Ballon d’Or: Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are left out of the list for the first time since 2003
The two biggest winners of the France Football magazine award are left out of the list of 30 nominees for 2024; check out how their season went for Inter Miami and Al-Nassr
The two biggest winners are out of the running. France Football magazine announced the nominees for the 2024 Ballon d’Or on Wednesday , and stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi did not make the list of 30 candidates for the men’s award. It is the first time since 2003 that this has happened.
Messi is the most successful winner of the Ballon D’Or trophy , with eight titles (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023), and was voted best player of the season before last in Europe . Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, has won the award on five occasions (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), making him the second most successful winner in history.
The Argentine star has been with Inter Miami of Major League Soccer since July last year . Since then, he has played 29 official matches, scored 25 goals and provided 16 assists for the United States team. Messi won the 2023 Leagues Cup with Inter Miami, and this year’s Copa América with the Argentine national team.
Cristiano Ronaldo, on the other hand, has been with Al-Nassr, from Saudi Arabia, for the longest time. More precisely, since the beginning of 2022. In the 2023/24 season, which is the one that counts towards the 2024 Ballon d’Or, he played 51 games, scored 50 goals and provided 13 assists for the Saudi team. CR7 won the Arab Champions Cup last year.
The 2024 winner will be announced at a ceremony on October 28 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The contenders include: Vinicius Junior, Mbappé and Bellingham from Real Madrid ; Haaland, Foden and Rodri from Manchester City ; Harry Kane from Bayern Munich; among others.
Players nominated for the 2024 Ballon d’Or:
- Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid/England)
- Ruben Dias (Manchester City/Portugal)
- Phil Foden (Manchester City/England)
- Federico Valverde (Real Madrid/Uruguay)
- Dibu Martínez (Aston Villa/Argentina)
- Erling Haaland (Manchester City/Norway)
- Nico Williams (Athletic Bilbao/Spain)
- Granit Xhaka (Bayer Leverkusen / Switzerland)
- Artem Dovbyk (Girona/Ukraine)
- Toni Kroos (Real Madrid/Germany)
- Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid/Brazil)
- Dani Olmo (RB Leipzig/Spain)
- Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen/Germany)
- Martin Odegaard (Arsenal/Norway)
- Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund/Germany)
- Rodri (Manchester City/Spain)
- Harry Kane (Bayern Munich/England)
- Declan Rice (Arsenal/England)
- Vitinha (PSG/Portugal)
- Cole Palmer (Chelsea/England)
- Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid/Spain)
- Lamine Yamal (Barcelona/Spain)
- Bukayo Saka (Arsenal/England)
- Hakan Çalhanoglu (Inter Milan/Türkiye)
- William Saliba (Arsenal/France)
- Kylian Mbappe (PSG/France)
- Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan/Argentina)
- Ademola Lookman (Atalanta/Nigeria)
- Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid/Germany)
- Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen/Spain)
What is the Ballon d’Or like?
France Football draws up a list of 30 finalists — 20 of which are women — and submits it to journalists from the 100 countries with the highest rankings in the FIFA rankings. Each country makes its own Top 5, and points are awarded according to their position on the list. The player with the most points wins the Ballon d’Or. The votes for each professional are revealed after the ceremony.
Until 1994, the award was given only to European players. Later, France Football expanded the scope to include any player from clubs on the continent. From 2006 onwards, there were no more restrictions and any player in the world could be crowned.
This is why Pelé and Maradona have never won the Ballon d’Or. In 2015, when he turned 60, France Football reviewed all his previous awards based on the current rules and recognized that the King of Football would win the trophy seven times: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1965 and 1970.
Since 2018, the magazine has introduced new awards: the Ballon d’Or for the best player, the Yashin Trophy for the best goalkeeper, and the Kopa Trophy for the best young player. In 2022, the new awards were the Gerd Müller Trophy, for the top scorer of the season, and the Sócrates Award, a recognition for those who are socially engaged.
The winners of the Ballon d’Or in history:
1st: Lionel Messi (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023): 8
2nd: Cristiano Ronaldo (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017): 5
3rd: Johan Cruijff (1971, 1973 and 1974), Michel Platini (1983, 1984 and 1985) and Marco van Basten (1988, 1989 and 1992): 3
6th: Alfredo Di Stéfano (1957 and 1959), Franz Beckenbauer (1972 and 1976), Kevin Keegan (1978 and 1979), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1980 and 1981) and Ronaldo (1997 and 2002): 2
11th: Stanley Mathhews (1956), Raymond Kopa (1958), Luis Suárez (1960), Omar Sivori (1961), Josef Masopust (1962), Lev Yashin (1963), Denis Law (1964), Eusébio (1965), Bobby Charlton (1966), Flórián Albert (1967), George Best (1968), Gianni Rivera (1969), Gerd Müller (1970), Oleg Blokhin (1975), Allan Simonsen (1977), Paolo Rossi (1982), Igor Belanov ( 1986), Ruud Gullit (1987), Lothar Matthäus (1990), Jean-Pierre Papin (1991), Roberto Baggio (1993), Hristo Stoichkov (1994), George Weah (1995), Mathias Sammer (1996), Zinedine Zidane (1998), Rivaldo (1999), Luis Figo (2000), Michael Owen (2001), Pavel Nedved (2003), Andriy Shevchenko (2004), Ronaldinho (2005), Fabio Cannavaro ( 2006), Kaka (2007), Luka Modric (2018) and Benzema (2022): 1
