Ballon d’Or 2021 – live updates!

Ballon d’Or favourite Lionel Messi is in the house, with wife Antonella Roccuzzo and some neatly arranged children. Well, you’ve got to instil discipline and order, haven’t you.

Also in attendance: Percy Pig (Tom Holland).

There have only been two previous Ballon d’Or Féminin. Ada Hegerberg of Lyon and Norway won the first, in 2018, coming in ahead of Pernille Harder of Wolfsburg and Denmark, and Dzsenifer Morozsan of Lyon and Germany. The aforementioned Megan Rapinoe won the 2019 version, romping way ahead of England’s Lucy Bronze and Rapinoe’s USWNT colleague Alex Morgan.

The 1956 Ballon d’Or, then. The first-ever recipient of this prestigious award was Stanley Matthews of Blackpool. He held off Alfredo Di Stefano of Real Madrid by three votes. Raymond Kopa of Reims and Real Madrid pipped Honved’s Ferenc Puskas to third spot, while legendary USSR and Dynamo Moscow keeper Lev Yashin was fifth. That’s not a bad top five, all told. Di Stefano, Kopa and Yashin all won in later years, though Puskas never did. The legendary Hungarian won Matthews’ respect, though. Years later, Matthews and Puskas ran into each other in London in their dotage. “Puskas, you were the greatest,” Stan said. “Maybe,” the Galloping Major replied, “but you are the very, very, all-time greatest.” As for the hard stats …

6: Lionel Messi
5: Cristiano Ronaldo
3: Michel Platini, Johan Cryuff, Marco van Basten
2: Franz Beckenbauer, Ronaldo, Alfredo Di Stefano, Kevin Keegan, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

Not many surprises in there. I suppose you could manufacture some shock that Erling Haaland hasn’t made it into the top ten, if you were so inclined.

The stragglers for the men’s award have already been placed. The countdown from 30 to 11, then, like they used to do on Top of the Pops …

29= Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
29= Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea)
26= Nicolo Barella (Internazionale)
26= Ruben Dias (Manchester City)
26= Gerard Moreno (Villarreal)
25 Phil Foden (Manchester City)
24 Pedri (Barcelona)
23 Harry Kane (Tottenham)
21= Lautaro Martinez (Internazionale)
21= Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)
20 Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
19 Mason Mount (Chelsea)
18 Simon Kjaer (AC Milan)
17 Luis Suarez (Atletico Madrid)
16 Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain)
15 Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)
14 Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus)
13 Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus)
12 Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea)
11 Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund)

… which leaves the following ten players to battle it out for the big prize …

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain)
Jorginho (Chelsea)
N’Golo Kante (Chelsea)
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)
Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

… and that’s not all! The Kopa Trophy for the best young male player will be contested by …

• Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund)
• Jeremy Doku (Rennes)
• Ryan Gravenberch (Ajax)
• Mason Greenwood (Manchester United)
• Nuno Mendes (PSG)
• Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich)
• Pedri (FC Barcelona)
• Giovanni Reyna (Borussia Dortmund)
• Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
• Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen)

… while the Yashin Trophy for top men’s keeper will be awarded to one of …

• Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
• Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG)
• Ederson (Manchester City)
• Samir Handanovic (Internazionale)
• Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa)
• Edouard Mendy (Chelsea)
• Keylor Navas (PSG)
• Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich)
• Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid)
• Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City)

… and there will be two NEW awards handed out tonight, more on which anon, presumably. That’s all!

Welcome to our coverage of the 2021 Ballon d’Or awards. Megan Rapinoe and Lionel Messi are the current holders, and have been since 2019, last year’s event having been cancelled in the wake of the pandemic. But now we’re back, baby, and in a couple of hours we’ll find out who a jury of journalists from around the globe have been named women’s and men’s player of the year. Red carpet arrivals of the beautiful people at the Théâtre du Châtelet are causing bulbs to flash right now.

Rapinoe won’t be retaining her Ballon d’Or Féminin title, having not been nominated this year. Barcelona duo Alexia Putellas and Jennifer Hermoso are both heavily tipped.

• Stina Blackstenius (BK Hacken)
• Kaddiatou Diani (Paris Saint-Germain)
• Christiane Endler (Lyon)
• Magdalena Eriksson (Chelsea)
• Jessie Fleming (Chelsea)
• Pernille Harder (Chelsea)
• Jennifer Hermoso (Barcelona)
• Marie-Antoinette Katoto (Paris Saint-Germain)
• Sam Kerr (Chelsea)
• Fran Kirby (Chelsea)
• Ashley Lawrence (Paris Saint-Germain)
• Lieke Martens (Barcelona)
• Samantha Mewis (North Carolina Courage)
• Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal)
• Sandra Panos (Barcelona)
• Irene Paredes (Barcelona)
• Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
• Wendie Renard (Lyon)
• Christine Sinclair (Portland Thorns)
• Ellen White (Manchester City)

Messi is favourite to win the men’s award, meanwhile, ahead of the chap many assumed would have taken the crown in 2020, Robert Lewandowski. Messi finally won something for Argentina this year, and also lifted the Spanish cup for Barcelona before upping sticks for PSG. Lewandowski, the favourite before last year’s cancellation, has been rattling in the goals for Bayern Munich – 73 in 60 since the start of 2020-21 – and the last time these two players met on the pitch, Bayern won 8-2 en route to winning the Champions League. On balance, then, it only seems fair if … yeah, yeah, but that’s not how these things work, is it. Mohammed Salah is third favourite, by the way, while you can get 150s for Cristiano Ronaldo and 500s for Harry Kane. Lump on, kids, but when the fun stops, etc.

• Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea)
• Nicolo Barella (Internazionale)
• Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
• Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus)
• Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
• Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus)
• Ruben Dias (Manchester City)
• Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain)
• Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)
• Phil Foden (Manchester City)
• Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund)
• Jorginho (Chelsea)
• Harry Kane (Tottenham)
• N’Golo Kante (Chelsea)
• Simon Kjaer (AC Milan)
• Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
• Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea)
• Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
• Lautaro Martinez (Internazionale)
• Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)
• Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain)
• Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
• Gerard Moreno (Villarreal)
• Mason Mount (Chelsea)
• Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain)
• Pedri (Barcelona)
• Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
• Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
• Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)
• Luis Suarez (Atletico Madrid)

Not long now. It’s on!