Ballon d'Or 2022: Full list of nominees, when is the award ceremony, Real Madrid star Ballon d'Or favourite

Here is the full list of nominations for the Ballon d’Or award 2022.
Karim Benzema is tipped to win his first Ballon d'Or at the ripe age of 34 (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images )Karim Benzema is tipped to win his first Ballon d'Or at the ripe age of 34 (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images )
Karim Benzema is tipped to win his first Ballon d'Or at the ripe age of 34 (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images )

Champions League winner and Real Madrid icon Karim Benzema has been included on the list of nominees for the 2022 Ballon d’Or award.

The 34-year-old forward has enjoyed a monumental season as he scored an incredible 15 goals to help the Spanish giants win another UEFA Champions League trophy.

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He started the season as he finished the last, by bagging the UEFA Super Cup trophy on Wednesday, scoring the second goal as Los Blancos beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in Helsinki.

Lionel Messi is awarded with his seventh Ballon D'Or award last year (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)Lionel Messi is awarded with his seventh Ballon D'Or award last year (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
Lionel Messi is awarded with his seventh Ballon D'Or award last year (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)

The France forward has never won the award, despite an array of individual, international and club honours throughout his career since he burst onto the scene as a teenager at Ligue 1 side Lyon.

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When is the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony 2022?

The Ballon d’Or awards ceremony takes place in Paris on October 17, exactly a month before the start of the World Cup.

How are the nominations for the Ballon d’Or decided?

France Football, who are on of the world’s most respected footballing publications, collate a list of 30 players that will then allow them to make a shortlist of players who will battle it out to win the award.

Following that 30 strong shortlist, a total of 50 journalists from FIFA’s 100 top ranked nations then choose which five footballers they believe to be the world’s best.

The players on each list are then ranked on a points system, for example:

First: Six points

Second: Four points

Third: Three points

Fourth: Two points

Fifth: One point

Players are assessed in three areas, Individual and collective performance from the previous season, followed by a player’s class and their career.

Whoever received the most points is the winner of the Ballon d’Or award and will be crowned as the world’s best player.

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If there is a tie, the winner will be decided by the number of first-place votes they receive.

Who won last year’s Ballon d'Or?

Argentina and Paris Saint Germain hero Lionel Messi took home last year’s award – the seventh time he has been awarded the accolade. She has been in similarly great form this year too, until an ACL injury on the eve of Spain’s Euro 2022 campaign placed her on the sidelines.

He narrowly beat former Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski to the award, while Chelsea’s Jorginho, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante completed the top five in 2021.

What is the full list of nominees for the Ballon d'Or?

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona), Kylian Mbappe (PSG), Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich), Mo Salah (Liverpool), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig), Rafael Leão (Milan), Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Luis Diaz (Liverpool), Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City), Casemiro (Real Madrid), Heung-Min Son (Tottenham Hotspur), Fabinho (Liverpool), Virgil van Djik (Liverpool), Mike Maignan (Milan), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Darwin Núñez (Liverpool), Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid), Sébastien Haller (Dortmund), Luka Modrić (Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Dušan Vlahović (Juventus), Erling Haaland (Manchester City), João Cancelo (Manchester City), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)