Ballon d’Or is one of the most prestigious individual football awards presented by the French news magazine France Football. The award Ballon d’Or is for the player performing best over the previous year based on votes from reporters, coaches and players.
The Ballon d’Or is returning this November after last year’s cancellation because of Covid-19.
Nominees
France Football announced the thirty nominees in six sets with five players in each of them for the 2021 Ballon d’Or award.
Following are the Ballon d’Or nominees set-wise:
Set 1: Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kanté, Erling Haaland, Leonardo Bonucci, Mason Mount.
Set 2: Harry Kane, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Karim Benzema, Raheem Sterling, Nicolò Barella.
Set 3: Lionel Messi, Bruno Fernandes, Pedri, Luka Modric, Giogio Chiellini.
Set 4: Kevin De Bruyne, Neymar, Ruben Dias, Lautaro Martinez, Simon Kjær.
Set 5: Robert Lewandowski, César Azpilicueta, Romelu Lukaku, Jorginho.
Set 6: Cristiano Ronaldo, Phil Foden, Kyllian Mbappe, Gerrard Moreno, Luis Suarez.
There is another set of names that didn’t make the Ballon d’Or 30 shortlist. Those names are Casemiro, Emi Martinez, Federico Chiesa, Jan Oblak, Thomas Muller, Joshua Kimmich and Antonio Rudiger.
Contenders
All the 30 names on the list are contenders for the award. Among these 30 names, Neymar, the star of Brazil and Paris Saint-Germain, would struggle for votes.
Neymar’s name will be further pushed down in the rankings by names such as England duo Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling and Ruben Dias and Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City.
Neymar has a drought in his trophy cabinet while his PSG teammate Mbappe has recently lifted UEFA Nations League.
In Bundesliga, Erling Haaland scored 41 goals for Dortmund in 2020-21, while Lukaku scored 30 goals for his previous side Inter Milan in Serie A. N’Golo Kante’s defensive mid-fielding for Chelsea has made quite a name in recent months.
Outsiders
Among the 30 names in Ballon d’Or’s list, these 15 names are included for the first time:
Cesar Azpilicueta, Nicolo Barella, Giorgio Chiellini, Ruben Dias, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Bruno Fernandes, Phil Foden, Erling Haaland, Jorginho, Simon Kjaer, Romelu Lukaku, Lautaro Martinez, Mason Mount, Pedri.
While looking at them individually, some of the names from this list look promising, and they will be regular contenders for the award in years to come.
There are few fascinating players at a very young age among these names, such as Mason Mount, Phil Foden, Pedri, and Erling Haaland.
Mount won the Champions League with Chelsea this year while Phil Foden won Premier League with Manchester City.
Pedri with Barcelona and Erling Haaland with Dortmund played quite exceptional individual football. These names will be regular in the future, seeing the current status of how they play the game.
Favourites
According to the French newspaper L’Equipe, five potential winners of the prestigious individual prize are Jorginho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi.
The five above mentioned names ended up on the cover of L’Equipe. The cover story cited the reasons for which they are the closest contenders for the award.
Messi is a Copa America Champion. Jorginho lifted Champions League with Chelsea and Euro 2020 with Italy. Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski are currently the best No. 9 in the world and Ronaldo for being the top scorer in Italy after leaving Juventus.
Ronaldo scored 34 goals in Italy in 47 matches in all competitions. According to the French newspaper, it is a phenomenal performance even at the age of 36.
Fourteen players of Premier League ended up on the 30-man shortlist.
But only Jorginho has the best shot despite being a midfielder. The Chelsea Manager, Thomas Tuchel, also argued that ‘Jorginho deserves to win the Ballon d’Or.’
After 2000, only four mid-fielders have won Ballon d’Or: Luis Figo (2000), Pavel Nedved (2003), Kaka (2007) and Luka Modric (2018).
Among these five names, the top three according to L’Equipe are Benzema, Lewandowski and Messi.
Benzema is taking his club Real Madrid from dark to bright side. Also, he played a crucial role in clinching the UEFA Nations League.
Bayern star swallowed the disappointment of last year’s Ballon d’Or cancellation after scoring 41 goals in 2020-21.
Messi is the most favourite contender with 38 goals in 47 matches last season. He has two trophies, such as Copa del Rey with Barcelona and Copa America with Argentina.
Result
There will be a panel of international journalists representing a country each. They will be asked to pick their top 5 names based on the individual and collective performance of the player.
Voting will close at the end of the current month.
The presentation for the Ballon d’Or 2021 award will be on 29th November 2021.
