The full list of 30 nominees has now been released by France Football for the 2017 Ballon d’Or; we had to wait all the way until the final batch of nominees — they released them in six batches of five players — to see Eden Hazard’s name. Chelsea thus finish with two nominees, Hazard and Kanté, with perhaps a harsh snub for Premier League Golden Glove-winner, Thibaut Courtois.
Nominee for the 2017 Ballon d'Or France Football (list of 30) : Eden Hazard #ballondor pic.twitter.com/lUzX5vpHWn
— France Football (@francefootball) October 9, 2017
Chelsea’s nominations certainly reflect a much better season at Stamford Bridge than the year before, when for the first time since 2011, the Blues did not receive a single nomination. Other than that yeah, Hazard has now been nominated each year he’s been at Chelsea, though he has yet to finish higher than eighth (in 2015). Chelsea’s best-ever finish in this award was Frank Lampard in 2005, when he finished a distant second to Barcelona’s Ronaldinho.
The winner of the 2017 Ballon d’Or (not to be confused with the 2017 FIFA Best awards) will be revealed in a couple months, at the start of December. All eyes will be on Cristiano Ronaldo, to see whether he can equal Lionel Messi’s record five wins. (Spoiler alert: probably.)
The full list of 30 nominees are:
- 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)
Ballon d'Or, Sergio Ramos, Kylian Mbappé, Bielsa : voici le sommaire du nouveau numéro de France Football https://t.co/wRiW5kpLzT pic.twitter.com/mbY7KkF4Rj
— France Football (@francefootball) October 9, 2017