Since 2008, when Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or for the first time, until 2021, this award is the story of the two-horse race between CR7 and Lionel Messi.
The Portuguese striker has been honored five times, while the Argentine striker has been named seven times.
There have been only 2 years that Ronaldo and Messi have not stepped onto the winning threshold, which was in 2018 - when Luka Modric won thanks to impressive performances with Real Madrid and the Croatian team, and in 2020 - the tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic (also the year Robert Lewandowski was rated the highest).
In the past 2 years, Messi has been the winner, surpassing Virgil van Dijk, Ronaldo, Lewandowski and Jorginho in the Top 3. However, this year, Messi will not have the opportunity to compete.
Messi is not on the list of 30 nominees announced by France Football. In fact, it is not surprising that the 2021-2022 season was the time he started his career at Paris St Germain, with many difficulties in integrating into the new environment.
In the 66th edition, France Football announced a number of new criteria for the prestigious race. Accordingly, this is the first year that the Ballon d'Or has been awarded based on the achievements of the most recent season - the 2021-2022 season, not the calendar year.
For the voters, the 2022 Ballon d'Or will only be representative of football regions in the Top 100 on the FIFA rankings, and the Top 50 national women's teams. The voting criteria include individual achievements, collective achievements and fair-play scores of players.
The list of 30 candidates for the 2022 Ballon d'Or award was selected by the Jury, including Didier Drogba - who will be the ambassador, along with journalists, experts, analysts and selectors. Previously, the list of nominees for the tournaments was chosen by experts from France Football and L'equipe.
This year, the most highly rated face is Karim Benzema. The French striker plays a very important role in Real Madrid's La Liga and Champions League titles, as well as helping the French team win the Nations League.
Notably, Cristiano Ronaldo is not highly appreciated for this year's victory but he will still be present at the awards ceremony - for the first time in a 5-year absence, to support his former teammate at Real Madrid.
The 2022 Ballon d'Or award ceremony will take place at 1:30 a.m. on October 18, live on FPT Play.
Link to watch the 2022 Golden Ball Awards live
