Messi and Neymar, out of the candidates to win the Ballon d'Or

• Ballon d'Or Benzema is crowned: "No one can doubt that he will win the Ballon d'Or"

Lionel Messi,

seven times awarded and winner of the prize in the last edition, does not appear in the list of 30 candidates for the Ballon d'Or 2022, revealed this Friday.

His Brazilian teammate from Paris Saint-Germain Neymar is also not among those selected in an edition in which Frenchman Karim Benzema seems to be the favorite for his great 2021-2022 season with Real Madrid.

The

, awarded by France Football magazine, will be awarded on October 17 at a ceremony in Paris.

The absence of Messi among the candidates is a great milestone, since the Argentine was among the candidates for the Ballon d'Or since 2006 and has been on the podium almost without interruption since 2007, with the exception of the 2018 edition.

The 'Flea' (35 years old),

comes from a complicated 2021-2022 season with Paris Saint-Germain, in which the Argentine, who joined the French team from Barcelona last August, signed 11 so many, taking into account all the competitions.

The great

last year was the elimination against Real Madrid in the round of 16 of the Champions League.

Although his 2021-2022 season was not dazzling either, Portuguese

(Manchester United), five-time Ballon d'Or winner, is among the candidates.

Benzema has long been presented as the great favorite to win the coveted golden ball.

The French attacker was the great leader of Real Madrid last year to win the Spanish League and the European Champions League, also being the top scorer in those tournaments, with 27 and 15 goals respectively.

Benzema was one of the stars on Wednesday in the European Super Cup, where he scored a goal in a 2-0 win over

.

After that goal in Helsinki, he has accumulated 324 goals as a Real Madrid player, only surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo (451).

To his successes with Real Madrid, Benzema adds the UEFA Nations League win with France last October.

Among the candidates for the women's Ballon d'Or is the Spanish Alexia Putellas (FC Barcelona), winner of the previous edition.

The Ballon d'Or has as a novelty this year that it rewards the performances of the last sports season and not that of the calendar year.

This is the list of players who are candidates to win the 2022 Ballon d'Or:

Thibaut Courtois - Real Madrid

Rafael Leao - AC Milan

Christopher Nkunku - Leipzig

Mohammed Salah - Liverpool

Joshua Kimmich - Bayern Munich

Trent Alexander-Arnold - Liverpool

Vinicius Jr - Real Madrid

Bernardo Silva - Manchester City

Luis Diaz - Liverpool

Robert Lewandowski - Bayern Munich/FC Barcelona

Riyadh Mahrez - Manchester City

Casemiro - Real Madrid

Heung-Min Son - Tottenham

Fabinho - Liverpool

Karim Benzema - Real Madrid

Mike Maignan - AC Milan

Harry Kane - Tottenham

Darwin Nunez - Benfica/Liverpool

Phil Foden - Manchester City

Sadio Mane - Liverpool/Bayern Munich

Sébastien Haller - Ajax/Borussia Dortmund

Luka Modric - Real Madrid

Antonio Rudiger - Chelsea/Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United

Kevin DeBruyne - Manchester City

Dusan Vlahovic - Fiorentina/Juventus

Virgil van Dijk - Liverpool

Joao Cancelo - Manchester City

Kylian Mbappe - PSG

Erling Haaland - Borussia Dortmund/Manchester City

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