The 67th Ballon d'Or Ceremony: All You Need To Know

The 67th Ballon d'Or gala is set for Monday, a prestigious event by France Football magazine, known for its updated selection criteria now focused on the 2022-2023 sporting season rather than just a calendar year, including the World Cup and Women's World Cup but excluding the start of the 23-24 season. To avoid the
long-standing dominance of Messi and Ronaldo, the new approach emphasizes individual performance, decisive character, collective success, fair play, with a reduced jury of 100 for men's and 50 for women's Ballon d'O.

Nominees

A shortlist of 30 male and 20 female players was established by a committee comprising the editorial staffs of France Football and the newspaper L'Equipe, as well as former striker Didier Drogba.

Nominees for the men's Ballon d'Or:

Julian Alvarez (Argentina), Nicolo Barella (Italy), Jude Bellingham (England), Karim Benzema (France), Yassine Bounou (Morocco), Kevin de Bruyne (Belgium), Ruben Dias (Portugal), Antoine Griezmann (France), Ilkay Gundogan (Germany), Josko Gvardiol (Croatia), Erling Haaland (Norway), Harry Kane (England), Kim Min-Jae (South Korea), Randal Kolo-Muani (France), Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Georgia), Robert Lewandoski (Poland), Emiliano Martinez (Argentina), Lautaro Martinez (Argentina), Kylian Mbappe (France), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Luka Modric (Croatia), Jamal Musiala (Germany), Martin Odegaard (Norway), Andre Onana (Cameroon), Victor Osimhen (Nigeria), Rodri (Spain), Bukayo Saka (England), Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Bernardo Silva (Portugal), Vinicius Jr (Brazil).

Women's Ballon d'Or nominees:

Aitana Bonmati (Spain), Millie Bright (England), Linda Caicedo (Colombia), Olga Carmona (Spain), Rachel Daly (England), Debinha (Brazil), Kadidiatou Diani (France), Mary Earps (England), Patricia Guijarro (Spain); Yui Hasegawa (Japan), Amanda Ilestedt (Sweden), Sam Kerr (Australia), Mapi Leon (Spain), Katie McCabe (Ireland), Hinata Miyazawa (Japan), Lena Oberdorf (Germany), Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria), Ewa Pajor (Poland), Salma Paralluelo (Spain), Alexandra Popp (Germany), Hayley Raso (Australia), Alba Redondo (Spain), Guro Reiten (Norway), Wendie Renard (France), Fridolina Rolfo (Sweden), Jill Roord (Netherlands), Khadija Shaw (Jamaica), Sophia Smith (USA), Georgia Stanway (England), Daphne Van Domselaar (Netherlands).

Favourites

There seems to be little doubt as to who the two favourites to lift the Ballon d'Or are Lionel Messi, for his important role as captain of Argentina at the World Cup in Qatar, has every chance of winning the trophy once again and succeeding Karim Benzema, Spain international Aitana Bonmati, likewise, as the World Cup winners' best player, is also in the running to win the award and take over from Alexia Putellas, who won it in the previous two years.

In addition to the men's and women's Ballon d'Or, the gala organised at the Theatre du Chatelet in the centre of Paris offers other awards.

The Kopa trophy will be awarded to the best young player of the season, up to the age of 21. Kylian Mbappe won its first edition in 2018. FC Barcelona's Gavi is the latest winner and a contender to retain it. But the big favourite is England's Jude Bellingham, transferred last European summer from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid, where he has shone since the start of his Madrid adventure.

The Yashin Trophy will crown the best goalkeeper, with a great favourite to succeed Thibaut Courtois being Emiliano Martinez.

The 'Socrates Award',

Introduced last year, is reserved for players involved in social or charitable projects.

The top scorer also has an award (the Gerd Muller trophy), as does the best club of the season.

The last ten winners 2022: Karim Benzema 2021, 2019: Lionel Messi 2018: Luka Modric 2017, 2016: Cristiano Ronaldo 2015: Lionel Messi 2014, 2013: Cristiano Ronaldo

Winners since inception 2022, 2021: Alexia Putellas 2019: Megan Rapinoe 2018: Ada Hegerberg