Messi and Ronaldo were not included in list of nominees for Golden Ball for 1st time
By Alimat Aliyeva
France Football has published a list of 30 contenders for the Golden Ball. For the first time since 2003, striker Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nasr, Portugal national team) and Lionel Messi (Inter Miami, Argentina national team) are not among them, Azernews reports.
The award will be presented to the best football player in the world at the end of the 2023/24 season.
The list of contenders for the Ballon d'Or includes:
Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Toni Kroos (retired), Antonio Ruediger, Federico Valverde, Daniel Carvajal (all Real Madrid), Ruben Dias, Erlin Holann, Philip Foden, Rhodri (all Manchester City), Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa), Nico Williams (Athletic), Granit Xhaka, Florian Wirtz, Alex Grimaldo (all — Bayer), Artyom Dovbik (Girona/Roma), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund/Roma), Dani Olmo (Leipzig/"Barcelona), Lamin Yamal (Barcelona), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Vitinha (PSG), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka, Martin Edegor, William Saliba, Declan Rice (all Arsenal), Hakan Chalhanoglu, Lautaro Martinez (both are Inter), Ademola Lukman (Atalanta).
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