MESSI MISSING ON 2019 BALLON D’OR SHORTLIST

For the first time since 2007 when Kaka of Brazil won the award, both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are conspicuously missing in the 20-man shortlist for the Men’s Ballon d’Or award.

The award is being packaged by France Football, which released the initial 20 of the expected 30-man list.

The final list will be revealed on December 2 in Paris. Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder, Laka Modric won last year’s award.

The first quintet announced contained a trio of Premier League players, with Sadio Mane, Sergio Aguero and Hugo Lloris joining Dusan Tadic and Frenkie de Jong.

Champions League winners Liverpool boast the most players so far, with six names on the list. Mane is joined by Virgil van Dijk, who was named 2019 UEFA Player of the Year, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, Gini Wijnaldum and Roberto Firmino.

Five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo was named in the third batch of nominees, while 11 of the first 20 players are from the Premier League.

The 30 nominees have been chosen by the editorial staff at France Football, while the winner will be determined by the votes of an international panel of journalists – one per country.

There are three main criteria that nominees are judged on. These are: individual and team achievements over the last 12 months, a player’s talent and flair, and a player’s wider career.

Every voting journalist will get five picks, each worth a different value. A top pick is worth six points, with subsequent choices getting four, three, two or one point. In the event of two players getting the same number of total points, the number of first place votes will be taken in account, followed by second place votes, third place votes, and so on.

France Football also oversees the Women’s Ballon d’Or, which was new in 2018 and won for the first time by Lyon striker Ada Hegerberg, as well as the Kopa Trophy for players aged 21 or under, and the new Yachine Trophy to recognise the best goalkeeper of the calendar year.

The Ballon d’Or was briefly partnered with FIFA from 2010 until 2015, but the world governing body has already held its own separate 2019 award ceremony, during which Lionel Messi and USWNT icon Megan Rapinoe scooped the two main individual 2019 awards.