Serie A stars Mike Maignan, Rafael Leao and Dusan Vlahovic have been included in the list of 30 candidates for this year’s Ballon d’Or.
The announcement by L’Equipe this evening has sparked discussion amongst fans, both regarding the inclusions and the notable absences. Neymar and seven-time winner Lionel Messi both missed out, but Cristiano Ronaldo still made the cut despite his tough year with Manchester United.
Serie A trio Maignan, Leao and Vlahovic were all nominated, but aren’t likely to win as favourites include Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, PSG’s Kylian Mbappe and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.
The last player to win the Ballon d’Or whilst playing in Serie A was Kaka, who achieved the feat with following his incredible season with Milan. The last Italian winner came a year prior, when Fabio Cannavaro lifted the award after guiding Italy to glory in the 2006 World Cup.
Five Italian players have won in total – Omar Sívori (1961), Gianni Rivera (1969), Paolo Rossi (1982), Roberto Baggio (1993) and Cannavaro (2006).
Looking at winners from Italian clubs, six achieved the feat at Juventus, the same amount at Milan and two at Inter.
Benzema easy, don’t know why Dusan is that but expect him to score 35+ goals this season… Magic Mike deserves to be, outstanding season with only a couple of mistakes… Leao was too hot and cold, but what a talent… would have thought Broz would make it, was brilliant for us.
How on earth did they get the Serbian Andy carroll amongst the nominees?? 😂
Where’s Donnarumma? Wasn’t he pretty much the biggest contributor to Real Madrids CL victory?
Dusan had a great, if not splendid half year with Viola, maybe that was enough to just put him in there. I am surprised that Brozovic isn’t though, he is clearly one of the most important Inter players and without him Inter dropped points and lost some wind in their sail on February. I still rate Maignan above Leao for last season because of his consistency, too bad that he had to miss several games. However, it was such a promising season for Leao and hopefully this would be the confirmation year of his progress to grow as superstar.
However, the reward shall go to Benzema and Courtois should be the best GK last season. –
@Rosario
If Leao is on it, why wouldn’t Vlahovic? You’d take Vlahovic in your team in a heartbeat.
Seems like the player that plays for the best team will win the golden ball Sad to see Lewandowski robbed again. Benzema was not better than Robert
what about Lewandowski?
What’s about Salah and Liverpool