The FIFA Ballon d’or is an award given to the best footballer of the football year. It is a merger of the France Football’s Ballon d’or and the FIFA World Player of the Year award. The FIFA Ballon d’or is awarded based on votes from international journalists and national team coaches and captains, who selected the players they deemed to have performed the best in the previous calendar year.
The 2016 Ballon D’or contestants have been released by France Football. The first list contains 10 names while the remaining 20 will be released later. The award since inception has been shared by both Lionel Messi (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015), and Cristiano Ronaldo (2013 and 2014). It remains to be seen whether any of them would win the trophy or a new face breaking the monopoly.
LIONEL MESSI and Cristiano Ronaldo are likely to go head-to-head for a ninth consecutive year but who else is in the running for the 2016 Ballon d’Or?
Cristiano Ronaldo is the clear favorites to win the Ballon d’or 2016 having won the Champions League and the European Championship this year. He would however be challenged by Gareth Bale, his Real Madrid teammate who lead Wales to a historic Quarter Final place in the European Championship. Let’s consider who are who were nominated.
Ballon D’or 2016 | Names of Shortlisted Players
The shortlisted candidates to battle the current holder Lionel Messi are:
- Sergio Aguero (Man City)
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund)
- Gareth Bale (Real Madrid)
- Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG/Manchester United)
- Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona)
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
- Kevin De Bruyne (Man City)
- Paulo Dybala (Juventus)
- Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid)
- Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid)
- Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli/Juventus)
- Koke (Atletico Madrid)
- Toni Kroos (Real Madrid)
- Robert Lewandowski (Bayern)
From the names, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, have 3 representatives, Juventus and Mancity 2, Barcelona, PSG, Borrussia Dortmund, Napoli and Bayern Munich all have 1. Recall that both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gonzalo Higuain are listed for their performances in the PSG and Napoli respectively.
