We figured this would happen sooner or later, but after a stellar 2016-17 season in which he won not only a second consecutive Premier League title (with two different teams), but also won just about every individual Player of the Year award in England (losing just the Chelsea Player of the Year to Eden Hazard), it’s perhaps not surprising that N’Golo Kanté has been nominated for the 2017 Ballon d’Or.
The most famous individual award in world football is back with France Football magazine (with FIFA creating their own ‘The Best’ series of awards last year), who released their list of 30 nominees for this year’s award today.
Nominee for the 2017 Ballon d'Or France Football (list of 30) : N'Golo Kanté #ballondor pic.twitter.com/Fschm92LFo
— France Football (@francefootball) October 9, 2017
France Football are doing a slow-reveal of all 30 nominees, but Kanté, Chelsea’s “metronome”, was among the first five named, alongside Neymar, Marcelo, Luka Modrić, and Paulo Dybala. That’s pretty good company! Kanté, nor anyone not named Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, may not have much of a chance of actually winning, but the recognition alone is fantastic. (The closest a Chelsea player has ever come to winning this was in 2005, when Frank Lampard finished second to Ronaldinho.)
The next 5 nominees will be revealed at 12:00PM (CEST). On our platforms : francefootball.fr and social networks. pic.twitter.com/Oa7pnNS26N
— France Football (@francefootball) October 9, 2017
We’ll update this list as they continue revealing more names, but for now, a big congratulations to N’Golo Kanté — may these good vibes translate into the hamstring injury turning out to be nothing too serious (fingers crossed).
The 2017 Ballon d’Or nominees:
- Paulo Dybala (Juventus)
- N’Golo Kanté (Chelsea)
- Marcelo (Real Madrid)
- Luka Modrić (Real Madrid)
- Neymar (Barcelona, PSG)
- Luis Suarez (Barcelona)
- Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
- Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid)
- Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)
- Dries Mertens (Napoli)
- Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
- Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
- David De Gea (Manchester United)
- Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)
- Edin Dzeko (AS Roma)
- Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid)
- Toni Kroos (Real Madrid)
- Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
- Sadio Mané (Liverpool)
- Radamel Falcao (AS Monaco)
- Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (BVB)
- Edinson Cavani (PSG)
- Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich)
- Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
- Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
- Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus, AC Milan)
- Isco (Real Madrid)
- Kylian Mbappé (Monaco, PSG)