Messi's goal from Chilean with PSG 0:40
(CNN Spanish) -
In the year of the World Cup, after leading the Argentine team to a memorable unbeaten run and being champion in France, Lionel Messi is not one of the 30 candidates for the Ballon d'Or.
France Football
magazine , which delivers the prestigious award, the finalists revealed this Friday and the Argentine – who holds the 2021 title – will not be able to repeat.
In the favorites of fans and experts, Messi was not the top favourite, as many take it for granted that it will be Karim Benzema —who led Real Madrid to a new Champions League and LaLiga title in Spain—.
But the fact that Messi, who is still a world-class player, is not on the final list takes many by surprise.
Messi's last season with Paris Saint Germain was far below the usual in his career, scoring only 11 goals and providing 15 assists in 34 games played between Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Champions League.
Ronaldo, for his part, was the third best scorer in the English Premier League with 18 goals, behind Mohamed Salah and Heung Ming Son, who scored 23 goals each (both are among the 30 nominees for the Ballon d'Or).
Real Madrid, Liverpool and Manchester City are the teams with the most nominees, with a total of six.
There are two Hispanic Americans on the list: the Colombian Luis Díaz, who arrived at Liverpool in January from Porto, the third Colombian to achieve the nomination after James Rodríguez and Radamel Falcao (when the award was given in conjunction with FIFA) and the Uruguayan Darwin Núñez, who played the season with Benfica and has just arrived at that same English team with a stellar debut.
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The Brazilians in dispute are Vinicius, Casemiro and Fabinho.
The list has a strong presence of Portuguese: Cristiano Ronaldo, with a scoring season but without titles at Manchester United, along with Bernando Silva, Cancelo and Leão.
It is the first time that Messi – who has won the award seven times – has not been on the list since 2006. Since then, he has won it 7 times, a record for the award.
After leaving Barcelona a year ago, Messi had a decent performance at PSG in the 2021-22 season, but not spectacular as in previous years with the culé club: 6 goals in the league and with a performance to forget in the Champions League: it was eliminated in the round of 16 by Real Madrid.
Neither is Neymar and there are no Argentines on the list of candidates.
The prize is awarded on October 17 in Paris.
These are the candidates for the Ballon d'Or:
🇫🇷 Benzema - Real Madrid
🇧🇪 Courtois - Real Madrid
🇧🇷 Vinicius - Real Madrid
🇧🇷 Casemiro - Real Madrid
🇭🇷 Modric - Real Madrid
🇩🇪 Rüdiger - Real Madrid
🇪🇬
Salah - Liverpool
-Arnold - Liverpool
🇨🇴 Luis Diaz - Liverpool
🇧🇷 Fabinho - Liverpool
🇺🇾 Darwin Núñez - Liverpool
🇧🇪 Van Dijk - Liverpool
🇩🇿 Mahrez - Manchester City
🇵🇹 Bernardo Silva - Manchester City
🏴 Manchester City
🇧🇪 De Bruyne - Manchester City
🇵🇹 Cancelo - Manchester City
🇳🇴 Haaland - Manchester City
🇵🇱 Lewandowski - FC Barcelona
🇰🇷 Heung-Min Son - Tottenham
Karry Kane - Tottenham
🇩🇪 Kimmich - Bayern Munich
🇸🇳 Sadio Mané - Bayern Munich
🇵🇹 Leão - AC Milan
🇫🇷 Mike Maignan - AC Milan
🇫🇷 Nkunku - Leipzig
🇵 Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United
🇫🇷 Kylian Mbappe - PSG
🇫🇷 Haller - Borussia Dortmund
🇷🇸 Vlahovic - Juventus
Ballon d'Or Lionel Messi