A leaked image has surfaced in the past few hours showing the ranking of candidates for the 2022 Ballon d'Or, awarded annually by the French magazine "France Football" to the best football player in the world. French player Karim Benzema topped the list of nominees for the 2022 Ballon d'Or based on his performance with Real Madrid over the past season, having played 46 matches across all competitions, scoring 44 goals and assisting 15.
Benzema led the list of 30 nominated players, announced on August 12, with the winner set to be revealed on October 17. The American magazine "Sports Illustrated" published a leaked image of the rankings for the Ballon d'Or candidates after voting concluded, with Benzema securing the top position with 27 points.
Senegalese forward Sadio Mane, who previously played for Liverpool and currently plays for Bayern Munich, ranked second with 16 points, followed by Egyptian star Mohamed Salah, his former teammate at Liverpool, in third place with 14 points. Brazilian Vinicius Junior, a Real Madrid forward, took fourth place with 10 points, while Polish star Robert Lewandowski, former Bayern Munich forward now at Barcelona, was fifth with 9 points. Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, from Paris Saint-Germain, ranked sixth with 6 points.
Kevin De Bruyne, of Manchester City, came in seventh with 3 points, followed by Croatian Luka Modric, also of Real Madrid, who received 2 points, tied with Norwegian Erling Haaland of Manchester City. Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois of Real Madrid ranked tenth with 1 point, while Cristiano Ronaldo, a five-time winner of the award, was excluded from the top 10, finishing in 11th place.
In previous years, the winner of the Ballon d'Or was determined based on the players' performances throughout the calendar year. However, "France Football" made several changes for the next edition of the award, as the evaluation will focus on the players' results during the 2021-2022 football season, from August 2021 to May 2022, rather than over the calendar year.
The number of voting journalists was reduced from representatives of 170 countries to representatives from the top 100 countries according to the FIFA ranking for the men's award, and the top 50 countries for the women's award.
The awards presented by "France Football" include four categories, including the "Ballon d'Or" for the best male and female players. There is also the "Kopa" award for the best young player and the "Yashin" award for the best goalkeeper in the world.
The 2022 Ballon d'Or ceremony will take place on Monday, October 17, at the famous "Dauphine Theatre" in Paris, according to an earlier announcement by "France Football," the award's governing body.
