The 30 nominees for the 2019 Ballon d’Or award were revealed earlier this week.
France Football released the 30-man shortlist, which featured a mixture of expected and unexpected names.
Lionel Messi, Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo are all present, but so too are then likes of Marquinhos, Karim Benzema and Hugo Lloris.
The winner will be announced at the glitzy Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris on December 2.
And as things stand, Van Dijk is the favourite to win the prestigious individual accolade, followed by Messi and then Ronaldo.
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Football Daily have ranked the 30 nominees for the 2019 Ballon d’Or into five different categories: ‘Winner’, ‘Top 3', ‘Best of the Rest’, ‘Meh’ and ‘WTF’.
We don’t necessarily agree with all of their choices, but see what you think…
‘WTF’
Hugo Lloris
Kalidou Koulibaly
Karim Benzema
Antoine Griezmann
Kevin De Bruyne
Donny van de Beek
Marquinhos
Joao Felix
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
It’s a little hard to disagree that this lot belong in the ‘WTF’ category. De Bruyne has been magnificent during the opening weeks of the current campaign, but the Man City star missed an awful lot of football last season through injury.
‘Meh’
Dusan Tadic
Riyad Mahrez
Son Heung-min
Marc-Andre ter Stegen
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Georginio Wijnaldum
For us, it feels a bit harsh putting Tadic, Ter Stegen and Alexander-Arnold into this category. They have all enjoyed fantastic years.
‘Best of the Rest’
Matthijs de Ligt
Frenkie de Jong
Robert Lewandowski
Raheem Sterling
Bernardo Silva
Sergio Aguero
Mohamed Salah
Roberto Firmino
Sadio Mane
Alisson Becker
Kylian Mbappe
Eden Hazard (Not included on image)
No problems with any of these picks. They have been the best of the rest but will probably struggle to break into the top three.
‘Top 3’
Virgil van Dijk
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo probably belongs in this category, but many people think Van Dijk would be a worthier winner than Messi this year.
‘Winner’
Lionel Messi
He’s the GOAT and has enjoyed another remarkable 12 months. The Barcelona legend is in contention of winning a record-breaking sixth Ballon d’Or.