Ballon d’Or 2019 shortlist LIVE result: Neymar misses out on nomination as Messi and Ronaldo lead list
Follow the latest news as the 2019 Ballon d’Or nominees are announced today
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Your support makes all the difference.Lionel Messi will have Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk as rivals for the 2019 Ballon d'Or award. But not Neymar.
When the long list of 30 candidates was announced Monday — in the city where Neymar has played for more than two years at Paris Saint-Germain — the Brazil star's name was missing from the nominations by a global voting panel of journalists.
Messi and Ronaldo's 10-year grip on the individual award organized by France Football magazine was broken by Luka Modric last December.
Modric is also absent one year after he swept the Ballon d'Or and FIFA best player awards after a stellar 2018 with Real Madrid and Croatia.
World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe is favored to add a Ballon d'Or to her FIFA award won last month.
The United States star is joined on a 20-woman list by teammates Tobin Heath and Alex Morgan. Defending her title is Ada Hegerberg, winner of the inaugural women's award, from Europe's dominant club team Lyon which has six nominees.
Neymar has twice placed third in Ballon d'Or voting, both times finishing behind Messi and Ronaldo. Moving out of Messi's shadow in Barcelona, where they won a Champions League title together in 2015, has not delivered the personal acclaim Neymar sought.
Messi won his sixth FIFA award last month, edging Van Dijk who starred in Liverpool's Champions League-winning team.
Van Dijk would be the first defender topping the poll since Italy's World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro in 2006.
The Liverpool center back was among seven teammates nominated, including Alisson Becker and Roberto Firmino. They also won the Copa America with a Brazil team that managed without an injured Neymar.
Van Dijk and Georginio Wijnaldum also figured in the five nominees from a resurgent Netherlands team. No Dutch player has won since Marco van Basten in 1992.
Liverpool forwards Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah are among a six-strong African challenge, including Mane's Senegal teammate, Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly.
The only Asian player on the list is South Korea forward Son Heung-min of Champions League finalist Tottenham.
The awards ceremony is Dec. 2 in Paris.
AP
When is the 2019 Ballon d'Or?
The ceremony will take place on December 2 2019.
Where is it held?
The 2019 Ballon d'Or ceremony will take place at the Theatre du Chatelet, in Paris.
When will the shortlist be announced?
France Football will announce their 30-man shortlist this evening.
They will announce 5 players to make the shortlist every 15 minutes from 5pm.
Here are five more nominees for the women's Ballon d'Or:
Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride)
Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal)
Dzenifer Marozsan (Lyon)
Pernille Harder (Wolfsburg)
Sarah Bouhaddi (Lyon)
There's going to be a break in proceedings now until 8.15pm, when the final ten nominees for the men's Ballon d'Or will be announced.
There'll also be ten more women's nominees, as well as the Kopa Trophy and Yachine Trophy shortlists.
A reminder of the women's top 10 nominations:
Sam Kerr
Ellen White
Nilla Fischer
Amandine Henry
Lucy Bronze
Alex Morgan
Vivianne Miedema
Dzenifer Marozsan
Pernille Harder
Sarah Bouhaddi
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is not the only Arsenal striker nominated tonight.
There have been 20 male nominations listed so far. With 10 to come, here's a reminder of who we've had:
- Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Dusan Tadic (Ajax), Frenkie De Jong (Barcelona), Sergio Aguero (Man City)
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona), Kylian Mbappe (PSG), Donny van de Beek (Ajax)
- Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Georginio Wijnaldum (Liverpool), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Alisson (Liverpool), Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus)
- Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Bernardo Silva (Man City), Heung-Min Son (Tottenham), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool)
The final 10 female nominees are...
- Kosovare Asllani (CD Tacon/Sweden)
- Ada Hegerberg (Lyon/Norway)
- Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns/USA)
- Sofia Jakobsson (CD Tacion/Sweden)
- Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit/USA)
- Marta (Orlando Pride/Brazil)
- Lieke Martens (Barcelona/Netherlands)
- Megan Rapinoe (Reign FC/USA)
- Wendie Renard (Lyon/France)
- Sari van Veenendal (Atlético Madrid/Netherlands)
Megan Rapinoe is one of the strong favourites to win the women's Ballon d'Or award, as is her US teammate Alex Morgan. Lucy Bronze is considered by some observers to be the best player in the world right now but the England full-back didn't win the World Cup, and that is likely to count against her.
Kopa nominees
This is the award for the best young player in the world in 2019. Last year Kylian Mbappe won the prize. Who do you fancy this time?
- Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax/Juventus/Netherlands)
- Vinicius (Real Madrid/Brazil)
- Kai Havertz (Bayer Leverkusen/Germany)
- Mattéo Gendouzi (Arsenal/France)
- Andriy Lunin (Real Madrid/Real Valladolid/Ukraine)
- João Félix (Benfica/Atlético Madrid/Portugal)
- Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund/England)
- Moise Kean (Juventus/Everton/Italy)
- Samu Chukwueze (Villarreal/Nigeria)
- Kang-in Lee (Valencia/South Korea)
Yachine Trophy
This is the new goalkeepers trophy – hope you're keeping up with all this. The nominees:
- Alisson Becker (Liverpool/Brazil)
- Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich/Germany)
- Ederson Morães (Man City/Brazil)
- André Onana (Ajax/Cameroon)
- Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus/Poland)
- Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid/Slovenia)
- Kepa Arrizabalaga (Chelsea/Spain)
- Samir Handanovic (Inter/Slovenia)
- Hugo Lloris (Tottenham/France)
- Marc-André ter Stegen (Barcelona/Germany)
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