The time has finally come for the highest individual honour in football, the Ballon d’Or award presented by France Football. The award was cancelled in 2020 due to the Coronirus pandemic but it resumed last year as former Barcelona legend Lionel Messi won his 7th Ballon d’Or award.
Robert Lewandowski was arguably the best footballer during 2020-21 however, he was beaten by Messi to the award which shocked the whole award. As a result, to have a fair voting process, there have been 4 key changes to the Ballon d’Or awards voting.
This year the nominees for the Ballon d’Or 2022 were revealed on 17th August and after the voting, the ceremony will be held today, ie, 17th October at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
4 key changes to the Ballon d’Or 2022 award
- The award will only take into consideration the European calendar season which ends in June 2022. So, the World Cup will be taken into consideration from the 2023 edition of the award. It also helps create a more specific and equal timeframe for comparing the performance of individual players.
- Didier Drogba, Truong Anh Ngoc, and Czech juror Karolina Hlavackova have been added alongside the list of journalists to help combine the nominees for the award.
- Only the representatives of the first 100 countries in the FIFA rankings for the men’s award and the first 50 for the women’s will be permitted to vote.
- The Ballon d’Or will also take into consideration the collective performance and the ‘class’ of a player alongside their fair play record. The reputation and past success of players will not be taken into consideration when determining their ranking in the final ceremony.
How to watch the Ballon d’Or 2022 award ceremony live in India?
The Ballon d’Or 2022 award ceremony is scheduled at 8:30 pm on Monday, 29th November (12 am IST, Tuesday, 18th October).
The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Sony TEN 2 and Sony TEN 2 HD TV channels in India. It will also be live streamed on Sony LIV.
The Ballon d’Or 2022 award ceremony will also be live streamed on L’Equipe’s YouTube channel.
Ballon d’Or 2022 nominees
Karim Benzema was arguably the standout performer of the 21/22 season, helping Real Madrid win not only La Liga but also the Champions League for the 14th time He is the favourite to win the Ballon d’Or tonight. Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas is also the favourite to win the Women’s Ballon d’Or award.
Read: Here’s why Cristiano Ronaldo is present but Messi is absent from the Ballon d’Or 2022 nominees list
2022 Ballon d’Or shortlist – Men
- 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
2022 Ballon d’Or shortlist – Women
- Selma Bacha
- Fridolina Rolfö
- Vivianne Miedema
- Lucy Bronze
- Sam Kerr
- Christiane Endler
- Lena Oberdorf
- Kadidiatou Diani
- Catarina Macario
- Alexia Putellas
- Alexandra Popp
- Aitana Bonmatí
- Wendie Renard
- Alex Morgan
- Beth Mead
- Asisat Oshoala
- Marie-Antoinette Katoto
- Millie Bright
- Trinity Rodman
- Ada Hegerberg
