France Football’s prestigious award Ballon d’Or 2022 is coming soon. It will be held on 17th October 2022. They have now revealed all the nominees for the 4 awards given at the ceremony. However, there is a controversy among the nominees for the Men’s Ballon d’Or 2022 award.
30 nominees for the Men’s Ballon d’Or 2022 award
- Thibaut Courtois
- Rafael Leão
- Christopher Nkunku
- Mohamed Salah
- Joshua Kimmich
- Trent Alexander-Arnold
- Vinicius JR
- Bernardo Silva
- Luis Díaz
- Robert Lewandowski
- Riyad Mahrez
- Casemiro
- Heung-Min Son
- Fabinho
- Karim Benzema
- Mike Maignan
- Harry Kane
- Darwin Núñez
- Phil Foden
- Sadio Mané
- Sébastien Haller
- Luka Modrić
- Antonio Rüdiger
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Kevin De Bruyne
- Dušan Vlahović
- Virgil van Dijk
- João Cancelo
- Kylian Mbappé
- Erling Haaland
Lionel Messi isn’t present in the list of Ballon d’Or nominees which shocked everyone, whereas his compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo made a record 18th appearance in the Ballon d’Or nominees.
The organizers of the Ballon d’Or award (via Marca) have now given an explanation on Cristiano Ronaldo is present but Messi is absent from the Ballon d’Or 2022 nominees list.
Here’s why Cristiano Ronaldo is present but Messi is absent from the Ballon d’Or 2022 nominees list
They first pointed out to the current criteria of the award are based on the football season and not the calendar year and that Messi’s performances were below par in the 2021-22 season. He scored just six goals in Ligue 1, while Real Madrid eliminated PSG from the Champions League in the round of 16.
Whereas, Cristiano Ronaldo scored six goals in the Champions League group stage which took Manchester United into the round of 16 and he finished the 2021-22 season with a total of 32 goals in 49 games across all competitions.
So, this was enough to get Ronaldo into the Ballon d’Or nominees list and be in the top tier of elite football players, even if he isn’t one of the main contenders for the trophy.
