Ronaldo and Messi have dominated the award for the last decade, claiming it five times each, but the expectation is that a new name will be read out as this year’s winner at just after 10pm (2100 GMT) at the Grand Palais, just off the Champs-Elysees.
While Ronaldo won another Champions League with Real Madrid in a typically prolific year, and Messi continues to mesmerise for Barcelona, both are now in their 30s and neither really stamped their authority on the World Cup in Russia.
That could be crucial. As FIFA president Gianni Infantino said recently: “You could give the Ballon d’Or to half the France team for what they did at the World Cup.”
Six members of the France side that triumphed in Russia are among the 30 nominees for the award, which is organised by France Football magazine and voted for by 180 journalists from around the world.
Among them are Paris Saint-Germain’s dazzling teenage forward Kylian Mbappe, Atletico Madrid striker Antoine Griezmann and Madrid’s Champions League-winning defender Raphael Varane. Hugo Lloris, Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante are also in the running.
The last Frenchman to win the Ballon d’Or was Zinedine Zidane in 1998, on the back of France’s World Cup victory on home soil that year.
Source:AFP
