The award is Europe’s highest and oldest honor, and has been presented by France Football every year since 1956.

The winner is voted for by 173 journalists around the world, with one representative per nation, while the list of nominees is compiled by the editorial staff of the French publication.

France Football’s thirty-man nominee list includes - Sergio Aguero, Alisson Becker, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Edinson Cavani, Thibaut Courtois, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kevin De Bruyne, Roberto Firmino, Diego Godin, Antoine Griezmann, Eden Hazard, Isco, Harry Kane, N’Golo Kante, Hugo Lloris, Mario Mandzukic, Sadio Mane, Marcelo, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Luka Modric, Neymar, Jan Oblak, Paul Pogba, Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Ramos, Mohamed Salah, Luis Suarez, and Raphael Varane.

In the last decade, the award has been a tug of war between Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina’s Lionel Messi, but it looks like things are about to change.

Here, we take a look at the top 3 Ballon d’Or potential winners picked by some of the best in football.

#1 Eden Hazard

The 27-year-old Chelsea man has tipped Croatia’s Luka Modric to win the prestigious individual prize in December, he also dropped his name and that of Raphael Varane.

In a recent interview, Hazard said,

#2 Neymar Jr

Brazilian superstar Neymar Jr has ruled himself out of the running for this year’s Ballon d’Or award.

The Paris Saint-Germain forward came third in the 2015 and 2017 editions of the award.

Neymar has pegged the top three contenders to be his PSG team-mate Kylian Mbappe, Messi, and Ronaldo.

When asked who he thought would win the award, Neymar told AS,

Neymar has recently revealed that his seven-year-old son, Davi Lucca da Silva Santos, is a big fan of his French teammate Mbappe.

#3 Sergio Ramos

Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos has had his pick on the top three players who deserve the prestigious award.

The defender picked Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, former Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, and Luka Modric as his top three contenders.

Speaking of the award, Ramos said,

Ramos was recently voted for the ninth time in FIFA’s best XI equaling Andres Iniesta as the Spanish player who has achieved the feat the most times.

Speaking of the achievement, he said,

#4 Paul Pogba

The Manchester United man has admitted that he does not deserve the award and echoed the sentiments of his France teammate Antoine Griezmann when he insisted that it should go to one of his international teammates after France lifted the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Speaking to AFP, he said,

Speaking of the award, Griezmann famously said,

#5 Kylian Mbappe

The young Frenchman had his pick on the top four contenders for football’s top award back in July.

Kylian M’bappe has completely snubbed Argentine ace Lionel Messi to pick Paris Saint-Germain teammate Neymar, Juventus man Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, and Raphael Varane as his top four.

Speaking to France Football, the Frenchman also added his own name to complete the top five,

Thursday saw France taking on Iceland in a friendly game which saw Kylian Mbappe scoring twice to save his side from a defeat to Iceland. The game ended at 2-2 at the Stade de Roudourou.

With the goals, the youngster became the first player to reach the 10 goal mark for Les Bleus before turning 20.

The Frenchman has even surpassed aces Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the number of international goals scored at his age.

0 votes