Top 5 Ballon d'Or Contenders for 2024

Ballon d'Or is one of the most prestigious individual awards that has been given to the best football player of the season by the French Magazine France Football since 1956. Argentina‘s Lionel Messi has won the most (8) Ballon d'Or in the history of football.

The accolade is given to the player who is deemed to be the top performer of the season based on their on-field contributions. The recipient of the Ballon d’Or award is determined by a panel of over 100 journalists, each representing a different country from the top-ranked FIFA nations.

These journalists select five footballers from a 30-player shortlist, ranking them in descending order of merit to determine the winner of this esteemed award. The Top 30 players are shortlisted based on their performance by veteran Analysts.  

The 100 journalists select their 5 players in descending order of merit, where the first player they select gets 6 points followed by 4 points for the second player, 3 points for the third player, and 2 and 1 point, respectively, for the fourth and fifth players.

Ballon d'Or is awarded to the best football player based on 3 criteria: Individual Performance, Team Success, and Fairplay.

Also read: Portugal's new wonder kid: embarrassed to meet Ronaldo

Top 5 Contenders for winning the Ballon d'Or 2024

5) Dani Carvajal (Brazil, Real Madrid)

The Real Madrid skipper won the Champions League with his Club and the Euro Cup with his country Spain. Dani Carvajal was one of the best defenders of the last season, especially in Euro where he had put in 10 successful tackles and had a passing accuracy of 92%.

4) Lautaro Martinez (Argentina, Inter Milan)

The Argentine Forward has been the Clutch Striker scoring goals for both his national and Club Teams. In Copa America, Lautaro scored 5 goals and 1 assist in 6 matches. His goal in the finals led Argentina to their 16th Copa America Title. For Intern Milan, he scored 24 goals and provided 6 assists in 33 matches, which helped Milan bag the Series A title. His Champions League run was not up to the mark, as he scored only 2 goals in 8 matches. Lautaro may be at par with Rodri in terms of Performance and Team Success, but Rodri has the advantage of a better PR team. Lautaro. Nonetheless, he is also a major contender for Ballo’ndor.

3) Jude Bellingham ( England, Real Madrid)

Jude Bellingham, or Bellingoal as he is popularly known, won the Champions League and Lalliga with Real Madrid. He scored 19 goals and 6 assists in 28 matches of Laliga. In the Champions League, Bellingham scored 4 goals and provided 5 assists. His lack of goals in the knockout stages of the Champions League may dent his chances in comparison to Rodri and Vinicius Junior. For England, he scored 2 goals and assisted once in the Euros 2024 playing as LMF. Many fans believe that Bellingham has done enough to win the Ballo’n’dor this year.

2) Vinicius Junior  (Brazil, Real Madrid)

This Charismatic Brazilian Winger, carried Real Madrid to their 15th Champions League Title this season. This Magician either scored or assisted in every knockout game of the Champions League. He scored a banger in the finals and assisted in both the semis and quarters of the Champions League. This season, Vini was unstoppable! He led Real Madrid to victory in La Liga, scoring an impressive 15 goals and providing 9 assists. In the Champions League, he rose to the occasion with 6 goals and 5 assists in just 10 matches. In a total of 39 games, Vini’s goal and assist tally reached an incredible 35. When it came to international football, Vini did not have a great Copa America with Brazil, he did score 2 goals in 3 matches but also received a red card. The red card may prove detrimental for Vini under the criteria of fair play and sportsmanship. However, he is still going to be the pick for many journalists and that makes him a contender for Ballon d’Or.

1. Rodri ( Spain, Manchester City )

The CDM and captain of the Spanish national team became the player of the tournament and led his team to victory in Euros 2024. At the Club Level, Rodri won the English Premier League, Club World Cup and Super Cup with Manchester City. In EPL, he scored 8 Goals and assisted 9 times in 32 matches. In the Champions League, he scored 1 goal and gave 3 assists in 8 matches. The stats may not capture the full extent of Rodri’s influence in leading his national and club teams to glory, but football geeks recognise his significance in both arenas. Rodri scored clutch goals for his club and led a young Spanish team to triumph in the Euros, solidifying his position as a top contender for the Ballon d’Or award.

Also read:- Dani Carvajal defends Spain's reputation and stands against Racism

Men's Top 30 Nominations for Ballo'n'dor 2023 

The top 30 men's players nominations for Ballo'n'dor 2024 were released on 4th September, 6:30 pm ( CET ):- 

These nominations include:-

• Jude Bellingham
• Vinicius Junior
• Rodri
• Dani Carvajal
• Bukayo Saka
• Ruben Dias
• William Saliba
• Fede Valverde
• Cole Palmer
• Lamine Yamal
• Erling Haaland
• Kylian Mbappé
• Toni Kroos
• Martin Ødegaard
• Emi Martinez
• Granit Xhaka
• Artem Dovbyk
• Harry Kane
• Mats Hummels
• Hakan Çalhanoglu
• Nico Williams
• Phil Foden
• Florian Wirtz
• Dani Olmo
• Declan Rice
• Vitinha
• Ademola Lookman 
• Lautaro Martinez
• Alejandro Grimaldo
• Antonio Rüdiger

The top 30 list doesn't feature either Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi for the first time since 2003.