2022 Ballon d'Or nominees: Why is Cristiano Ronaldo included but Lionel Messi isn't?

All of the candidates for the sport’s highest individual honor, the2022 Ballon d’Orwereunveiled this weekend, so it will be decided amongst them.The greatest player in the world for the previous season will be honored during a formal presentation event in October.

This is the first year that the recipient won’t be chosen just on the basis of their performance in the previous calendar year, but rather on the basis of their performance during the preceding season.Karim Benzema of Real Madrid is the odds-on favorite to take the award home after leading the Whites to La Ligaand the UEFA Champions League double last season, but many other well-known players are also in the race.

Lionel Messi, who has won the trophy seven times since 2006, will not be eligible to defend it again in 2022.As he was not one of the 30 nominees revealed by L’Equipe and France Football on Friday, he will not be competing for his eighth prize at the gala on October 17. On the other hand, Cristiano Ronaldo managed to make the cut.

Why was Lionel Messi omitted from the2022 Ballon d’Or nominees list?

The reigning Ballon d’Or winner, left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain last summer and led the French club to the Ligue 1 title in his first season. The 35-year-old had an injury-plagued season, during which he scored only six league goals in 26 league appearances, therefore earning no recognition from France Football.

The French magazine have given the change in the Ballon d’Or criteria as the reason, noting that it is now determined by the football season rather than the calendar year and that Messi’s achievements were subpar. They bring up how his first year in Paris didn’t go so well and how Mauricio Pochettino’s position hasn’t helped matters.

“Inevitably, Lionel Messi, with his 15 appearances in a row since 2006, his seven Ballon d’Or victories, his title holder status, weighs very heavily when it comes to the final choice.The Argentinian was part of the discussions to integrate the 30, but the new criteria for the Ballon d’Or were unfavourable to him: disappearance of the criterion of a player’s entire career, and new periodicity, modelled on a season of football and no longer over a calendar year, which does not make it possible to integrate the Copa America of July 11, 2021. And then, it must be admitted that his first season in Paris was very disappointing both in terms of the visual impression and the statistics”,Emmanuel Bojan, the French football publication’s second-in-command, elaborated.

Why was Cristiano Ronaldo included in the2022 Ballon d’Or nominees list?

After providing an explanation for Messi’s removal, L’Equipe then defended the Portuguese’s placement on the list of 30 candidates for the Ballon d’Or, marking his 18th straight year in the running.L’Equipe have provided a number of possible justifications. Manchester United advanced to the round of 16 in the Champions League thanks to his six goals in the group stage, and he finished the season with 32 goals in 49 appearances.

“The statistics say the opposite [of that Ronaldo shouldn’t be included]. Ronaldo became the top scorer in national football this season [117 goals]. He was extremely decisive in the Champions League group stage with four off-the-cuff goals that gave Man Utd seven points. In the Premier League, he had 18 goals including two hat-tricks. In total, 32 goals in 49 matches are not as many as in his best seasons but enough to be among the 30 best players in the world”, Emmanuel Bojan added.