The countdown to the Ballon d’Or has literally begun, with France Football dropping the results one by one throughout the day ahead of the winner’s ceremony.
On the men’s side, Karim Benzema is widely expected to be named the winner of this year’s award after winning La Liga and the Champions League with Real Madrid, while scoring a career-high 44 goals in 46 games across all competitions.
Meanwhile, Lionel Messi, the seven-time winner and reigning holder, was left out of the running for the first time since 2005.
Earlier this year, France Football announced major changes to the voting criteria. The magazine confirmed that voting will be based first on individual performance, followed by team performance and fair play, while a player’s reputation and performance from past years should not influence voting.
It also announced that voting will take the seasonal calendar (roughly July to July) into account rather than the calendar year. Changes also restricted voting to journalists from the first 100 nations in the FIFA world rankings for the men’s award and the first 50 in the rankings for the women.
Here is the rolling results released by France Football (refresh for latest updates):
T25. Darwin Núñez (Benfica/Liverpool; Uruguay)
T25. Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig; France)
T25. Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich; Germany)
T25. Mike Maignan (AC Milan; France)
T25. João Cancelo (Man City; Portugal)
T25. Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea/Real Madrid; Germany)
T22. Bernardo Silva (Man City; Portugal)
T22. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool; England)
T22. Phil Foden (Man City; England)
21. Harry Kane (Tottenham; England)
20. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United; Portugal)
T17. Luis Díaz (Porto/Liverpool; Colombia)
T17. Casemiro (Real Madrid; Brazil)
T17. Dušan Vlahović (Fiorentina/Juventus; Serbia)
16. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool; Netherlands)
T14. Rafael Leão (AC Milan; Portugal)
T14. Fabinho (Liverpool; Brazil)
13. Sébastien Haller (Ajax/Borussia Dortmund; Ivory Coast)
12. Riyad Mahrez (Man City; Algeria)
11. Son Heung-min (Tottenham; South Korea)
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