Andre Onana, Bukayo Saka and Mohamed Salah among 30 nominees for Ballon d'Or
Manchester United’s Andre Onana, Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah have all been nominated for the 2023 Ballon d’Or award.
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The prestigious trophy is handed to the best player in world football and a total of 30 players have made the first nomination list.
The Ballon d’Or Twitter account listed the nominees five players at a time – with United goalkeeper Onana on the first announcement – alongside Liverpool star Salah, Manchester City’s Josko Gvardiol, Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala and Al-Ittihad striker Karim Benzema.
Saka was confirmed on the list in the second tweet with City duo Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva as well as Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Paris Saint-Germain’s Randal Kolo Muani.
Erling Haaland headlined the third instalment of nominees which also includes City team-mate Ruben Dias, Inter Milan star Nicolo Barella, Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was the 16th player nominated while Barcelona’s Ilkay Gundogan, City’s Julian Alvarez, Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr and Morocco international Yassine Bono made it 20.
Lionel Messi was named on the fifth list of five nominees with Robert Lewandowski, Antoine Griezmann, Rodri and Lautaro Martinez.
HERE ARE ALL THE BALLON D’OR NOMINEES! 🌕✨#ballondor pic.twitter.com/hg1ZByzhDV
The final six nominated for the 2023 Ballon d’Or include Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane, Luka Modric, Victor Osimhen and Kim Min-jae.
Benzema is the current Ballon d’Or holder after he picked up the 2022 trophy for his heroics at Real Madrid, with Sadio Mane finishing second and De Bruyne third.
Messi has won the Ballon d’Or seven times – a record number – and the Argentine is looking to land his eighth trophy.
Meanwhile, the full list of nominees for the 2023 Kopa Trophy has also been revealed, which is the award handed to the best U21 player in the world.
Ballon d’Or nominees Bellingham and Musiala are up for the Kopa Trophy while United striker Rasmus Hojlund is also on the list.
Barcelona duo Gavi and Pedri are nominated for the Kopa Trophy too as well as Eduardo Camavinga, Xavi Simons, Antonio Silva, Elye Wahi and Alejandro Balde.
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