The French magazine "France Football" published its annual list of the most prominent candidates to win the Golden Ball award for the best player in the world, and according to the list published by the magazine on Wednesday, the Argentine star Lionel Messi, Norwegian Erling Haaland and French Kylian Mbappe are the most prominent candidates, noting the absence of Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, winner of the award five times .

edited by |Jus Mcmahon

Sport section -  CJ journalist

Paris– September,6,2023

Ronaldo was absent from the list of candidates after he spent the second half of last season in the ranks of Saudi victory after parting ways with English Manchester United.

Messi, who left French PSG this summer to join the American League in order to defend the colors of Inter Miami, has a chance to succeed Frenchman Karim Benzema, strengthen his record and win the prestigious award for the eighth time in his legendary career, which finally led him after a long wait to score the World Cup with his country at the end of last year.

Haaland looks the frontrunner to compete with the 36-year-old in the race for the award, the winner of which will be announced on October 30 during a ceremony in Paris, after his brilliance last season and led Manchester City to the League, Cup and Champions League treble, scoring 52 goals in 53 matches played in all competitions.

The former Borussia Dortmund player was rewarded for his efforts last week with the UEFA European player of the Year award.

The list of thirty candidates includes Messi's former St. Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe, who led France to the Qatar World Cup final and scored the title of the finals scorer, and Haaland's Belgian city teammate Kevin De Bruyne, similar to Benzema, who left Real Madrid this summer after defending his colors for 14 years in order to join the Saudi club Al-Ittihad.

The list also included some strong young arrivals such as Englishman Jude Bellingham, who shone at the beginning of the season with his new team Real Madrid, his compatriot Bukayo Saka, Arsenal star, New Saint Germain striker Randall Kolo Moani, or Bayern Munich German winger Jamal musyala.

Among the women, Aitana Bonmati looks the favorite to win the award after the role she played in leading the Spanish national team to the World Cup for the first time in its history with last month's victory in Sydney over the English European champions in the final.

The 25-year-old, who last week won the "UEFA" award for the best player in Europe, also played a role in leading her team Barcelona to the UEFA Women's Champions League title, which enhances her chances of succeeding her colleague in the Catalan club and the national team Alexia bottias, who won the Ballon d'or in the past two years.

Bottias was absent from the list of candidates after being away from Barcelona for a long time as a result of suffering a torn cruciate ligament in her knee, which led to her absence from the stadiums for nine months.

Bonmati is competing with three of her teammates in the World Cup-winning team, Olga Carmona, who scored the only goal in the final against England, Salma barawelo and Alba Redondo, as well as her Barcelona teammates Patricia Guijarro and maby Lyon, who did not participate in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in a protest move against the Spanish Football Federation and national team coach Jorge Velda.

The list of thirty candidates includes both Australian star Sam Kerr and England goalkeeper Mary Earps.

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