Man City players excitedly practice to prepare for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers
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Man City dominates the list of nominations for the Golden Ball 2023
With a historic treble in the last season, Man City is the team that has contributed the most names in the list of nominations for the 2023 Golden Ball organized by France Football magazine.
France Football magazine has published a list of 30 nominations for the 2023 Ballon d’Or award with the dominance of Man City, the team that won the treble last season. Specifically, there are 7 players from The Citizens on this list including: Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Erling Haaland, Ilkay Gundogan, Julian Alvarez and Rodri.
Winning the World Cup 2022 also helps Argentina contribute 4 faces in this list of nominations: Lionel Messi, Emiliano Martinez, Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez.
Besides, there are the top names of European football last season such as Lewandowski, Benzema, Mbappe, Salah, Saka, Vinicius, Griezmann, Modric or Kane.
It is noteworthy that the Portuguese superstar – Cristiano Ronaldo was not on the list of nominees this year. This is the first time since 2003 that this striker is not on the list, this marks the Ronaldo – Messi era gradually coming to an end.
The list of nominations for the 2023 Golden Ball for male / female players. (Photo: FF)
Experts are evaluating the two strongest candidates for this year’s award: Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland. While Messi left a big mark in the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar, he also won the title of best player voted by FIFA at this tournament.
As for Erling Haaland, with his terrifying scoring form in the 2022/23 season, the Norwegian striker won a historic treble with Man City and many individual awards. In the recent Champions League group stage draw, the Man City star surpassed Messi and won the UEFA player of the year award.
Meanwhile, in the women’s category, France Football also announced a list of 30 nominees. With the 2023 World Cup championship, the Spanish women’s team has 6 nominated players: Alba Redondo, Olga Carmona, Salma Paralluelo, Patricia Guijarro, Aitana Bonmati and Mapi Leon.
According to schedule, France Football will announce the awards at the Golden Ball awards gala night in Paris on October 30.