Marc-André ter Stegen and Dzsenifer Marozsán are the only German hopes this year for the Ballon d'Or trophy for the world's best footballer and the world's best footballer. Amongst the men, the FC Barcelona national team is one of 30 nominees on the list of the French trade journal "France Football". The overview of the women with national player Marozsán includes a total of 20 names.
While the Bundesliga is represented in the men only by Robert Lewandowski from Bayern, represents the Liverpool, Champions League winner and Premier League runner-up of the previous year, with seven players the strongest club fraction (Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold Alisson, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah and Georginio Wijnaldum).
15 of the 30 nominees play in the Premier League, seven in the Spanish Primera División, three in Italy and two each in the Netherlands and France. Already charged are changes in the past summer. The Netherlands is the most frequently represented nation with five candidates.
Last year's winner Modric is missing
As usual, the list is led by favorite record winners Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi (both wins five times each). The Croatian winner Luka Modric (Real Madrid) is not included.
The winners of the "France Football" Golden Ball will be judged by specialist journalists from all over the world and the winners will be announced on December 2nd at a ceremony in Paris. The traditional trophy has been awarded since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, the election took place on the basis of a deal with "France Football" under the umbrella of the World Federation Fifa and replaced the election as World Player of the Year. Since 2016, the prize has been awarded on its own by "France Football". Fifa awards its own prize at the same time, the "Fifa The Best" Award.
At the "Fifa the Best" poll at the end of September Messi won ahead of Ronaldo and van Dijk. Liverpool captain van Dijk had previously won the European Footballers of the Year award.
In the footsteps of Kylian Mbappé
The awarding of the Women's Ballon d'Or ended in an affront at its premiere last year: The Norwegian winner Ada Hegerberg was asked after her speech by moderator Martin Solveig whether she could wiggle her ass. On the Twerking spell Hegerberg reacted with a contemptuous "No!", In the social media Solveig action caused great outrage.
After all, in the so-called "Kopa Trophy", with the "France Football" selects the best player under 21 years, the Bundesliga is better represented than in the World Footballer election. With Kai Havertz, offensive Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund Jadon Sancho (England) are two Bundesliga professionals on the list of ten nominated top talent. Alongside Havertz and Sancho are: Joao Félix (Atletico Madrid), Moise Kean (Everton), Samuel Chukwueze (Villareal), Kan-In Lee (Valencia), Matthiis De Ligt (Juventus), Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid) , Matteo Guendouzi (Arsenal) and Andriy Lunin (Real Valladolid). Last year, the first year of the award, Kylian Mbappé of Paris Saint-Germain won the trophy.
Also the Italian sports paper "Tuttosport" annually chooses the best U21 player. The so-called "Golden Boy" award last year went to Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax Amsterdam (now Juventus). Among the nominees nominated by "Tuttosport" this year are also Havertz and Sancho, but there are also two other Bundesliga players: Alphonso Davies from Bayern and Dejan Joveljic from Eintracht Frankfurt.