia Putellas (FC Barcelona) hopes to achieve the three after 2021 and 2022.
