Ballon d'Or 2019: Messi, Ronaldo or Van Dijk? A look at top contenders

The Ballon d'Or nominees for 2019 were announced on Monday, October 21. Unsurprisingly, seven of Liverpool's Champions League-winning squad have been included in the list. Senegalese winger Sadio Mane was among the first to be named on Monday evening. The 30-man list was released by the French media on October 21 and sprung quite a few surprises.

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Liverpool's Mane was joined on the list by teammates Alisson Becker, Roberto Firmino, Georginio Wijnaldum, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and defensive mainstay Virgil van Dijk. There was no place on the list for England international Harry Kane. His Tottenham teammate Hugo Lloris, however, made the cut. In all, 15 Premier League players were named on the list, with Manchester City being represented by Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez and Belgian maestro Kevin De Bruyne.

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Ballon d'Or favourites

While the winner of the award is due to be announced on December 2, there has been a lot of speculation regarding potential winners. The race for the Ballon d'Or seems to be a two-horse race this time around. Liverpool's Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk is one of the strong contenders for the award. However, Barcelona's Lionel Messi is not far behind. Barcelona may have been knocked out of the Champions League by Virgil van Dijk and Co, but the Argentine still finished his season with the Pichihci award in LaLiga, netting 36 goals in 34 games for the Blaugrana. The Argentine also enjoyed another 50-plus goal season with Barcelona.

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Virgil van Dijk earlier won the UEFA Player of the Year ahead of Lionel Messi. Messi, however, ended up with the FifPro Best Men's Player award. With last year's winner Luka Modric having found himself out of the running this time around, his former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo is among the top three contenders for the Ballon d'Or this season. Being knocked out of the Champions League by Ajax will mean that the Portuguese captain will find it difficult to clinch his sixth Ballon d'Or. Both Ronaldo and Messi are currently tied on five Ballon d'Ors. Interestingly, Ronaldo himself was the last Premier League player to win the Ballon d'Or, way back in 2008, during his time with Manchester United.

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