When and How to watch the Ballon d’Or 2022 award ceremony live in India?

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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

1. Thibaut Courtois
2. Rafael Leão
3. Christopher Nkunku
4. Mohamed Salah
5. Joshua Kimmich
6. Trent Alexander-Arnold
7. Vinicius JR
8. Bernardo Silva
9. Luis Díaz
10. Robert Lewandowski
11. Riyad Mahrez
12. Casemiro
13. Heung-Min Son
14. Fabinho
15. Karim Benzema
16. Mike Maignan
17. Harry Kane
18. Darwin Núñez
19. Phil Foden
20. Sadio Mané
21. Sébastien Haller
22. Luka Modrić
23. Antonio Rüdiger
24. Cristiano Ronaldo
25. Kevin De Bruyne
26. Dušan Vlahović
27. Virgil van Dijk
28. João Cancelo
29. Kylian Mbappé
30. Erling Haaland

2022 Ballon d’Or shortlist – Women

1. Selma Bacha
2. Fridolina Rolfö
3. Vivianne Miedema
4. Lucy Bronze
5. Sam Kerr
6. Christiane Endler
7. Lena Oberdorf
8. Kadidiatou Diani
9. Catarina Macario
10. Alexia Putellas
11. Alexandra Popp
12. Aitana Bonmatí
13. Wendie Renard
14. Alex Morgan
15. Beth Mead
16. Asisat Oshoala
17. Marie-Antoinette Katoto
18. Millie Bright
19. Trinity Rodman
20. Ada Hegerberg