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.

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.