Ballon d'Or 2024: Messi, Ronaldo miss Nominee List for first time in 20 Years

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On Monday night in Paris, the ceremony for the prestigious Ballon d'Or Award is ready to take place. It will be the 68th edition of the award. Thirty players across the nations have been shortlisted for this year's award based on their performances in the last season at both club and international levels.

Interestingly it will be the first time since 2004 that the Ballon d'or nominees list is missing the two legends of football, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

These two football icons have shared 13 of the past 16 Ballon d'Or awards; 8 went to the Argentine star, while five were won by Ronaldo. Their run of combined nominations for this award started in 2007 and continued till 2022, as Messi missed the list due to a poor season at PSG.

However, he made a comeback last year and ended up winning the award for an unprecedented eighth time for his spectacular performances in FIFA World Cup 2022. However, Ronaldo did not cut last year's nomination list.

Since 2008 only two players other than Messi and Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or, Luka Modric in 2018 and Karim Benzema in 2022. Robert Lewandowski, despite being the favourite to win the award in 2020, missed the opportunity as the event was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year the celebration will be held without any of the four past winners mentioned above, clearly marking the beginning of a new era of modern football.