Ballon d’Or, where you can watch the ceremony on TV: Lautaro Martinez is also in the running, but the favorite becomes Rodri

It’s the day of the 2024 Ballon d’Or. The award for the best footballers of the 2023-2024 season will be awarded today, Monday 28 October. The ceremony will be held at the Theater du Chatelet in Paris. An event that will start at 8.45pm, but the connection will start two hours earlier, at 6.45pm. There are 30 candidates, but the big favorite Vinicius Jr of Real Madrid he didn’t win and will boycott the ceremony together with his entire team. The scepter will probably pass to Rodri, but also pay attention to Haaland, Manchester City’s center forward who never stops scoring, to the joy of Pep Guardiola.

The list of 30 candidates for the Ballon d’Or: no Italian

There is no Italian in the list of 30, but there is Lautaro Martinez, Inter captain, listed among the five finalists. The other players who play in Serie A are Calhanoglu (Inter), Dovbyk and Hummels (Roma) and Lookman (Atalanta). Instead, for the women’s award there is Manuela Giugliano.

The other prizes

During the Paris ceremony, other prizes will be awarded in addition to the men’s and women’s Ballon d’Or. In fact, there will also be the Yashin Trophy (best goalkeeper, with Donnarumma candidate), Kopa Trophy (best young person), men’s coach of the year (Carlo Ancelotti and Gian Piero Gasperini on the list) women’s coach of the year, club of the year (men’s and women’s), Gerd Muller Trophy (top scorer) e Socrates Prize (humanitarian works).

How it is assigned

The vote is taken by a jury of Football experts, made up of journalists representing the top 100 nations of the FIFA ranking (for Italy the vote is assigned by Paolo Condò). The juror is asked to draw up a ranking with five names: the first is assigned five points, the second four and so on. There are various selection criteria to take into consideration when making preferences: individual performance, collective performances with clubs and the national teamindividual trophies, class and talent of the player, but also fair play.

The story

This recognition was established in 1956 by French magazine France Football. The idea came from Gabriel Hanot, former footballer and journalist, followed by colleagues Jacques Ferran, Jacques Goddet and Jacques de Ryswick with the intention of electing the best European player of the previous calendar year. The first edition was won by the Englishman Stanley Matthews del Blackpool. Until 1994 it was reserved for footballers of European nationality (for this reason, for example, Maradona was never a candidate), a geographical limitation abandoned the following year when it was extended to players from all over the world and won by Weahat the time a striker for Milan and the Liberia national team. From the 2007 edition, the exclusivity linked to membership of clubs associated with UEFA was also abandoned for the benefit of any FIFA affiliated team.

The UEFA-FIFA dualism

Furthermore, in an attempt to overcome the media dualism between the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year, in 2010 the two awards merged to create the Fifa Ballon d’Or (organized by France Football and Fifa). A collaboration interrupted in 2016 by the French magazine, which returned to the original formula of the award. For the first time since its inception, the prize was not awarded in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Two years later, it was finally announced that the award would no longer consider performance in the calendar year, but those of the sports season.

The candidates without Messi and Ronaldo

These i 30 candidates for the Ballon d’Or (after 21 years there are neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo): Jude Bellingham (England, Real Madrid); Hakan Calhanoglu (Türkiye, Inter); Dani Carvajal (Spain, Real Madrid); Ruben Dias (Portugal, Manchester City); Artem Dovbyk (Ukraine, Dnipro/Girona/Roma); Phil Foden (England, Manchester City); Alejandro Grimaldo (Spain, Bayer Leverkusen); Erling Haaland (Norway, Manchester City); Mats Hummels (Germany, Borussia Dortmund/Roma); Harry Kane (England, Bayern Munich); Toni Kroos (Germany, Real Madrid); Ademola Lookman (Nigeria, Atalanta)
Emiliano Martinez (Argentina, Aston Villa); Lautaro Martinez (Argentina, Inter); Kylian Mbappé (France, Psg/Real Madrid); Martin Odegaard (Norway, Arsenal); Dani Olmo (Spain, Leipzig/Barcelona); Cole Palmer (England, Manchester City/Chelsea); Declan Rice (England, Arsenal); Rodri (Spain, Manchester City); Antonio Rüdiger (Germany, Real Madrid); Bukayo Saka (England, Arsenal); William Saliba (France, Arsenal); Federico Valverde (Uruguay, Real Madrid); Vinicius Jr (Brazil, Real Madrid); Vitinha (Portugal, Paris Saint-Germain); Nico Williams (Spain, Athletic Bilbao); Florian Wirtz (Germany, Bayer Leverkusen); Granit Xhaka (Switzerland, Bayer Leverkusen): Lamine Yamal (Spain, Barcelona).

The ranking of multiple winners

Lionel Messi: eight times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023)
Cristiano Ronaldo: five times (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017)
Michel Platini: three times (1983, 1984, 1985)
Johan Cruyff: tre volte (1971, 1973, 1974)
Marco Van Basten: tre volte (1988, 1989, 1992)
Franz Beckenbauer: due volte (1972, 1976)
Ronaldo: twice (1997, 2002)
Alfredo Di Stefano: twice (1957, 1959)
Kevin Keegan: due volte (1978, 1979)
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge: due volte (1980, 1981)

Where to see the ceremony on TV

The ceremony of Golden Ball you can follow it on Dazn starting from 8.20pm. With the event starting at 8.45pm.

October 28, 2024 (modified October 28, 2024 | 5:30 pm)

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