The 2022 Ballon d’Or award was held yesterday with Real Madrid and France striker Karim Benzema emerging as the winner. For the first time Five-time winner Ronaldo ranked 20th while seven-time winner Lionel Messi did not make it to the top 20.
Messi and Ronaldo have dominated the award in recent years, apart from in 2018 when Croatia midfielder Luka Modric won it. Lionel Messi had already won the trophy more times than any other player and his seventh success in 2021 came after wins in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019.
However, he was not nominated this time after an underwhelming first season at Paris St-Germain. Manchester United’s Ronaldo, who last won it in 2017, was placed 20th of the 30 players nominated, the Portuguese’s lowest Ballon d’Or ranking since 2005.
1. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, France).
2. Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich, Senegal).
3. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City, Belgium).
4. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona, Poland).
5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, Egypt).
6. Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain, France).
7. Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid, Belgium).
8. Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid, Brazil).
9. Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia).
10. Erling Haaland (Manchester City, Norway).
11. Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur, South Korea)
12. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City, Algeria).
13. Sebastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund, Ivory Coast).
14. Fabinho (Liverpool, Brazil) tied with Rafael Leao (AC Milan, Portugal).
16. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, Netherlands).
17. Luis Diaz (Liverpool, Colombia) tied with Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus, Serbia) and Casemiro (Manchester United, Brazil).
20. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal).
21. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur, England).
22. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool, England) tied with Phil Foden (Manchester City, England) and Bernardo Silva (Manchester City, Portugal).
25. Joao Cancelo (Manchester City, Portugal) tied with Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich, Germany), Mike Maignan (AC Milan, France), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid, Germany), Darwin Nunez (Liverpool, Uruguay) and Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig, France).