Liverpool Dominate in the 30-Man Shortlist of the 2019 Ballon D'or

The trio, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Virgil Van Dijk are among the full 300man squad named on Monday evening as contenders of the Ballon D’or Award.

Virgil Van Dijk was named as the UEFA Player of the Year in August whiles Barcelona’s Lionel Messi was the FIFIA Best Player pronounced in September.

Liverpool have the most of players on the list with seven; Virgil Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Georginio Wijnaldum and Alisson Becker.

 

 

Manchester City have five players, Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez, Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Sergio Aguero whiles Barcelona have four; Messi, Frenkie de Jong, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Antoine Griezmann.

Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min are also included for Tottenham with Aubameyang listed for Arsenal.

Voting for both of the Ballon d’Or is done by 176 soccer journalists around the world. Each journalist nominates five players and first choices are allocated 6 points, second choices 4 points, third 3 points, fourth 2 points and fifth a single point.

The selection panel for the Kopa Trophy comprises all 34 previous winners of the Ballon d’Or.

The winners of the four awards will be announced on December 2, in Paris.

Luka Modric won in the award in 2018 to end the seven-year dominance of the award by Messi and Ronaldo.

 

 

 

Paul Pogba and Neymar were among the biggest omissions this year.

England Women internationals Ellen White and Lucy Bronze have been named on the 20-woman shortlist for the Women's Ballon d'Or.

 

 

30 MAN SHORT LIST

Sadio Mane,

Sergio Aguero,

Frenkie de Jong,

Hugo Lloris,

Dusan Tadic,

Kylian Mbappe,

Trent Alexander-Arnold,

Donny van de Beek,

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang,

Marc-Andre ter Stegen,

Cristiano Ronaldo,

Alisson Becker,

Matthijs de Ligt,

Karim Benzema,

Georginio Wijnaldum,

Virgil van Dijk,

Bernardo Silva,

Heung-min Son,

Robert Lewandowski,

Roberto Firmino,

Lionel Messi,

Riyad Mahrez,

Kevin de Bruyne,

Kalidou Koulibaly,

Antoine Griezmann,

Mohamed Salah,

Eden Hazard,

Marquinhos,

Raheem Sterling,

Joao Felix.