France Football magazine has announced the list of Ballon d’Or 2016 nominees with Portugal skipper Cristiano Ronaldo being tipped to win the coveted trophy. Ronaldo is one of three Portuguese players in the list of 30. The other two are Real Madrid’s Pepe and Sporting Lisbon keeper Rui Patrício who both played pivotal roles in Portugal’s success in EURO 2016.
The Ballon d’Or is awarded to players based on both individual performance as well as the trophies they’ve won and Ronaldo has beaten every other player in terms of trophies this year. He has been in exceptional form for both club and country, having scored more than 50 goals for a sixth consecutive season – a record!
As well as winning EURO 2016, he helped Real Madrid win their 11th Champions League title when they beat Atlético Madrid in Milan. Other notable names on the Ballon d’Or list are: Sergio Aguero (Man City), Gareth Bale (Real Madrid), Kevin De Bruyne (Man City), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Dimitri Payet (West Ham), Neymar (Barcelona), Paul Pogba (Manchester United), Luis Suarez (Barcelona) and Jamie Vardy (Leicester City).
The voting will be conducted only by a panel of journalists after FIFA severed their connections with the award.
The ‘shortlist’ will be trimmed down further to just three names ahead of the award ceremony in January 2017.
CHRIS WRIGHT
