This year’s Ballon d’Or nominees have been revealed in what is the competition's second year for the women’s game.
Last year it was Ada Hegerberg who was named the world’s best when she took home the very first women’s Ballon d’Or following a treble-winning season with Lyon.
The 2019 nominees in full are:
- Pernille Harder – Vfl Wolfsburg / Denmark
- Amandine Henry – Lyon / France
- Lucy Bronze – Lyon / England
- Vivianne Miedema – Arsenal / Netherlands
- Alex Morgan – Orlando Pride / USA
- Dzenifer Marozan – Lyon / Germany
- Sarah Bouhaddi – Lyon / France
- Nilla Fischer – Linköpings / Sweden
- Ellen White – Manchester City / England
- Sam Kerr – Chicago Red Stars / Australia
- Megan Rapinoe – Reign / USA
- Lieke Martens – FC Barcelona / Netherlands
- Sari van Veenendaal - Atletico Madrid / Netherlands
- Wendie Renard – Lyon / France
- Rose Lavelle – Washington Spirit / USA
- Ada Hegerberg – Lyon
- Marta – Orlando Pride / Brazil
- Kosovare Asllani – CD Tacon / Sweden
- Sofia Jakobsson - CD Tacon / Sweden
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Tobin Heath – Portland Thorns / USA
Unsurprisingly there are nominations for Harder, Miedema and Hegerberg who consistently standout in their domestic careers with Miedema becoming the highest goal scorer for the Netherlands across both the men and women’s team over the summer. Also in the running is Amandine Henry, arguably an understated player who doesn’t receive the appreciation she deserves but who is without a doubt the world’s best number 6.
England internationals Lucy Bronze and Ellen White are also among the 20 names up for the award. Meanwhile World Cup winners the USA have seen four of their players receive nominations with Morgan, Lavelle, Heath and Rapinoe named.
With such a star-studded top 20, there are some notable absentees including the likes of Julie Ertz, Caroline Graham Hansen, Hedvig Lindahl, Ewa Pajor and Debinha who could easily be replace a number of those nominated.
The winner of the Ballon d’Or will be announced in Paris on 2 December.