No Messi on 30-man Ballon d'Or list for 1st time in 17 yrs, Benzema & Ronaldo nominated

For the first time since 2005, Lionel Messi will not be part of the Ballon d'Or 2022 after being left out of the  30-person list for the prestigious prize on Friday. Last year Messi won the Ballon d’Or for a record-seventh time beating Robert Lewandowski. Messi's PSG teammate, Neymar failed to find a place in Ballon d'Or 2022 list, while Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo received nominations. The award will be awarded to the winner on October 17.

Lionel Messi misses nomination for Ballon d'Or 2022

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominated the Ballon d'Or winning sharing a total of 12Golden Balls between themselves. The last time Cristiano Ronaldo stood on the podium holding the golden ball was in 2017, while Messi was the winner of the prestigious award last year. The likely reason behind Messi missing out on Ballon d'Or 2022 could be his poor goal record for PSG in the 2021-22 season. Last season, the Argentine maestro only scored 11 goals across all competitions, while only 6 of those came in the Ligue 1. Though Messi did give a total of 14 assists last season, the star's standard was much lower than his winning ways from before which did not seem to be considered by France Football. 

In Messi's Karim Benzema is the huge favourite to win the Ballon d'Or trophy for the first time in his career. The Real Madrid striker had a fantastic season where he led his club to lift the UEFA Champions League trophy for the 5th time in his career. Ronaldo on the other hand scored a total of 24 goals last season for Manchester United across all competitions while giving just 3 assists. 18 of these goals had come in the Premier League. However the Portuguese skipper's contribution did not help Manchester United qualify for Champions League.

Ballon d'Or 2022: Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo stats 

Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d`Or award a record seven times, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo who has won it five times. While Ronaldo has managed to find nominations 18 times, Messi found himself nominated for Ballon d'Or 202215 times. Ronaldo edges out Messi in terms of Ballon d'Or points with Ronaldo topping his rival with 4000 points while Messi is behind him with 3000 points. Cristiano Ronaldo finished 9 times above Messi in the Ballon d'or and Messi finished 7 times above Cristiano Ronaldo.