{Photo courtesy of Remezcla}
By Dennis Mungai
The 2023 Ballon D’Or nominees list has been released ahead of the awards ceremony slated for October 30 in Paris, France. Football’s most prestigious award went to Karim Benzema last year after winning the Champions League and La Liga with Real Madrid. The nomination for this year’s award has taken into consideration not only domestic league form but also performance on the global stage, notably the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Lionel Messi is in contention and will battle it out with fellow World Cup finalist Kylian Mbappe and his Argentinian teammate Emiliano Martinez. Another Argentine, Lautaro Martinez is also in the list after having won the World Cup and reached the Champions League final with Inter Milan. Manchester City has a decent representation in the list, with Ruben Dias, Kevin De Bruyne Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Golden Boot winner Erling Haaland all being nominated.
This was after Man City won the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history to complete an unprecedented treble. Sevilla’s goalkeeper Yassine Bounou made it to the list after his heroics helped Morocco reach the semis of the 2022 FIFA World Cup as the only African team to have gone that far.
Despite losing out on the Premier League trophy last season, Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard have made the list as well. There are quite a number of new names on the list, with first time nominations for players like Napoli’s Kvichi Kvarastkhelia, Man City’s Josko Gvardiol, who won German Cup for Leipzig last season and Man U’s keeper Andre Onana, who reached Champions League final with Inter Milan last season.