Shortlist For 2018 Ballon d’Or Award Announced: Philippe Coutinho, Harry Kane And Sadio Mane All In The Running…

Chris Wright

9th, October 2017

13 Comments

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The shortlist for the 2018 Ballon d’Or award has gradually been announced today, with the usual suspects all cropping up once again.

Being the roguish little teases they are, France Football drip-dripped their list in five-player increments over the course of the afternoon, with all 30 names now present and accounted for.

Here are the nominees, in the precise order they were revealed…

Neymar (PSG)
Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
Pablo Dybala (Juventus)
Marcelo (Real Madrid)
N’Golo Kante (Chelsea)
Luis Suarez (Barcelona)
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid)
Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)
Dries Mertens (Napoli)
Kevin De Bruyne (Man City)
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
David De Gea (Manchester United)
Harry Kane (Tottenham)
Edin Dzeko (Roma)
Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid)
Toni Kroos (Real Madrid)
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
Radamel Falcao (Monaco)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Dortmund)
Edinson Cavani (PSG)
Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Leonardo Bonucci (AC Milan)
Isco (Real Madrid)
Kylian Mbappe (PSG)

A pair of shouts for Liverpool is faintly impressive, though only until you realise neither Coutinho or Mane will end up anywhere near the podium.

As per usual, the long-list is largely redundant, with Messi, Ronaldo and N.E. Other (probably Neymar again) almost certain to be contesting the trinket as and when it all gets whittled down to the final three.

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13 Comments

  1. Bruno says:

    Sadio Mane
    Radamel Falcao
    Edin Dzeko
    Dries Mertens
    Jan Oblak

    Seriously? Rashford, just to give one example, played better than all of them. Bonucci too.

  2. Straight Dave says:

    Falcao is in and Pogba isn’t?!

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  3. SmartBruno says:

    Mate, get your head out of your ass and watch some football from outside of England. Dzeko, Mertens and Oblak were outrageous this year, Falcao was pretty decent too. Mane though, don’t know he was in the list, wasn’t he injured for ages?

  4. Doppleganga says:

    Don’t really understand the Mane thing to be honest, a good player but seems a pretty routine midfielder to me?

    • Chris Wright says:

      Mane is swift, skillful, incredibly direct and very influential for Liverpool in an attacking sense, plus he had a good year at international level, but we’re inclined to agree: He’s not one of the best 30 footballers in the world.

      Arguable, but there are definite grounds to include the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Casemiro, David Silva, Sergio Aguero and/or Paul Pogba instead.

  5. Craig Davis says:

    Alexis Sanchez?
    Coutinho on the list before him, what a joke

  6. harry kane says:

    i should get the ballon d or

  7. chinley wigwam says:

    I think hazard , kante and dzeko should be ballon d or contendors

  8. LPK says:

    A list without Mohamed Salah is fake

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