Seven time winner Lionel Messi was the major omission as France Football, organisers of Ballon d’Or released of nominated footballers for the annual award.
The Paris Saint Germane player was a major omission while there was no player nominated from European champions, Italy.
Four Africans were nominated: Sadio Mane, Mohammed Sallah, Riyad Mahrez and Sebastian Haller.
Below is the full list of nominated players for the award:
🇧🇪 Thibaut Courtois
🇵🇹 Rafael Leão
🇫🇷 Christopher Nkunku
🇪🇬 Mohamed Salah
🇩🇪 Joshua Kimmich
🏴 Trent Alexander-Arnold
🇧🇷 Vinicius JR
🇵🇹 Bernardo Silva
🇨🇴 Luis Díaz
🇵🇱 Robert Lewandowski
🇩🇿 Riyad Mahrez
🇧🇷 Casemiro
🇰🇷 Heung-Min Son
🇧🇷 Fabinho
🇫🇷 Karim Benzema
🇫🇷 Mike Maignan
🏴 Harry Kane
🇺🇾 Darwin Núñez
🏴 Phil Foden
🇸🇳 Sadio Mané
🇨🇮 Sébastien Haller
🇭🇷 Luka Modrić
🇩🇪 Antonio Rüdiger
🇵🇹 Cristiano Ronaldo
🇧🇪 Kevin De Bruyne
🇷🇸 Dušan Vlahović
🇳🇱 Virgil van Dijk
🇵🇹 João Cancelo
🇫🇷 Kylian Mbappé
🇳🇴 Erling Haaland
Source: France Football
