Football news - Ballon d'Or 2018 long list: Ronaldo, Mbappe, Pogba, Modric, Kane take their places

ByEurosport

Updated 08/10/2018 at 18:57 GMT

Paul Pogba and Harry Kane are among 11 Premier League stars on the 30-man long list for this year’s Ballon d’Or, joining the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Luka Modric.

Ballon d'Or nominees

Image credit: Eurosport

Mohamed Salah also takes his place on the list after a sensational debut season in the Premier League in which he scored 32 goals and helped Liverpool reach the Champions League final.

Salah's team-mates Alisson, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane make the cut too.

Ballon d'Or

Pogba: I don't deserve to win the Ballon d'Or

09/10/2018 at 20:53

World Cup winners Pogba, Hugo Lloris and N'Golo Kante are among the nominees, with the tournament's Golden Boot winner Kane also on the prestigious list.

Eden Hazard was voted second best player at the World Cup and his current form certainly helped him confirm his place in the 30-man lineup.

Premier League winners Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne complete the Premier League nominees, meaning David Silva and David De Gea miss out.

Early favourite Luka Modric has the chance to end the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly after a year that featured another Champions League win and a World Cup where he was voted best player and finished runner-up with Croatia.

After a third straight Champions League win, Real Madrid boast no less than eight nominees.

Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, Thiabut Courtois, Isco, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane all join Modric in Los Blancos' presence on the list. However, midfielder Toni Kroos is a notable omission.

Meanwhile, Messi and Ronaldo will hope to continue their decade of domination after predictably being nominated for the France Football award.

Messi's Barcelona colleagues Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez also feature, as do PSG trio Neymar, Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe. Mbappe also features among the nominees for France Football's latest award for under-21 players, the Kopa Trophy.

Juventus forward Mario Mandzukic and Atletico Madrid trio Diego Godin, Antoine Griezmann and Jan Oblak make up the final 30 with the award ceremony taking place on December 3.

HOW DOES IT WORK... AND WHO MIGHT WIN?

Madrid's Croatia playmaker Modric is a 4/7 favourite to win the award having already won the FIFA gong for the men's player of the year.

Ronaldo and Messi have dominated the award since 2008 with five awards between them, but a Modric victory would end their decade-long domination of the prestigious honour.

A panel of journalists select the Ballon d'Or winner which was first established in 1956 and will this year feature a women's award for the first time.

The award merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year prize from 2010-15 to create the FIFA Ballon d'Or, but returned to France Football magazine in 2016 while FIFA established The Best awards.

Sir Stanley Matthews won the first Ballon d'Or in 1956.