With football season coming to an end for the 21/22 year, the battle for the Ballon d’Or is over. We asked 1000 PMPers who should win the prize on our Survey Draw. Read on to find out who wins…
The official Ballon d’Or 2022 ceremony is set to take place on 17 October, with many of the biggest football stars hoping to achieve the trophy.
What is the Ballon d’Or?
The Ballon d’Or is a prestigious award for Footballers and is hosted annually by ‘France Football.’
What started in 1956 is now a huge event, hosted every year and often sparks conversation when the award is given to the person who was believed to have been the best overall footballer in the most recent season.
To note, Lionel Messi currently holds the most Ballon d’Or awards, with a total of seven, and Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record for most nominations, at 17.
Unfortunately for us Brits, we prove to be quite unlucky when it comes to winning this prestigious award. Since Liverpool FC Star, Kevin Keegan, won the trophy back in 1979, we have only won the Ballon D’Or once and that was for Michael Owen in 2001.
Since the awards began, just five Englishmen have been successful in getting the Ballon d’Or. Fans are keeping their fingers crossed this year, with the hope that Harry Kane and Phil Foden will have a shot, which would break the 16-year period where no English players have made it to the top three in the voting process.
The last successful nominations England had was back in 2005, when Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard were both nominated. Since then, we’ve had four English Champions League winners as well as three all-English Champions League finals.
We can only hope we have proven our skills this year, but the line-up for the award is looking very strong.
Who do you think deserves it?
We asked you, via our partner site, Find Out Now, who should win the 2022 Ballon d’Or and we’ve ranked them based on your votes (no.1 being the most popular vote.)
- Mohamed Salah 🇪🇬
- Karim Benzema 🇫🇷
- Cristiano Ronaldo 🇵🇹
- Lionel Messi 🇦🇷
- Kevin De Bruyne 🇧🇪
- Sadio Mane 🇸🇳
- Robert Lewandowski 🇵🇱
- Son Heung-min 🇰🇷
- Erling Haaland 🇳🇴
Do you agree? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Featured image: @francefootball, Twitter.