Paris Saint-Germain ahead Ousmane Dembélé and England ahead Chloe Kelly are among the many contenders to win the boys’s and girls’s Ballon d’Or award. The 30 males’s and 30 ladies’s nominees have been revealed Thursday by France Soccer journal, with the winners to be introduced at a ceremony in Paris on Sept. 22.The 28-year-old Dembélé was inspirational in main PSG to its first Champions League title after years of falling quick and helped the French membership full a treble.Teenage star Lamine Yamal, whose mesmerizing performances lit up the Champions League and helped Barcelona win the Spanish league title, is among the many different males’s nominees.Kelly starred for England at EurosWhen England received the ladies’s European Championship final month, the 27-year-old Kelly blasted residence the decisive penalty within the last in opposition to World Cup winner Spain. She additionally performed a key function earlier within the tense knockout phases.Final season, Kelly performed on the fitting flank as Arsenal received the ladies’s Champions League with one other against-the-odds win over powerhouse Barcelona.
She faces competitors from defender Lucy Bronze and goalkeeper Hannah Hampton — her England teammates who each play for Chelsea — and from Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmatí, the winner of the previous two awards.Barcelona gamers have received the previous 4 ladies’s awards. Bronze was runner-up in 2019 to U.S. ahead Megan Rapinoe.PSG gamers within the highlightDembélé was one in every of 9 PSG gamers nominated for the boys’s award, together with goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, ahead Désiré Doué, who scored twice within the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan within the Champions League last, and inspirational winger Khvitcha Kvaratskhelia.The opposite males’s nominees embody Egypt striker Mo Salah, whose 29 league objectives helped Liverpool win the Premier League, and prolific Actual Madrid striker Kylian Mbappé.Midfielder Rodri received the Ballon d’Or final yr after impressing with Manchester Metropolis and Spain however missed most of final season with a knee damage.Actual Madrid snubbed the star-studded ceremony final yr in obvious protest as a result of its ahead Vinícius Júnior completed in second place. After staying away, Madrid and its gamers then vented their emotions on social media.
The voting systemThe Ballon d’Or was created by France Soccer journal and has been awarded since 1956 for males, and since 2018 for ladies. It’s voted for by journalists from the highest 100 nations within the FIFA rankings for the boys’s award and the highest 50 FIFA-ranked nations for the ladies’s award.Every journalist, one per nation, selects gamers in ranked order with factors attributed to every place. The winner is the participant who receives essentially the most factors.Different nominationsPSG coach Luis Enrique was among the many nominees for finest males’s coach and England’s Sarina Wiegman finest ladies’s coach.Donnarumma, whose shot-stopping within the knockout phases proved essential to PSG’s success, is favored to win the Lev Yashin award for finest males’s goalkeeper, whereas Hampton is among the many 5 ladies’s candidates for that award.
